Amorphous Funk

Louisiana Spends More on Juvenile Justice Than Three Other States Spend

2009-04-09T16:57:00.004-05:00

and, apparently, our legislators are angry about that:

From TP:

Louisiana lawmakers question youth prison costs
by The Associated Press Thursday April 09, 2009, 7:27 AM
BATON ROUGE -- Figures that show Louisiana pays well above several other Southern states to imprison its juvenile offenders prompted angry complaints from state lawmakers.
Louisiana spends more than $115,000 annually for each one, compared to $70,000 in Florida, $85,000 in Alabama and $34,000 in Arkansas. That's according to information provided Wednesday to the House Appropriations Committee by its budget analyst.

Lawmakers say the Office of Juvenile Justice seems to have too many employees at its three youth prisons. They also criticized plans to make budget cuts by eliminating prevention programs.

The head of the youth services office, Mary Livers, says she's working to improve efficiencies in her agency and to cut costs.

Last we heard, the Louisiana Legislature was closing Jetson Center for Youth in Baton Rouge and issuing a sort of gentleperson's agreement to establish "13 or 14" more regional rehabilitation centers modeled after Missouri's vastly more effective juvenile justice system. Now, the Louisiana Legislature is offended by the amount that the state spends per resident in a system that is ostensibly intended to rehabilitate young people sentenced to the inadequate number of centers we do have. This turnabout alone is enough to make the head spin.

In addition, it's hard to determine whether The Times Picayune or the legislators, or both, have now opted to term youth detention centers, or centers for youth, "youth prisons." But whoever is making this conceptual error should stop. There is supposed to be no such thing as a "youth prison" in the U.S. to start with, and that's a fact I'm appalled to have to remind anybody of.

Furthermore, that we spend more than Florida, Alabama, or Arkansas, is hardly anything to be ashamed of, now is it? I take it we don't spend more than Missouri, the state with the model we're supposed to be emulating.

This type of uncritical knee-jerk reporting and legislating is certainly living up to Louisiana's reputation as a backward state. Perhaps one way of cutting costs is to lower the number of youth detainees, now "prisoners," by ceasing to incarcerate so many young people for victimless offenses such as possession of marijuana. But this article gives so little information that it's impossible to get any sense of what exactly the legislators' complaints are. Here's another case in which there's no reflection on the idea that social spending is problematic in and of itself and that young people who get locked up for whatever reason are undeserving of anything.

Jindal's Budget: Bait and Switch

2009-03-14T16:33:00.019-05:00

From Times Picayune:

To keep the budget in balance, the administration is proposing to use $943 million of the estimated $3.6 billion Louisiana will receive from the federal stimulus bill. The remaining stimulus money would be used in the following fiscal year. Most of the stimulus money would be used to offset cuts in health care and higher education.

If you can explain this refusal to spend even 1/3 of the stimulus money this year, please do. The purpose of the stimulus package is to revive the economy now so that it does not continue to spiral downward for years to come. Jindal makes the competing claims that the stimulus money must be reserved because the economy will continue to spiral downward for years to come and that the stimulus bill is ill-conceived because the economy will quickly recover on its own. Which is it?

In addition, the budget above is a bait and switch. It claims to use stimulus money for health care and higher education, yet deeply cuts those services simultaneously. The result is a devastating 5% cut from this year's starvation budget for health care and 10% from higher education. The result is closing of health facilities, reduction in Medicaid payments, higher class sizes and fewer course offerings at state colleges and universities, long-term layoffs and hiring freezes, as well as tuition hikes.

Jindal said the stimulus money is intended as a "bridge" as Louisiana downsizes state government after several years of rapid growth.

"The federal funds don't remove the need to make reforms. They give us time to make reforms, " Jindal said.

Again, Jindal finds self-evident the claim that growth in "state government" (i.e., education and health care) is problematic. He also continues to refer to the renewal of state services decimated by Katrina as "rapid growth."

Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said the budget reductions are intended to lay the groundwork for even deeper reductions in the years ahead, when federal stimulus dollars disappear. "The next three years are going to be very challenging, " Levine said. "We've got to make policy decisions today that decrease our cost structure overall."

Yet again, we're confronted with the rationale that we should not use the stimulus money now because it will disappear later, beyond three years, and the state does not foresee any increase in revenues then, either. No higher tax revenues, no higher oil revenues, no repeal of tax cuts? Or are we merely being ensured that this administration refuses to spend on state services regardless of the shape of our economy?

To add insult to injury, Bobby Jindal refuses to tap into the state's 4M+ "rainy day" fund, a.k.a. the state's budget surplus. A "need" to deny services to the elderly, to mentally ill children, to those on Medicaid, and to working- and middle-class people seeking higher education does not apparently constitute "a rainy day" to Jindal.

For instructions on how to recall a governor, please see the post below.

Recall Bobby Jindal: Here's How. Alternate Title: Bobby Jindal's War on Louisiana is Over. (If you want it.)

2009-03-14T03:27:00.007-05:00

I will be editing this post, probably several times, because I have just thoroughly read Bobby Jindal's new state budget proposal (above). Clear evidence that your government is waging war on you (and I mean "you" if you live in this state) is the psychological equivalent of a blunt force trauma. At least a short recovery period is necessary before one is able to articulate as clearly as one did prior to the assault. Therefore, a thorough, fully documented analysis of the implications of the budget, including a refutation of the argument for its draconian cuts to health care and higher education, is forthcoming.

Because I know that any regular readers of this blog already understand the implications of/ideological motivation for Jindal's budget and already see the outright lies used to justify it, I will, for now, focus on fully explaining the steps that we must now take to remove Jindal from office:

Louisiana is among 18 states with gubernatorial recall provisions, and, unlike many of the other states, Louisiana does not dictate specific conditons under which a recall can be initiated. So we are in a good position to save ourselves: if 33.3% of Louisiana's citizens who were eligible to vote in the gubernatorial election sign a recall petition within 180 days of its circulation, the recall procedure officially begins.

In most states with gubernatorial recall provisions, the required number of votes is about 25% of those in the initial election for the governor in question, so we do have a steeper climb in that regard. But if voters come to fully understand the implications of Jindal's ongoing war against state services, dating all the way back to his tenure at DHH, long before this economic crisis hit us, it's a sure bet that 33.3% will sign.

Call me a dreamer...but I'm not the only one. Let's get busy.

Jindal Holds the Jobless Hostage in Bid for Political Power

2009-02-22T13:18:00.006-06:00

As the man many Republicans tout as "the new face" of the Party of No, our governor finds it necessary to fly in the face of most economists, who consider the extension of unemployment benefits the most stimulative aspect of Obama's recovery package. Jindal initially claimed that he may well refuse all aid offered from the stimulus package, but apparently coming to cursorily understand the political stakes involved in that risk, deemed it appropriate to deny funding only to the most vulnerable and least politically powerful beneficiaries: people who have lost their jobs. Those left unemployed by the failing economy (or by Jindal's decision to cut funding for state jobs in order to initiate state tax breaks last year) may be among the least likely to become formidable political enemies given the humiliation and sense of powerlessness associated with poverty, one of the greatest stressors that humans face. And targeting them to suffer in his attempt to demonstrate that the tested-and-failed conservative ideology will somehow work under his leadership aligns him with the petulant strategy of the shattered Republican Party--to cover their ears and close their eyes in the face of economic collapse, chantinmg the mantra "To the only sacred entities in the Universe, tax cuts and a shrinking public sector, we submit ourselves."

Jindal's justification for declining the funds to extend unemployment benefits is entirely lame (though mainstream media seems not to notice)--that in three years the stimulus money will be exhausted and, at that time, prolonged unemployment benefits would raise unemployment insurance on businesses. Ahem. The entire purpose of the stimulus package is to reduce unemployment and rebuild the economy, and when the stimulus funds run out in three years, Bobby Jindal can easily reduce the length of benefits in Louisiana with the warmest of support from his constituents. If he wants to get a head start on that, he can easily make it a promise now, one that he commits to writing, to be executed at the end of his first term. So if this "raising-taxes-on-bidniz" business is the only excuse that he can come up with, his real reasons must be entirely unfit for mainstream consumption.

I see two interrelated motivations here. The first is, of course, his need to polarize himself from Obama, whose success Jindal believes comes at his political detriment, even as the Party unabashedly refers to him as "the Republican Obama." What they really mean is "The Anti-Obama," but that's another post. The second is his need to maintain a Republican stronghold in the South, which is and would always have been impossible to achieve without appealing to the South's nastiest legacy: racism. I'm sorry to say that to a majority of Louisiana's white population, the term "unemployment benefit" is synonymous with "handout" or "welfare," terms they despise, even though poor whites are the greatest beneficiary of all of them. The Depression is not firmly enough entrenched at this point (and god-only-knows how long it would have to be) for this demographic to let go of the notion that Jindal is refusing money to black people, who, they believe, are solely responsible for every ill known to humanity, including the fact that they--"hardworking [white] people"--have to pay any taxes at all. Jindal is, of course, quite keen to this idea. Otherwise, why would he turn down money that results in at least a little spending power for the unemployed when accepting it would cost him nothing but perhaps some fleeting, misguided conservative accolades?

For the love of God, Bobby Jindal, will you please release your political hostages, come to the window, and show us the real new face of the Republican Party?

(Photo credit: Catholiccommunityradio)

The State Capitol on State Jobs in Higher Education and Health Care

2009-02-16T13:01:00.004-06:00

from TP:

"It's hard to cut this beast. You have to starve this beast," House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, said of the growing job rolls. "You have to force efficiencies through tight budgeting." Getting a handle on Louisiana's payroll will take more than management adjustments, said Sally Selden, a Lynchburg College management professor who runs the Government Performance Project for the Pew Center for the States.

The "beast" of which Tucker speaks is partially comprised of the increase in state health care providers, whose numbers have finally risen in the past year in response to the devastating shortage of health care providers in the New Orleans area since Hurricane Katrina.

"The reality is, you've got to make some tough choices -- about not offering some services," Selden said. "It's not just a management decision, it's a political decision. It's very painful, but it's very important."

The painful decision, it seems to me, would have been the January 2008 slashing of state taxes that now accounts for much of the current shortfall.

Scott said states across the country are using furloughs, layoffs and pay cuts to deal with the economic downturn. California is closing government buildings two days a month.

The federal stimulus package will offer relief to the ailing states, but that should be viewed as only a temporary fix, Selden said.

"Now is the time to make tough choices," Selden said. "If we don't do it now, when will we ever do it?"

Selden speaks of eliminating state services here as one would a decision about when to deal with a crystal meth addiction. From my perspective, her statement would more accurately read "if we don't lay waste to mandatory state services now, while we can make use of this shoddy bandwagon approach to convince people of the inevitability of the process, at what other time do you believe we can get away with such a devastating and perhaps irreversible blow to social services and higher education?"

Do read the entire article if you're feeling nostalgic. The attempt at "journalism" here ranks equally with those of the "journalists" and other "experts" planted by the Bush Administration. There is not a moment's reflection upon the premise that state job growth is an evil from which we must be delivered.

Obama's Chief of Staff...

2009-01-25T09:59:00.006-06:00

From NYT:

is someone who once wrote in Campaign and Elections magazine that “the untainted Republican has not yet been invented” and who two years ago — according to a book about Mr. Emanuel (“The Thumpin’ ” by Naftali Bendavid) — announced to his staff that Republicans are “bad people who deserve a two-by-four upside their heads.”...

Mr. Emanuel acknowledged in an interview Friday that a stereotype of him as a relentless hothead has some factual basis. But it is an exaggerated or outdated picture, he said.

“I’m not yelling at people; I’m not jumping on tables,” he said. “That’s a campaign. Being the chief of staff of a government is different. You have different tools in your toolbox.”

Bobby Jindal Screws Higher Education Once Again

2009-01-10T22:02:00.004-06:00

To: The UNO Community

From: Timothy P. Ryan, Chancellor

Date: December 15, 2008

Re: Mid-Year Budget Reduction

Earlier today, the Louisiana Legislature through the Revenue Estimating Conference accepted a shortfall in state generated revenues of $341 million this year and predicted a shortfall of $2 billion for next year. This reduction in general fund revenues is directly related to losses from sales taxes, personal income taxes, the repeal of other state taxes and declining revenues from energy markets.

[Notice that the shortfall in state-generated revenues equals, almost to the penny, Jindal's repeal of state taxes. This repeal was justified by Louisiana's budget surplus early in Jindal's tenure, yet, simultaneously, he froze all state hiring. He justified the latter by claiming that the state could face a budget shortfall of this magnitude in the future. If you can make sense of these competing claims, please let me know.]

To address the budget shortfall, all public universities, colleges, community colleges and management boards have been informed by Dr. Sally Clausen, Commissioner of Higher Education, to prepare for a mid-year budget reduction of $109 million or 7.8 percent. This reduction translates into a shortfall of $5,277,249 for the UNO campus. I was also informed this afternoon that the University will be required to submit our budget reduction plan to the LSU System by close of business tomorrow. In response, I have called an emergency meeting of all Deans and Vice Chancellors to determine how best to meet this new challenge. Although I am hopeful that UNO’s actual mid-year budget reduction will be less severe, we must however be prepared if necessary. Any cuts that we make will be strategic cuts---to prepare the University for the future in the optimum manner.

I want to assure each of you that I and my administration will continue to do everything we can to ensure UNO’s continued prosperity and growth. We will continue to work with UNO’s key legislators, the Commissioner of Higher Education, our governing boards and the Governor to mitigate the impact on UNO which, as you know, is still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Let me stress, the only way we can positively influence our budget is through enrollment growth obtained through increased efforts in recruitment and retention by all members of the University community.

One positive opportunity for UNO is the newly proposed formula funding allocation, which for the first time includes factors that recognize and reward our mission as an urban university. Once fully implemented, as we regrow our student population, UNO will be eligible for an increase in funding. The inclusion of these new factors favorable to UNO was the result of a series of meetings with the Governor’s staff and members of UNO’s governing boards.

[Good luck with that.]

It may be of little consolation, but we are not alone among state funded universities facing budget reductions. Other colleges and universities across the nation are experiencing cuts including the University of Central Florida which just received a 16% budget reduction, the University of South Carolina System which just received a 14.9% budget reduction and the University of Georgia which just received a 10% percent reduction.

[It is of little consolation since I cannot help but notice that all of the states mentioned are governed by Republicans, all of whom have demonstrated an insane antipathy toward state services and public education.]

This trend, coupled with the predicted budget shortfall released today, only serves to remind us that UNO must maintain the core mission of teaching, research and public service and achieve priorities as set forth in the University’s Strategic Plan. As information becomes available about the status of UNO’s funding, I will continue to share it with you.

2008-11-06T00:23:00.009-06:00

Perhaps more naive than most, I did expect to see an African-American president elected in my lifetime. I still expect to see a woman, and I hope that she is Michelle Obama.

What I did not expect to see in my lifetime: A U.S. president whose election brought tears of joy and relief, not only to me, but to people across the world. I did not expect to see the election of a U.S. president who would restore dignity to the office he held. I did not expect to see the election of a president whom I consider brilliant in the ways that matter to me. I did not expect a president whom I consider sane. I did not expect my first choice of Democratic candidate to ever, ever win. And I did not expect that there would, in my lifetime, be any rational basis for hope for the future of this country.

The night that Bush "won" his second term, the only constructive action that I could think of was to make a CD of the "I Have A Dream" speech; MLK's speech against the war in Vietnam, which, arguably, led to his death; snippets from iconic figures ranging from Bobby Kennedy to Muhammad Ali; The Five Stairsteps' "Ooh Child," as well as every cover of the song (even the one by Cyndi Lauper); Rasputina's covers of "I Wish You Were Here" and "Hallelujah"; and every recording I could find of my beloved yoga teacher Michele Baker's Siva chants. I put the cd in the car and listened to it for six months straight. I figured I could at least dream.

Thank you, Barack Hussein Obama.

Sporadic Live Blogging of the 2008 Presidential Election

2008-11-04T18:12:00.014-06:00

I am not an alcoholic. One and a half glasses of wine, and I'm spinning. That said, I'll keep this up until I start spinning. (You think I'm going through this "unmedicated"? I attended my first Obama rally in May 2007!)

6:13 CST: Predictions have consistently suggested that if Obama could hold a loss in Indiana to below 5 points, we'd have an extremely positive early indicator. But we cannot truly trust Indiana until Gary is counted. Gary is not counted and Obama is holding within five points.

I'm disturbed by reports of widespread voting machine malfunction in Virginia and Pennsylvania, strong Obama leads (in reality). If McCain squeaks out in either of those states, we must hit the streets. Office Depot is still open for the purchase of sticks, posterboard, and markers, just so you know. But once it closes, remember that you can still take to the streets, as I will, with your body only.

6:25 CST: At the moment, Obama is down in Virginia.

6:33 CST: Obama appears to have lost Virginia.

6:37 CST: Obama is no longer holding within five points in Indiana.

7:07 CST: I just tragically overcooked my edamame (my version of popcorn) with the bevy of states that came in at 7:00. Let me tell you, I'll be the naysayer until the end. The huge margin in Georgia for McCain and the current results in Virginia still rankle my soul. But, hey, Obama's got Pennsylvania. I'm from Florida and am thus quite skeptical about an Obama win there. We'll cross our fingers. Speaking of fingers, my edamame looks like them after about 5 hours of swimming in the ocean.

7:26 CST: Florida, you have been shameful in your electoral process for the past 160 years! Shame on you, Florida! Yes, folks, Florida has created yet another extremely confusing ballot in which absentee voters had to form an ARROW pointing to their candidate! Circles around the candidate, checks beside the candidate, and other clear indications of preference simply do not count. Florida is also comparing signatures. Ya'll: my mother registered to vote when she was 21. She has lived in the same place since then and now she is 72 YEARS OLD. Right, compare signatures. My mama had to vote by absentee ballot because she cannot stand long enough to wait in line. In addition, she put off her cataract surgery until Wednesday so that she "can see Obama win with both [her] eyes." I'm so disgusted with Florida over its continued electoral shenanigans. Florida, you are dead to me. Even if Obama wins Florida, Florida you are STILL dead to me.

7:58 CST: According to Nate Silver, if Obama came in with less than a 5% win in NH, we'd definitely have to worry about a Bradley Effect. Obama won big, so we don't. I never believed that, anyway.

8:25 CST: Obama has won Ohio! Thank every deity. Florida continues to wallow around in its own...well, we'll see. By the way, my criticism of Florida, my home state for 31 years, pales in comparison to what my criticism of Obama will be if he wins with a Democratic congress and does not put his foot to the floor. He's going to be accused of being a "socialist" no matter what he does, so he may as well be a socialist instead of the moderate conservative many of his policies suggest. Yeah, and I'm still under the one-and-a-half glass of wine limit. Just wait until later.

8:31 CST: New Mexico has gone to Obama.

8:50 CST: With victory in New Mexico, Barack Obama has won the election. He now has 200 electoral votes. California has 55, and Florida is breaking blue. Even with just California, Hawaii, and Oregon, he'd still win. But Colorado will be called soon. If I don't get back to ya'll tonight, be well. I promised I'd do an unassisted handstand in the middle of the room if this came to pass. I may enter the new era with a broken neck, but at least I'll have a fighting chance of getting health insurance in that eventuality. I have called my mother in Florida to assure her that no matter how her rogue state may have attempted to betray her, the die is cast. She said she'd believe it when she heard it on the news. Fair enough, Mama. Fair enough.

Just in Case Amorphous Funk is Your Source for Election Results:

2008-11-04T16:46:00.001-06:00

Office Hours: 24/7

2008-10-23T23:14:00.005-05:00

My online class has turned into my blog this semester. No, I would not say (most of) the things to that (or any) class that I say here. It's simply that all of my formerly "free" time is spent uploading materials, answering questions, moderating discussion boards, and begging for assignments from this one of my four classes.

I will post on Tuesday, November 4, however, and probably more than once.

I miss everyone in my beloved online community and especially thank Charlotte for inquiring about the whereabouts of (what's left of) Funk. Somehow, I don't think that if I vanished from the online class there would be any such inquiry :)

Talk to you soon.

Not an Economist II

2008-09-25T01:56:00.003-05:00

Now we have socialized the losses of a lion's share of predatory lenders. Sarah Palin refused press coverage of her meetings with prominent leaders. John McCain has declined to debate. Karl Rove, Sarah Palin, and her husband (whatever his name is) have all, with apparent immunity, refused subpoenas. And red is the color most associated with the Republican Party.

I'm Not an Economist...

2008-09-18T02:06:00.004-05:00

but does one really need to be to understand that the short-term profit associated with unregulated lending practices has been pocketed by the few while the enormous losses have been thoroughly socialized, and we're now just...fucked? If you are an economist, please talk me down. I'd love to be wrong about all the dismal statements I make here.

Anyway, my grandmother got married during the Great Depression. My grandfather could not afford a wedding ring, but as luck would have it, she found a rose gold woman's wedding band on the ground and wore it until she died. Someone else's initials are engraved inside. I have worn it for the past decade as a reminder not only of her but of the story behind the ring.

In the past few days, I've remembered a conversation I had with my uncle over 20 years ago, when I was in my late teens. He was talking about his retirement savings in Merrill Lynch, and I asked what was then perhaps a stupid question: "Is it okay to have all your money in one place like that?" He laughed and said, "If things got that bad, Funk, the value of the dollar would deflate to such a degree that it wouldn't matter anyway." He wasn't an economist, either.

Excuse the diversions. It just seems like a time for walking down memory lane. And I mean way down.

9-1-?

2008-09-11T03:56:00.008-05:00

Here's a comment I left at The Field Negro on 9/1 in response to some commenters who felt it necessary to inform each other that New Orleanians should come to terms with the dangers of living below sea level and move somewhere else because we are doomed. I want to make it clear that The Field Negro himself did not share that opinion. His post acknowledged our justifiable outrage, blasted Bush, and sent us heartfelt well wishes. One conservative commenter was so outraged that he kept posting repeatedly about how we should pull ourselves up (and away). He even went after a lady who posts as "Granny Standing for Truth" AFTER she told him that she'd lost someone in Katrina, it was a very upsetting subject for her, and that she was not going "to let [him] go there with [her]." Damn.

It's so sad (for them as well as for us) that so many people do not understand that we don't have only a New Orleanian problem, we have an American problem. ALL of our infrastructure is failing. What should have been a wake up call to everyone in the U.S. served so many as just an excuse to call us idiots (again).

Here's the comment:

Despite the 12 hour-drive to get only 250 miles out of New Orleans, the painful memories associated with the same drive three years ago, and the very real possibility of having no home and no job to return to, I still have a last nerve, which the GOP and mainstream media have managed to get all over. I've watched every Republican from the state governor to the president pat themselves on the back all day simply because the storm did not make landfall at quite a high enough intensity to breach the levees and because they have gotten enough of a clue not to have a party while a state is threatened with catastrophe. Mainstream media has allowed them to get away with that and has perpetuated the notion that "progress" is what saved us. No. The weakening of the storm did.

A barge, moored YESTERDAY near the same industrial canal that was breached by a unmoored barge three years ago, came loose today and happened not to have breached the same flood wall again. Is that really progress?

During Katrina, mainstream media got honest for about a week. During Gustav, they've not been honest at all.

I can move away from New Orleans to avoid hurricanes, but I'll also need to stay away from the entire Gulf Coast as well as much of the East Coast for the same reason. I shouldn't move back to New York because of the relative ease with which the subway system could be attacked. I'd also need to say away from any earthquake prone regions on the West Coast, as well as any of the Heartland, which sees devastating tornadoes [and flooding] regularly these days. I think at this point the best bet is Holland, where they got their floodwalls right the first time.

To Students In My Online Course

2008-09-09T00:31:00.010-05:00

Photo: marlandova

I did not send the following message:

Taking this course, or any course online, unless you are among a quite rare breed of self-motivators, will compromise your educational experience. But because you are enrolled (and I teach) at a third-tier university, hungry for your tuition dollars without especial concern for the quality of your education, we are embarking upon this experience together.

The hours that I have invested in designing this course to meet your online needs have earned me less than minimum wage, so you can surely imagine that I care about instructing you. If I did not, I would either do any number of less demanding jobs for much better pay or provide significantly less instruction in an effort to justify my salary.

You may be taking this course because of a rumor that online courses are easier. They are not. An online course requires that you spend three additional hours per week, hours that you would otherwise be engaged in real-time discussion with your peers and me, reading written instructions and following them. There's no getting around that self-evident reality.

Nevertheless, in the past two weeks, it has become apparent to me that many of you are quite resentful of the course requirement that you read assignments independently and complete them. I am baffled. Half of you, and you know who you are, seem to be mistaking this experience for WalMart shopping -- you feel entitled to a good grade for half the work, or even for no work at all.

I understand that the recent evacuation and the requisite post-traumatic stress are hard on all of us. I also realize that because I am not a familiar person to you but rather an email address and a set of instructions in cyberspace, I am an easy target upon which to vent frustration. Venting unwarranted frustration upon me, however, is extremely unwise since faculty have much more control over your comfort level than you seem to understand. We are not Walmart managers. You cannot demand that we exchange your faulty effort for a decent grade.

Rude emails informing me that assignments were due during evacuation and therefore must be rescheduled are bizarre. Had you taken the opportunity to read the current course announcement, posted since pre-evacuation, you would have noticed the clear message that the assignment schedule would likely fall a week behind and that the current assignment would be due Thursday, September 11. Rude demands that I explain how the schedule will be adjusted in the distant future are also out of line given that the University has not issued a clear statement on when or if the missed week will be made up. As soon as the University does so, I will present you with a thoroughly updated course schedule. This last point would not bother me nearly as much if many of you were not sending such demands in lieu of completing work that was due before evacuation.

Furthermore, only a 9th-grade reading level is necessary to understand the instructions that I have posted for you regarding immediate assignments and due dates. If you are senior in college and cannot understand them, then your prospects in the job market into which you will soon be thrust are quite bleak. I'll still work with you as best I can, but belated claims of confusion will not excuse missing work or lackluster performance.

Those of you who have exercised your critical thinking skill to ascertain that a week-long university closure necessitates a week-long postponement of assignments, and/or have addressed me in a polite tone with your questions and concerns, please excuse this truly unfortunate public down dressing of your peers.

Students attending on-site courses are doing just fine.

The Perfect Candidate

2008-09-06T16:45:00.010-05:00

Over evacuation, I met the nicest person -- a socially responsible, Obama-supporting Democrat who told me that she had recently done Karl Rove's nails. He owns a beach house in her area and came into the establishment where she works. Because she is not the owner, she did not have the authority to oust him. At first I thought that if I were her, I would have risked my job and put him out anyway, or at least I would have removed at least one of his nails. But this is a man who will have your house burned down for looking at him the wrong way. Would losing one's job (or worse) for refusing Karl Rove a manicure be an act of civil disobedience or just plain recklessness?

Speaking of Karl Rove's grooming, the man has escaped federal prison long enough to play an instrumental role in Election 2008. Unbelievable but true. And Sarah Palin is his perfect candidate. Anyone who wants to preserve the unbridled market forces we have at present needs another cosmetically qualified, marginally intelligent, easily manipulated, shockingly unempathetic, ethically impaired figurehead. McCain may have wed himself to Bush policies and the neo-conservative movement, but he's not to be trusted by the power machine, really. War is his solution to everything, but he is not going to be ordered around once in office. His temper combined with his scary delusions would likely lead him into one or more wars that even Halliburton et al wouldn't advocate, just because some head of state angers him. You know I'm not kidding. Bush was a whole lot easier to manipulate than McCain would be.

But he's a 4-year president, max. This Sarah Palin will be around for awhile. She's good for a few politically illiterate, disenchanted Hillary votes, sure, but that's not all. She's looking a whole lot like Bush to me, and he was the biggest Christmas present the most unsavory of capitalists could have ever hoped for. She's the New Year's champagne.

Her background as a beauty pageant contestant says enough about her character and ego strength (or lack thereof), but as an educator, I have to add that attendance at five colleges in six years rarely says much good about a student, except under dire circumstances, which she was not under. Her eagerness to please The Man coupled with that spotty education may contribute to her wilingness to spin propoganda more shamelessly than most by, for instance, claiming to have "taken on Big Oil" in Alaska while her inauguration speech was sponsered by BP. Or by rallying around abstinence(a.k.a "anything goes") education while her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant, a fact that is fair game since she's built a career on trying to legislate other people's children's sex lives, access to information about birth control, etc.

There's also the vindictive streak: She tried to ban books from the public library when she became mayor and then tried to have the librarian fired for being contrary. Apparently, she also used her influence as governor to have her brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired during his divorce from her sister, and then attempted to fire his supervisor for refusing to fire him.

There's also the all too familiar narrowness of experience, quite in the Bush tradition: Her first passport was issued 20 months ago because a requirement of governorship. Lots of brilliant and wonderful people have never left the country by age 42, and that's fine, but they're not running for president.

Finally, of course, Karl Rove wrote her substanceless yet strangely effective acceptance speech, as well as, most likely, most of what she has said since the surpise v.p. pick. What's worse, many seem to be buying into Rove's strategy...again.

What will it take to get this man out of our political process?

Live Blogging This Shit

2008-08-31T12:56:00.003-05:00

No, I'm not live blogging from New Orleans. I am simply alive, have completed the 12-hour-long, 250-mile evacuation, and have a dial-up connection. I am privileged: people who care, car, enough money, nice place to stay.

Once I was awake this morning and brave enough to face it, I caught one CNN news cycle on New Orleans. The points were presented in the following order:

1. The updated path and intensity of the storm.
2. A clip of Ray Nagin's statement that all "looters" will be sent directly to Angola.
3. An assurance that federal assistance will be provided to Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana.

One: Muth-er-fuck.

Two: The CNN mannequin anchor as well as the people surrounding Nagin when he made this statement were positively gleeful. Let me be more specific: Their expressions ranged from extremely smug to so turned on that they were ready to get naked right there.

Three: Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of federal assistance to people. But a Category 4 is about to blast through Louisiana.

Where are ya'll?

I couldn't go to Rising Tide, and that makes me very sad

2008-08-26T01:08:00.005-05:00

I was sincerely looking forward to it and had been since January. Then, Friday between 4 and 5 p.m., I was assigned a Saturday class (to teach, not to take). So it was my job or the Tide, and the choice was not an easy one. Friday night until 1 a.m. became the preparation phase, Saturday 9-11 a.m. the xeroxing phase, and Saturday 12-3 the actual teaching phase. Sunday involved hours more of teaching prep for the week to come. I know I missed out on a lot. I hope I catch you all in person next time, preferably sooner.

What Say Ye, Gossips?

2008-08-21T22:38:00.006-05:00

Photo credit: Tabbi Cat

Perhaps it is presumptuous to apologize for not having posted lately. Something about the peaceful memory of Jamaica temporarily stilled my urge to rant. Since school starts on Monday, however, I'm finding myself more or less back to normal.

Anyway, I was already feeling a little off this morning when I left the house, but after finding a "Sex Offender Notification" in the mailbox, I felt as though I had been transported to a bygone era -- specifically that of 17th-century New England.

Apparently, a woman convicted of a "crime against nature" has moved in down the street, right into the middle of Uptown. My first thought of course was that a nature offender might not find herself comfortable in a neighborhood where we all adhere to a strictly vegan diet, drive electric cars, recycle everything (with the loving support of Veronica White), conscientiously tend our compost heaps, boycott all pesticides, heat and cool our homes with solar panels, vote Green unanimously, hang our clothes out to dry, let it mellow if it's yellow, and travel nightly en masse to bless the River, whose present oily sheen moves us to tears. Such a person may fly in the face of all we hold sacred here on Annunciation Street.

My second thought was that I needed to know which of the many possible crimes against nature this felon may have committed, since the more specific information we have, the more vigilant we may be in preventing future transgressions against nature.

The information on the mailer led me to the website Sodomy Laws, which provided the needed information:

A. Crime against nature is:

(1) The unnatural carnal copulation by a human being with another of the same or opposite sex or with an animal, except that anal sexual intercourse between two human beings shall not be deemed as a crime against nature when done under any of the circumstances described in R.S. 14:41, 14:42, 14:42.1 or 14:43. Emission is not necessary; and, when committed by a human being with another, the use of the genital organ of one of the offenders of whatever sex is sufficient to constitute the crime.

(2) The solicitation by a human being of another with intent to engage in any unnatural carnal copulation for compensation.

Please send your prayers this way even if you find it necessary to avoid this area out of fear for your eternal salvation.

Jamaican Vacation

2008-08-08T01:06:00.013-05:00

Photos: Strawberry Fields

I still cannot fathom that we were lucky enough for the top floor of this cottage to be our vacation home for eight days. The ocean crashes below three sides of house, and with open windows all around, one gets so used to the sound that a kind of withdrawal occurs later. No air conditioning is needed because of the cottage's design, and hot water is provided by solar panel. The retreat, Strawberry Fields, is in a still somewhat remote area--Robin's Bay in St. Mary's Parish, on the northeast coast. The remoteness won't last for long, though. Given that the EU has built a paved road from Ocho Rios, which used to be a four-hour drive but is now one and a half, developers are salivating. There was a casino deal literally next door to the retreat, but it fell through, thank god. The Robin's Bay people want development, but not mammoth resorts, certainly not casinos. They want eco tourism, from what I heard. One 1600-acre estate, formerly Greencastle Estate (for which Robin's Bay was the slave quarters until Emancipation on August 1, 1838), has sold a hefty portion of its acreage with a stipulation that it can be used only for eco tourism development. Absentee owners of much of the other land, who have demonstrated little interest for half a century, have started serving eviction notices to "squatters"--families who built and passed down little houses without electricity or indoor plumbing. Speaking of emancipation, the poverty in Robin's Bay is so glaring that I wonder just how much has changed there since 1838. The one school has no inside walls and no indoor plumbing.

I'm not laboring under delusions that Jamaican people aren't jacked up every time they turn around. 83 cents of every tax dollar goes to (mostly interest on) predatory loans from World Bank, the government is unabashedly corrupt, and the contrast between rich and poor is unapologetically harsh. Still, the situation there isn't one of constant smoke and mirrors as it is in the United States, and being there, I realized almost immediately that the energy I use unconsciously, on a daily basis, to reject the constant bombardment of lies and the distortion of reality from American media, was restored. I know this is a phenomenon familiar to anyone who spends time in any remote area--that sense of liberation that comes from realizing that one's perceptions are not constantly micromanaged from all sides, all the time. I also realize that I was a very privileged and pampered tourist, lucky enough to be provided conditions under which this realization could occur.

Talking to Jamaicans, Europeans, and Canadians throughout the trip (and no Americans, thankfully :), I realized that my conversational partners engaged me as though they were tiptoeing around a severely mentally impaired person. For instance, a co-owner of the retreat spoke to me at first quite delicately about the possibility of visiting Cuba, explaining that there was much love for Castro among Cubans, as he had liberated them from the corruption and brutality of Batiste. Once I told him not to worry, I didn't buy into American propaganda about Cuba, or the embargo, or the insane fear of communism, he was noticeably relieved, as though by some miracle he may be engaging one of the less insane Americans and was not going to have to invest nearly as much energy as he'd thought into protecting the delusions of the guest he was having breakfast with. He uttered a line that I ended up hearing from several people whose job it was to be nice to us: "Many people here believe that the American people are like Bush, but I tell them that's not true." He was the first person I had a conversation with, so afterward I started making a point of apologizing and expressing extreme embarrassment about the actions of my country. I often got an earful in return: "What are Americans thinking?" "You know, we're not strangers to water shortage, but you are." "We won't fly on any American airlines or stop in the U.S. until you stop the war." "I won't buy anything American if I can help it." "My daughter's husband works in Florida, but she refuses to apply for citizenship because she refuses to say the pledge." "Do Americans realize that their economy is collapsing?" "If you elect Obama, you might have a chance." "Americans are probably going to get scared and elect McCain, aren't they?" and "We're so glad you're sensitive to how the rest of the world feels about you. Most Americans aren't."

Enough said.

This was the greatest vacation of my whole life.

Funk on Vacation

2008-07-21T21:50:00.001-05:00

A much needed vacation...but with quite sporadic internet access. Back August 7!

Derrick Ashong and Soulfege

2008-07-15T21:59:00.001-05:00

You may remember the remarkably gifted young man who, caught outside a primary debate, oratorically soared in his response to a reporter (obviously a Republican, obviously hoping to interview those who support Obama but can't explain why).

Here's a refresher:

That young man, Derrick Ashong, gives us more insight into his background here:

And it turns out that he's also a musician. His band, Soulfege, has released their first cd, which I listened to in its entirity, found reminiscent of Michael Franti and Spearhead, and wholeheartedly recommend. You won't be surprised that my favorite song is "Funkadocious." If you like what you're hearing from Derrick Ashong (or even if you don't share his political views), please visit the band's website and give a listen.

Here's an excerpt from the Vanity Fair review:

Here are musicians, poised with a positive vibe and with lyrics so uplifting that you actually believe, if only for one night, that slowly, out of a species-wide weariness for discord and conflict, a new world mood may emerge from the street and the Net, somehow defying the odds—a spirit of promise and hope and harmony, a spirit that denies dissonance. Soulfege lets us dream such sweet dreams, in vibrant colors.

Enjoy.

Juvenile Justice, Louisiana Style (Part II)

2008-07-11T16:06:00.000-05:00

Photo: publik16

Fortunately, the imbroglio that is Act 555, which mandates the closing of the overcrowded Jetson Center for Youth in Baton Rouge in favor of opening "13 or 14" community-based facilities, did not escape the national spotlight, nor did its conspicuous absence of planning to build new facilities.

In the NYT editorial "Louisiana Tries Again on Its Juvenile Justice System," Governor Bobby Jindal is urged to follow the lead of Missouri's infinitely more successful juvenile justice system:

Gov. Bobby Jindal needs to make sure that the state’s new plan truly follows the Missouri model and that Louisiana’s juvenile justice officials implement it this time.

The community-based centers in Missouri are considered a national model that stresses therapy, not punishment, and often includes parents as well as the children. Instead of housing minor offenders and more serious offenders in the same place, as too often happens, Missouri sorts detainees by the seriousness of their crimes.

The oversight continues even after the young persons’ release, through case managers who help former inmates with job placement, school issues and drug or alcohol treatment. Missouri’s system more than pays for itself by keeping recidivism rates low. After completing the program, officials say, less than 10 percent of detainees go back to prison through the juvenile courts.

A team of consultants led by Mark Steward, an expert on the Missouri juvenile justice system, is advising Louisiana on how to proceed. For the sake of some of the state’s most vulnerable children, the Jindal administration should embrace the advice and follow it.

2theadvocate printed a similar article, "Mo. juvenile prison expert to aid Jetson," praising the Missouri model and noting the legislature's seemingly good intentions but hesitation to act:

Mark Steward blames many of Jetson’s problems on the facility’s large population — ranging from 200 to 215 on most days recently. That number has risen from about 160 last summer.

Steward is the director of the Missouri Youth Services Institute and former director of Missouri’s Office of Youth Development. His team has come to Louisiana to teach juvenile prison officials how to implement what’s known as the Missouri model.

Missouri has been acknowledged as the state with the most progressive and best juvenile detention system in the nation. States across the country vie for Steward’s services.

Steward said the Missouri method is based on creating relationships with individual teens, along with a therapeutic group approach in small, regional, homelike facilities.

“It’s not based on power, but on creating respect,” Steward said.

Steward conceived the Missouri model years ago and implemented it in his home state.

“It does work,” he said. “Our recidivism rate is really low.”

Richard Thompson, the new head of Louisiana’s youth development agency, has said he wants the smaller, regional facilities — a reform that lawmakers supported five years ago.

But so far, none has been built.

Knowing what we do about the Jindal administration's tendency to "reform" state services by eliminating them, it's quite easy to imagine Jindal or Richard Thompson shaking Mark Steward's hand, slapping his back, smiling in his face, and sending him promptly back to Missouri.

However, some slight hope has recently been offered by Senator Sharon Broome, who has put a stop to the Office of Youth Development's closing of Jetson by December 31, 2008, and pledges to work with her legislative colleagues to reconsider the intent of Act 555 (legislation signed by Governor Jindal to close Jetson by June 30, 2009). Senator Broome took this action after meeting with Jetson staff who complained that the transition planning had excluded the input of those who work directly with youth detainees.

Senator Broome's concern about Jetson's closing is somewhat heartening, but serious questions remain:

1. If she intends to halt the closing of Jetson Center for Youth until more facilities are established, why are Jetson's employees being offered a 10% salary increase to transfer to the Bridge City Center for Youth, just outside New Orleans?
2. Will former staff of the Jetson Center be replacing Bridge City staff or augmenting it?
3. If the latter, has Act 555 in effect relocated the problems associated with Jetson's overcrowding to the Bridge City Center for Youth? If the former, though I'm sure that Bridge City can use the extra hands, more staff will not create the space to adequately house and serve the young people being transferred from Jetson.
4. Where exactly is the mandate, detailed plan, or commitment to establish more centers, without which no true reform can occur?
5. Will Senator Broome and her colleagues extend their concern about employees of the juvenile justice program to the youths sentenced to the program?

I want to live in a state where there is as much public attention to the treatment of our sociey's most disenfranchised members as to a potential pay raise for legislators.

See here and here for background information on Act 555.

Just An Idea

2008-07-02T00:37:00.001-05:00

Photo: Supercapacity

From TP:

BATON ROUGE -- Facing unrelenting public pressure, Gov. Bobby Jindal suddenly reversed course Monday and vetoed a controversial bill that would have doubled the pay of state lawmakers.

Jindal said at a news conference that he vetoed the bill because its passage had become a white-hot political issue that has preoccupied government the past three weeks. Letting the pay raise become law, he said, would "diminish the people's confidence in government."...

While legislators had argued that the raise was long overdue, public opposition, expressed in recall petitions filed against five legislators and Jindal last week, had shaken their resolve.

Once this bill was pared down, I really put it at the bottom of my list of things to worry about. This article, though, turns on some lightbulbs. We could actually RECALL the governor for diminishing the people's confidence in government?

Petitions, anyone?

Tags: New Orleans Schools, the Pharmaceutical-Industrial Complex, and My Head

2008-06-25T15:22:00.000-05:00

Though this entry was inspired by Slag's recent brilliant piece "FISA: The Mullet of Compromises," this really did happen today.

I had an appointment with the only person that I have trusted for years to cut my hair. For some reason, almost every other person who has ever taken a sharp instrument to my head has had a compulsion to cut layers, even though I have insisted otherwise. So many times have I ended up looking like a Dr. Seuss character on this account, I tend to forgo haircuts altogether if I cannot get them from her. Because I trust her instincts so much, I'll often just ask her do whatever she thinks will look nice because I have little sense of style and trust her judgment. No worries, ever.

Today I wanted this haircut exactly:

And I almost had it.

Except...just as I saw that she, the stylist, had, as usual, perfectly emulated the cut, and all that was left was some loose snippets and the blow drying, I realized that she had been unusually quiet and seemed stressed.

Here is the conversation that followed:

AF: How's your son?

HS: (Deep sigh.) Well, did I tell you we were paying over $6000/year to send him to ___ [private school]?

AF: Yeah, how's that going?

HS: Well they say they want him on medication because he has behavior problems and that if he's not on medication then he'll be on "behavioral probation," and so I want to take him out, but I already paid next year's tuition, and they say it's nonrefundable. And I would take him out anyway, but there is only one public school in our area, and it's a charter school, and I can't get him in.

AF: (Struggling to choose only one of these outrages to focus on)--Medication for behavioral problems? But he's four, right?

HS: He's four, going on five.

AF: Does he have behavioral problems??

HS: I don't think so, and nobody else does, either, but they say at the school he's probably ADHD. Well, his last teacher says that, and so they're acting on what she says. His teacher from the first of the year told me not to listen to them, that he was fine in her class. He has a lot of energy.

AF: Aren't four-year-olds supposed to have a lot of energy?

HS: See, that's what I think, too. I took him to the pediatrician the other day, and she said that she couldn't tell and that he's too young to be accurately tested for anything like that. So she said she could just prescribe the medication anyway.

AF: (Restraining myself)--What do you think?

HS: I don't see why the doctor would prescribe medicine for something that he can't even be tested for to begin with. I think the problem is with the school so I want to take him out, but I've already given them $5000 and we couldn't even afford that, and they just won't give it back. And if he goes back on "probation" and they expel him, then the tuition is still not refundable. We can't afford to send him somewhere else, I'd have to pay some other school more money, so I don't know what to do right now.

AF: (Tirade, support of her conclusions, sympathy.)

It was at this point that I realized the razor had continued to fly rapidly through my hair throughout this conversation, and for that reason I no longer have the haircut above but rather very, very little hair. Very little.

I really don't care about the haircut. That's not the point. I do care about about this young woman, whom I've known for a decade, and her son, and the vicious, blind, profit-driven systems that nobody, anywhere, should be subjected to, ever.

If any of you know what she might tell the school to get her money back or have any other related advice, please tell me, and I will pass it on.

Memo from the President of a Tennessee Chapter of Builders and Contractors Associated:

2008-06-24T14:10:00.000-05:00

From: Robin Collier [mailto:RCollier@abctennessee.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:42 AM
To: ABC Members
Subject: ABC Mid-TN - President's Message

By Pete Dickson, President

Last week, ABC National held their annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. ABC members from across the country, including Mid-TN Chapter members, came together for one purpose - lobbying Congress.

There has never been a time in our industry when the slogan, "Get into Politics or Get Out of Business", applied more. During our visit with members of the TN Congressional delegation, it became very clear that the Democrats are increasing their efforts to oppose most every bill that would benefit or protect our industry and seek passage of legislation which would harm our industry. The greatest example is organized labor, with the help of the Democrats, is attaching amendments to most any bill to expand the use of Davis-Bacon wages.

The main topics of discussion with members of Congress, including Davis-Bacon expansion, Immigration, Union Only Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), Protect the Rights to a Secret Ballot, Salting Abuse, and removing the 3% withholding tax on business. Last but not least, the fuel crisis. When communicating with Congress, ask them to support a House Resolution to "Expand American Refining Capacity on Closed Military Installations". This should assist in reducing the price of gasoline and diesel by streamlining the refinery application process and by requiring the President to open at least three military instillations for the purpose of housing new American refineries.

In the past, you may have felt your voice wouldn't be heard in regard to political issues and elections. It's a new day and you must take the time to join with other ABC members to let your Representatives and Senators in Congress know your position on these issues.

You also must talk to your employees about the Presidential election. You are not allowed to tell your employees who to vote for but you can express your thoughts on the best candidate for our industry and the protection of their jobs. ABC has resources to assist you in communicating with your employees regarding politics.

The Democratic candidate has indicated he will work closely with organized labor if elected. There is "A Clear Choice" for our industry in regard to the Presidential election.

We must elect John McCain! Get involved! Don't wait!

"GET INTO POLITICS OR GET OUT OF BUSINESS!"

Please contact ABC @ 615-399-8323 if you need additional information or materials for your employees.
ABC Mid-Tennessee Chapter
1604 Elm Hill Pike, Nashville, TN 37210
Phone 615-399-8323 * Fax 615-399-7528
www.abctennessee.com

h/t Kos

George Carlin on Countdown

2008-06-23T14:32:00.001-05:00

Rant that You've Heard Before

2008-06-21T22:30:00.000-05:00

Photo: twas_brillig
What bothers me a lot: Hearing that Bush's presidency has been unsuccessful. That he has been the worst president in American history is evident from any humanitarian point of view, but his presidency looks unsuccessful only if one imagines that the aim of his administration was ever to place human welfare above that of multinational corporate interests. He was the perfect figurehead for the neo-conservative movement: marginally intelligent, easily manipulated, unable to think critically, shockingly unempathetic, and preoccupied with a stilted and destructive perception of masculinity. That he has been the worst president in our history and simultaneously the most successful at accomplishing his party's agenda are not mutually exclusive points. That agenda was and is to move away from the concept of government as we understand it and toward not just a nation but a world that is entirely corporate dominated, entirely privatized. In those terms, Iraq is a success story, New Orleans is a success story, the budget deficit, the collapsing economy, crumbling infrastructure, and the health care disaster are success stories. The majority of us are closer to wage slavery than we could have ever imagined. Our educational institutions, health care, retirement benefits, prisons, and military move closer and closer to thorough privatization. And it doesn't help that our governor of at least the next 3 1/2 years is entirely complicit. It's also dangerously naive to believe that an ample number of Democrats have not been complicit, as well. The political landscape of the past twenty years has ventured so far right that a moderate conservative looks far left to most Americans.

Kos via NYT recently provided the clearest explanation of soaring oil prices that I've seen, one that exemplifies the kind of twisted success story I'm talking about:

Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat. ...

The no-bid contracts are unusual for the industry, and the offers prevailed over others by more than 40 companies, including companies in Russia, China and India. The contracts, which would run for one to two years and are relatively small by industry standards, would nonetheless give the companies an advantage in bidding on future contracts in a country that many experts consider to be the best hope for a large-scale increase in oil production.

There was suspicion among many in the Arab world and among parts of the American public that the United States had gone to war in Iraq precisely to secure the oil wealth these contracts seek to extract. The Bush administration has said that the war was necessary to combat terrorism. It is not clear what role the United States played in awarding the contracts; there are still American advisers to Iraq’s Oil Ministry.

And despite all that, Blackwater, Halliburton, KBR, Dyncorp, Bechtel, et al, few Americans seem to be able to come to terms with the fact that Obama is (have you heard??) biracial and his wife is just outright black (!), HRC is a white woman who lost the nomination (Dear God!), and McCain is old and crazy.

End of rant.

Self-Absorption (Updated)

2008-06-19T01:43:00.000-05:00

I have always been fond of reading about the distinctions arrived at by the Myers-Briggs Personality Inventory. Therefore, I got really excited when I found this site, with a test included, that gives a more in-depth analysis of personality types than others I've seen. It doesn't sugar coat anything.

I'm ENFP (Extrovert/Intuitive/Feeling/Perceiving). The following excerpt gives me insight into a stable personality trait that I have struggled with and perhaps confused with dysthymia and other maladies:

Because ENFPs live in the world of exciting possibilities, the details of everyday life are seen as trivial drudgery. They place no importance on detailed, maintenance-type tasks, and will frequently remain oblivious to these types of concerns. When they do have to perform these tasks, they do not enjoy themselves. This is a challenging area of life for most ENFPs, and can be frustrating for ENFP's family members.

I hear that.

If you take the test and feel like sharing insights and surprises, please do.

Update: I couldn't help but include this find, the second comment beneath Jonathan Martins's article "DNC to file complaint to FEC on McCain." The comment is, by the way, a nonsequitur to anything reported in Martin's article:

Obama is an ENFP he will pick thinks off the floor and eat it . This type is not afraid of germs . Obama blew his nose at his raslly last week even telling everyone about it .

Well, now.

Levee Breaks and MSM

2008-06-17T23:45:00.000-05:00

Photo: Spiritwood Images

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed a curious lack of cause-and-effect reasoning from mainstream media sources regarding the 27 possible Mississippi River levee breaks in the past few days. Rachel Maddow did actually say the word "infrastructure" in a political context on MSNBC this evening, suggesting that the last effective focus on infrastructure was associated with the WPA. I apologize if I'm failing to credit other news sources who are not conflating overtopping with leaks and other malfunctions/design errors. All else I've seen or read matter-of-factly states that the sandbags just didn't hold up.

Jivamukti Yoga is Funky

2008-06-17T01:00:00.000-05:00

Photo credit: geckonia

I just want to say that Jivamukti yoga really works for me. I say this as a former yoga-skeptic, attending classes here and there and not really understanding what the big deal was, for years. 1) Jivamukti is a serious workout, 2) It alleviates the back problems that I've had since age 27, 3) It lifts my mood, 4) It calms me down, 5) It makes me feel hopeful, 6) Classes provide a sense of community, 7) It is a real spiritual experience, 8) It tones the body as well if not better than strengh training, 8) It is the most likely means of turning around a day gone wrong, 9) A devoted practice can often have the effects of feel-good drugs (prescription or otherwise), without a prescription or a...contact, 10) I totally look forward to doing it (which is more than I could ever really say for my 15 years of running/strength training), and 11) It totally rocks.

These claims are mine alone and not those of any yoga school or teacher.

P.S. Thanks for bearing with the problems in parallel grammatical structure up there :)

Come Again? (Updated)

2008-06-12T22:01:00.000-05:00

Doubtless, everyone has seen this news by now:

By increasing lawmakers' base salary from $16,800 to $50,700, Senate Bill 672 challenges the concept of a Legislature comprised of citizens performing part-time public service in favor of representation that is compensated like a full-time job.

Even without considering the overall expense payments and per diems in the package, which would push the new compensation to about $67,000, the raise would put Louisiana in the top 10 among states nationwide in legislative pay, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislators.

I'm not one who believes that pay increases should be linked only to merit, nor am I one who believes that because I make a substandard wage, everyone else should as well.

On this matter, though, hold the fucking phone! This is the same legislature who is cutting 240 million from health care and education in Louisiana? That includes ensuring stagnant salaries and hiring freezes and other cutbacks that compel state employees to do more than one person's work in exchange for one person's salary!

FYI, Louisiana Legislature: You want your pay to meet national standards? As a state employee, I have yet to reach the same income that I received in Florida, that mecca of high pay, ten years ago for doing the same job. When you can manage to fix that problem, rather than deliberately making it worse, I'll get behind you on a pay raise.

But wait, I don't have to get behind you. You're behind yourselves. So go ahead and fuck off.

Update: Daily Kingfish weighed in with a less reactive solution:

I say drop the percentage to 20% of Congressional pay, which would still be a raise for Louisiana legislators, who have not seen a raise in pay since 1993. That would bring their base pay to $33,860, and with the expense account and per diem, which regularly adds an additional $18,000 to $21,000 to their base pay, legislators will still be sitting pretty.

Oh, and one more thing ... these pay raises should not go into effect until after the next round of elections, which would be 2012. That's only fair, as legislators wouldn't know if they were voting to raise their own pay or not. The voters can make that determination.

As did Editor B:

I guess I’m in a very small minority with this opinion, but I actually support our Louisiana state legislature’s efforts to give themselves a huge salary increase. It’s not because I think they deserve a reward them for a job well done. It’s not because I like big government or higher taxes. It’s because when I looked into the prospect of running for the legislature myself (yes, I know, ha ha ha) I have to admit the salary was a nonstarter. I understand public service entails some sacrifices, but the pay really is paltry — a joke. What is it, like $23K? Oh, it’s supposed to be a part-time job, but that’s a joke too.

I certainly understand the kneejerk reaction against the pay raise. But I find myself, surprisingly, in the camp that says we get what we pay for, and maybe if the job paid a decent wage we’d getter a better quality of applicant.

Juvenile Justice, Louisiana Style

2008-06-08T14:47:00.000-05:00

Remember the promise of SB 749, which ostensibly sought to address the needs of juvenile detainees by closing the humanitarian nightmare that is the Jetson Center for Youth in Baton Rouge? A refresher:

Under SB 749, Jetson would shut its doors by June 30, 2009. A provision would allow for an extension until November 2009 if problems develop.

The state would initially open three, 48-bed secure juvenile facilities in different regions into which Jetson residents would be transferred. No more than 12 juveniles could be housed in a unit.

That's a lie. The truth is that SB 749 contained no plan to establish more centers. It provided only a plan to close the Jetson Center.

The Bridge City Center for Youth (near New Orleans) will increase its population by over 50% in the next month thanks to this legislation. The harsh reality: Bridge City Center for Youth has too few guards to accomodate its existing population. One reason for that is probably Bobby Jindal's current hiring freeze on all state personnel.

If new or transferred staff appear at BCCY to ameliorate some of the problems associated with overcrowding, I'll let you know. I'll also try to find out if the State is ceasing to imprison adolescents for offenses such as possesion of marijuana or stealing a family member's necklace. But at the moment, it looks as though Louisiana's antidote to dangerous conditions for juvenile detainees in Baton Rouge is simply to recreate those conditions elsewhere.

Energizer, Please Take Out the Battery

2008-06-07T14:46:00.000-05:00

Photo: john mcnicholas

1. What did Hillary Clinton say this afternoon that she could not have said on Tuesday night, or back when it became mathematically impossible for her to win the nomination?

2. I'm going to try to believe that she suspended rather than ending her campaign so that she can still try to recover some of her 20 million dollars and for no other reason.

3. I was not thrilled that she seized yet another opportunity to popularize her vainglorious claim of victimhood:

"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it has about 18 million cracks in it and the light is shining through like never before."

4. Nor did I think that this statement was in particularly good taste:

"Well, this isn't exactly the party I planned but I sure like the company."

5. Enough said. I will suspend further commentary on Hillary Clinton pending any further outrageous behavior from her suspended campaign.

Peace.

Bobby Jindal's Intimate Friend

2008-06-05T17:45:00.000-05:00

Photo: dsb nola

When someone sets about such reprehensible acts as freezing federal monies received by Louisiana state institutions in the aftermath of the Floods, cutting 240 million dollars from health care and education (in the midst of a state budget surplus), and simultaneously supporting a 300-million dollar tax cut, so that even when he leaves office the funding to restore services will be gone, I wonder what is wrong with that person.

I know that this behavior simply adheres to a neo-conservative agenda to starve all government services, lower taxes, and ultimately disabuse the populace of any idea that their government is good for anything but making war and protecting big bidniz. But what makes a person buy into that ideology?

Often I bandy about the term "evil" to describe the people who do, but I don't even believe in the simple equation of good vs. evil. Apparently Governor Bobby Jindal does.

Loki's recent post at Humid City, "The Exorcist, Jindal, and the Oxford Review," is an excellent read. She links to a 1994 article in which Jindal details his experience at the exorcism of an "intimate" but "platonic" female friend!

See what you think of the background information Jindal provided in the article:

Though she had not said anything, I knew something was wrong. Susan and I had developed an intimate friendship; indeed, our relationship mystified observers, who insisted on finding a romantic component where none existed. I called her after the University Christian Fellowship (UCF) meeting -- UCF is an Inter-Varsity Christian group composed of undergraduate and graduate students. Though the interdenominational group's weekly program of songs and prayers had produced the usual emotional high among most members, Susan had left the meeting in a very sullen mood. I asked her to join a group of us who were attending a Christian a cappella concert to be held on campus that same evening.

Despite our intimacy, Susan and I had not spent much time together this past year. We had succumbed to pressure from our friends and decided we should not be so emotionally interdependent without a deeper commitment. To be honest, my fears of a relationship and the constraints of commitment had kept us apart; our friends' objections merely provided a convenient excuse. Still, I felt comfortable asking her to come to the concert, and she accepted the invitation. Though Susan appeared composed throughout the concert, her sudden departure in the middle of a song convinced me otherwise and affirmed my earlier suspicions.

There was no doubt in my mind that I had to leave my friends and follow her outside. I was not exactly sure what I would do or say, but I knew I had to run after her. I found that she had not gone far, but was sobbing uncontrollably outside the auditorium. Since we had been very careful to avoid any form of physical contact in our friendship, I was not sure how to respond. My inaction and her sobs produced a very awkward situation. Fortunately, a female friend who followed us out was able to comfort Susan with hugs and soothing words of reassurance; her quick action was in stark contrast to my paralysis. Once Susan had regained her composure and fell silent, I knew I had to intervene. The female friend meant well, but did not know Susan well enough to provide the advice Susan was sure to seek.

Not even knowing the cause of this raucous scene, I asked Susan if she would like to talk, and volunteered to walk her home. Wanting to avoid any additional embarrassing scenes, I thought it best to remain in silence while we walked. I dared not cause another emotional outpouring until we were safely behind closed doors. When we finally reached her dorm room, I promptly sat Susan on a bed and placed myself in a chair located several feet across the room. This physical arrangement was hardly conducive to the love and support I was supposed to be providing, but I was too scared and unsure of myself to get any closer. (Loki's narration of the exorcism itself)

Jindal's obvious attempts to distance himself from a person he claims to care about, to bizarrely avoid the idea that he or anyone else is responsible for her emotional state, and to conclude that the culprit is The Devil him/her/itself, may be an inroad to understanding the personality of one who wreaks this kind of havoc on an already-hobbled state and feels great about doing so.

Just an idea.

P.S.: The New Oxford Review charges for a complete copy of the article. I have a complete copy.

We Haven't Forgotten

2008-06-04T22:28:00.000-05:00

(h/t Greg Saunders, HuffPo)

June 3, 2008

2008-06-03T17:21:00.001-05:00

mosaic by tsevis

Vetting Jindal

2008-06-02T02:11:00.000-05:00

I cannot adequately describe the dread with which I clicked on this article, In Louisiana, Inklings of a New (True) Champion of the Right, in today's NYT. Here is an excerpt:

Members of the State House of Representatives, following Mr. Jindal’s campaign vows to rein in government spending, cut some $240 million in health and education spending. Mr. Jindal now says he wants that money restored to his $30 billion budget proposal.

Meanwhile the House is considering an income tax cut that would cost the state $300 million, an idea that did not originate with Mr. Jindal, though he has endorsed it.

Mr. Jindal’s spokeswoman did not respond to messages on Friday.

The article contains no information of which we are not already painfully aware. My more optimistic assessment is that national recognition of Jindal's assault on the services we need so desperately could benefit us in restoring them to some meager degree. It also suggests that the bigger the microscope under which Jindal finds himself, the better. Simultaneously, I realize that my most optimistic assessments are often the most naive.

Hijacking Four Delegates

2008-05-31T22:53:00.001-05:00

I was initially puzzled by the following statement from Harold Ickes:

"Hijacking four delegates is not a good way to start down the path of party unity."

I mean, why four, why not just say however many you want to say, which has got to be more than four. Why not 300?

Oh, because Obama has hijacked four delegates the same way that Osama hijacked four planes? That is so clever.

Worry not about the SUV or truck that you can't afford to put gas in and can't trade because its value has plummeted, the house you can neither pay for nor sell, the impending bankruptcy that you can no longer declare. Just relax and and let these simple, soothing little associations set you free. There will be plenty of them.

Calming the Nerves

2008-05-31T17:59:00.000-05:00

This video, a lecture by Jill Bolte Taylor, has worked very well for me.

I'd post it here, but there's an error in the embed code.

Background from NYT:

JILL BOLTE TAYLOR was a neuroscientist working at Harvard’s brain research center when she experienced nirvana.

But she did it by having a stroke.

On Dec. 10, 1996, Dr. Taylor, then 37, woke up in her apartment near Boston with a piercing pain behind her eye. A blood vessel in her brain had popped. Within minutes, her left lobe — the source of ego, analysis, judgment and context — began to fail her. Oddly, it felt great.

The incessant chatter that normally filled her mind disappeared. Her everyday worries — about a brother with schizophrenia and her high-powered job — untethered themselves from her and slid away.

Her perceptions changed, too. She could see that the atoms and molecules making up her body blended with the space around her; the whole world and the creatures in it were all part of the same magnificent field of shimmering energy. Continued

I'll Say It Yet Again

2008-05-30T01:01:00.000-05:00

I write this not because of the propagandized narrative that Clinton can still pull ahead in this campaign but rather because of the assaults on humanity and reason that she has considered evidence that she is fighting for "us" (whoever "us" may be, in her estimation).

As I have said here repeatedly, before Campaign 2008, my attitude was thus: I had expected Clinton to fight for "us" (everyone living in the United States) after 9-11, when it was clear to anyone paying attention that 9-11 was an excuse for an imperialist war, anti-immigrant sentiment, the previously unimaginable revocation of the Bill of Rights, and the transfer of the U.S. treasury to the military-industrial complex. She did not. I had expected her to fight for "us" (the working- and middle-class) when corporate predators of all stripe sought to transfer our personal assets to their stockholders and CEOs. She did not. When I lived in New York City, worked for the Family Independence Administration, and saw funds transferred from needy families into the hands of vendors--big, powerful corporations who claimed to be providing "job training" or "child care,"--I expected her to fight for "us" (everyone who has ever or may ever need a safety net). She did not. She was in my estimation yet another Democratic politician who had let "us" down. A list of all of her counterparts in U.S. government who had done exactly the same would be nauseatingly long.

I bear no animus toward her for the reasons that the notorious Clinton bashers of the 1990s did: that her husband is/was sexually compulsive, that she refused to spend her time as First Lady quietly obsessing over place settings and luncheons, that she claimed an active role in political leadership. In fact, I fought for her against the rabid right wingers and/or misogynists who attacked her for those reasons.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama had won his Senate seat despite standing up for "us"--on the war, on civil liberties, and against financial predators. He was one of few Democratic legislators whom I had seen take principled positions regardless of the very real political risks of doing so. His record is not perfect but has addressed "our" concerns much more directly. His fundraising success with donations of less than $200 was evidence of the groundswell that he created, the first positive one I had seen in my lifetime. He had a much firmer grasp on effective international relations. His books demonstrated to me that he is a first- rate thinker. The contrast was clear and the choice was easy.

In the aftermath of Presidential Primary Campaign of 2008, I do bear especial animus toward Clinton for her blatant emboldening of and subsequent exploitation of racist sentiment, for her coercive attempts to further a personal agenda at the cost of her party, for her rallying cry to white women to mobilize against her/their imagined mistreatment at the hands of Barack Obama, and for her attempts to retrocatively transform all the rules and the mathematics that resulted in her defeat.

Update: Check out this lady getting ejected from the RBC meeting for repeating Clinton campaign talking points:

(h/t Bark, Bugs, Leaves, and Lizards)

Louisiana Legislature Moves to Better Serve Troubled Youth? I'm Unconvinced. [UPDATED]

2008-05-21T15:32:00.000-05:00

The legislation linked below sounds like a fine idea: Close the overcrowded Jetson Center for Youth, the largest youth detention center in the state, which has lost its accreditation and is plagued by violent episodes between youth and guards, and move its residents to smaller, "community-based" facilities with a real focus on rehabilitation and recovery.

Great.

Yet I hear from inside one of the state's other existing youth centers that there is much concern over the fact that the three new facilities promised below or the "13 or 14" to be established or built at some vague point will not exist when the Jetson Center is closed. In fact, Richard Thompson, head of Louisiana's Office of Youth Development, admits that "No decisions have been made on location of the regional juvenile facilities because there must be discussions with community leaders and support 'to move a center like this into a community.'"

Approximately 221 youths will be transferred to other existing centers throughout the state, thereby overcrowding those youth centers, laying off some staff (or giving them the option of working in state adult correctional facilities) and overtaxing the remaining staff and resources. Bobby Jindal warmly supports the legislation. It seems to me that closing one center and overtaxing others without a clear plan, clear funding allocations, and a clear commitment to establish and staff new centers would save the state some money. It seems to me that Bobby Jindal has been known to cut back on critical state services before.

I'll be more than happy to be pronounced cynical or even paranoid if the youth of Louisiana ultimately benefit from this legislation. But I cannot find specific information about the funding in place to establish and staff new facilities when and if locations are approved. Isn't the cart in front of the horse here?

Also, why does the bill change the name of the "Office of Youth Development" to the "Office of Juvenile Justice" if its aim is to focus on youth development and not retributive "justice"?

UPDATE: Well, so much for finding out that this post was either cynical or paranoid. I wish for the sake of everyone who is in a youth detention center in Louisiana, everyone who knows or loves someone who is, and all of us whose lives will be touched by former youth detainees that it were.

But no.

An informed source tells me the following: There is no existing plan to establish youth centers throughout the state to better serve the 220 youths now warehoused in the Jetson Center. All that is mandated by SB 749 is closing the Jetson Center for Youth and sending its residents to already existing youth centers, which already operate at high capacity.

The Juvenile Justice Implementation Committee met on Friday. The Committee is led by Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu, and among its members are Richard Thompson, Representative Don Cravins, and Representative Jetson. Richard Thompson, Jindal's Head of the Office of Youth Development, when pressed by other committee members for specific information about plans to open additional youth centers, clearly stated that he did not have a detailed plan. The Committee requested that he bring the (or a) plan to its June meeting. However, since the legislature will be out of session in June, there will be no venue to ask for funds at that time. Richard Thompson's details, when and if he provides them, will be too late: By then, if SB 749, which enjoys bi-partisan support, has passed, the Office of Youth Development will be forced by law to close the Jetson Center for Youth.

Currently, LSU provides medical and mental health services to the Office of Youth Development. There is speculation that Jindal's broader plan for "reform" involves removing LSU from this equation altogether. If he did so, where would social services for juvenile offenders come from? Or would social services come from anywhere at all?

What we see here is a blatant plan to warehouse troubled youth in Louisiana by further crowding and stressing the system. What's even more maddening is that the Louisiana Legislature is doing so under the guise of improving the lives of troubled youth and relieving an overstressed system.

Please join me in contacting all members of the House, urging them to vote No on SB 749, reminding them that the bill includes no plan to even attempt the reform it promises! Fellow bloggers, please help to get the word out about this literal miscarriage of justice.

Here is scant media information on SB 749:

From 2theadvocate.com:

The troubled Jetson Center for Youth would close in 2009 and its juvenile offenders transferred to smaller community-based facilities under a bill that cleared a state Senate committee on Tuesday.

The Senate Committee on Judiciary B endorsed a reworked Senate Bill 749, then shipped it to the full Senate for debate.

“It’s an old physical plant and part of an antiquated system” that fails to save juvenile offenders from lives of crime, said Sen. Don Cravins Jr., sponsor of the legislation.

Cravins, D-Opelousas, said it is long past time to change to a community-based system of rehabilitation that involves parents and local resources from education opportunities to mental health care.

He said 40 percent of juvenile offenders have mental health issues.

Today, Jetson is home to about 220 male offenders who range in age from 14 to 20 years old. They are incarcerated for crimes ranging from purse snatching and drug offenses to murder and armed robbery. The facility is on Old Scenic Highway near Groom Road in Baker.

Jetson has been plagued by violence, reported rapes, and guards and juveniles injured during confrontations. The state’s largest juvenile facility has lost its accreditation from the American Correctional Association.

Under SB 749, Jetson would shut its doors by June 30, 2009. A provision would allow for an extension until November 2009 if problems develop.

The state would initially open three, 48-bed secure juvenile facilities in different regions into which Jetson residents would be transferred. No more than 12 juveniles could be housed in a unit.

The number of community facilities would rise to 13 or 14, spread throughout the state in the coming years.

“This bill is going to be very productive,” said Richard Thompson, the head of the state’s Office of Youth Development. “It gets us from talking about reform to actually beginning the process of reform.”

(continue reading)

An Unfortunate Narrative

2008-05-19T23:46:00.000-05:00

Like every other woman, I face sexism in some form, every day, in both my public and private lives. Whether it manifests in cat calls or unwarranted comments from strangers about my appearance; sexual harassment or, on a good day, mere discrimination in the workplace; constant comfirmation from all mainstream media that my weight, age, and overall appearance dictate my worth; lower salary and less career mobility than men doing the same work; automatic assumptions that I am stupid and/or incapable; denial of credit for my accomplishments; or in other ways that I can continue to enumerate, ad nauseum, I face sexism constantly. And if you are a woman, you do, too.

I teach literature from a feminist perspective. I am quite familiar with feminist theory. I act politically on behalf of women's rights and for gender equality both locally and globally.

I've been infuriated to sit on a few hiring committees who have passed over the most qualified and informed candidates (because they haven't been deemed "assertive enough") for less qualified and informed but louder, more "authoritative" male candidates.

I was raised by a single mother who never made a penny more than 18K/year in her working life. Her two brothers went to college. She was not given that option.

In short, you can bet your last dollar that I care about gender equality. You can also bet that I understand that my generation has fared a lot better than the last.

I am also aware that the vast majority of my successes and failures in life have not been the result of gender inequality. That I've been denied jobs for which I was less qualified than others is not a function of sexism. That I've alienated others by acting badly is not a result of sexism. That I must take responsibility for my own actions is not a result of sexism. That I consider myself an individual human being and expect others to do the same is not a function of sexism. These levels of awareness defy sexism.

For this reason, I am extremely disappointed by the narrative emerging about gender and the Clinton campaign. Many fail to recognize that HRC's campaign is not about women. Her campaign is about Hillary Rodham Clinton. And if we lived in a equitable society, that would be obvious to everyone. All those, male and female, who fail to understand this simple point are working at cross purposes with the very notion of gender equality. Basing attitudes about an entire group of people on the successes and failures or strengths and weaknesses of one person is the very definition of stereotyping, not its antidote.

The following segments from the New York Times article "Gender Issue Lives on as Clinton's Hopes Dim" spin the narratives that bother me the most:

Along with the usual post-mortems about strategy, message and money, Mrs. Clinton’s all-but-certain defeat brings with it a reckoning about what her run represents for women: a historic if incomplete triumph or a depressing reminder of why few pursue high office in the first place.

This false dilemma is galling, as is the assumption that follows: that Clinton's campaign has been unsuccesful simply because of her sex. Has Clinton failed to draw the male vote in larger numbers than any other runner-up in a political primary? No. Are opinion polls demonstrating that a significant number of voters are opposed to voting for a woman? No. Has the campaign strategy of any of Clinton's opponents been to suggest that the nation is not ready for a woman as president or that a woman wouldn't have "a broad enough coalition" on which to base a campaign? No.

Nevertheless,

“Women felt this was their time, and this has been stolen from them,” said Marilu Sochor, 48, a real estate agent in Columbus, Ohio, and a Clinton supporter. “Sexism has played a really big role in the race.”

Women felt this was their time? For what? Forget that the very phrasing is the same as the Victorian euphemism for menstruation. The idea that a woman in the Oval Office means other than symbolic progress for women is at best erroneous and at worst dangerous, in the same ways as assuming that any racial minority in power will see to the needs of all racial minorities. What, besides taking a pro-choice stance, has Clinton done to protect women from gender inequality? Especially women living in poverty. She promoted welfare reform, decreasing the availability of aid to mothers. In the face of overwhelming evidence rendering the rationale for war with Iraq deeply flawed (to state it nicely), Clinton supported that war. Our economy is drained as a result, and since women are still less educated, make less money than men, and are more likely to be raising children alone, women are in a more precarious position because of her actions. The war has also made conditions for women in Iraq far worse than they were under Saddam Hussein. Clinton has repeatedly supported exploitative trade agreements that grind under female workers in developing nations and outsource American jobs. Clinton seems to forget when she is asked about her stance on affirmative action that white women in her own age group have been the greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action, implying (appealing to a commonly held racist belief) that it aids only racial minorities. And Marilu Sochor, where is the evidence that "sexism has played a really big role in the race"? It's been "stolen" from women? In what other presidential campaign have voters been accused of theft? In what other campaign has the actual leader in delegates and popular votes been accused of stealing the nomination?

While the article does confront some of these questions, it goes on to quote another less than authoritative source on women's "progress":

“She’s raised this whole woman candidate thing to a whole different level than when I ran,” said Geraldine Ferraro, a Clinton supporter and the first woman to be the vice-presidential nominee of a major party, contrasting her own brief stint as a running mate in 1984 with Mrs. Clinton’s 17-month-and-counting slog.

Ferraro's language exemplifies the sloppy thinking of those who believe that voting for a woman on the basis of her sex is a shared sisterly duty. Only three words are operative here--woman, candidate, and level. So Clinton's anatomy, her bid for the presidency, and her level of success in that pursuit are the only issues worth consideration? Not her policies or suitability to meet the needs of the U.S. populace in the midst of two wars, environmental disaster, and economic meltdown?

Apparently the former is true for many of Clinton's supporters. The comments of this one were the impetus for this entry:

Cynthia Ruccia, 55, a sales director for Mary Kay cosmetics in Columbus, Ohio, is organizing a group, Clinton Supporters Count Too, of mostly women in swing states who plan to campaign against Mr. Obama in November. “We, the most loyal constituency, are being told to sit down, shut up and get to the back of the bus,” she said.

First, Cynthia Ruccia, those who support the losing candidate have always been expected to accept their candidate's defeat, and they always will be expected to do so. Though it's not clearly stated, I assume that Clinton Supporters Count Too [sic] prefer McCain? Yet they consider themselves the most loyal constituency, I assume, of the Democratic Party?

A word of advice to you, Cynthia Ruccia, and to Clinton Supporters Count Too [sic]: Unlike Barack Obama, John McCain and the Republican Party will waste no time in telling you to "sit down, shut up and get to the back of the bus." If you don't, they'll just throw you under it. Please consider this advice carefully before you fling the rest of us down there with you.

Nobody Can Pan Out Like Obama:

2008-05-19T17:49:00.001-05:00

Working Title: What. The. FUCK???

2008-05-16T15:54:00.000-05:00

From CNN:

During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain — joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman.

“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

Obama supports extending the assault weapons ban, limits on gun sales, and a national law against carrying concealed weapons, with exceptions for retired police and military personnel. John McCain – whose legislative record was awarded a C+ rating by the NRA in 2004, but has received a perfect score – will address the group later Friday afternoon. His speech will include remarks "on the issue of unconditional negotiation with state sponsors of terror" that aides tell CNN’s Dana Bash are a direct response to Obama’s comments earlier Friday.

How the fuck does any of what Huckabee said make sense? How? Just how? How does it lead the reader into a paragraph about Obama's position on guns? What the fuck is this?

Revised title, now that I'm calmer: Baptist Preacher Mike Huckabee Tells a Bunch of Crazy Motherfuckers He Thinks It's Funny to Imagine Barack Obama Being Threatened with a Gun. Then Those Crazy Motherfuckers Laugh with Him.

Globalization?

2008-05-15T16:39:00.000-05:00

I've been disappointed in both of the Democratic candidates in the past couple days for not taking more of an opportunity to discuss the disasters in Myanmar and China. What bothers me tremendously is that all of our politicians, Democratic and Republican, waste no time reminding us every chance they get that a "global society" is inevitable, and I agree. But when they say "global society" they seem to be employing easily decipherable code for the statement, "Look, there's nothing I can do to keep your jobs from being outsourced to countries where workers are worst exploited. The market is a fact of life that no one can change."

Yet, a global society is much more than a market. Living in one means understanding the scientific evidence that global warming/climate change, wrought disproportionately by the United States, does cause earthquakes and volcanoes, as well as cyclones, hurricanes, tsunami, flooding etc. And the difference between Myanmar now and New Orleans then is the far greater number of victims who are suffering unimaginably at the hands of a brutal regime that seems to want them dead. The difference between Chengdu now and New Orleans then is the far greater number of victims suffering unimaginably under a brutal regime that also refuses to acknowledge its own hand in the global climate crisis. (See here, here, and here for evidence that earthquakes are included in the symptoms of abusing the planet.)

And back to markets: if there are not fair labor protections in a global society, then labor protections in the U.S. are worth nothing except for those in the very few fields that cannot (yet) outsource jobs. And that number of fields and jobs is ever-dwindling with technological advance, as are labor protections. I'm wearied of politicians repeating the phrase "competition in a global market" when what they mean is "wage slavery."

I want to hear our politicians admit in bolder terms that we have blood on our hands.

(photo: earthworm)

Thanks, Keith Olbermann

2008-05-14T22:30:00.000-05:00

In case you missed Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" to Bush, this is really worth watching.

Too Little, Too Late

2008-05-12T17:22:00.000-05:00

Photo: Ana Luisa Lima

From The Nation:

A few weeks ago, our foremost climatologist, NASA's Jim Hansen, submitted a paper to Science magazine with several co-authors. The abstract attached to it argued--and I have never read stronger language in a scientific paper--"if humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm." Hansen cites six irreversible tipping points--massive sea level rise and huge changes in rainfall patterns, among them--that we'll pass if we don't get back down to 350 soon; and the first of them, judging by last summer's insane melt of Arctic ice, may already be behind us.

From NPR:

The U.N. chief called on Myanmar's military rulers Monday to "put people's lives first," saying hundreds of thousands of survivors from a devastating cyclone could die unless international aid workers are allowed to deliver food, water and medicine.

Speaking at the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the country's isolationist regime has repeatedly thwarted international efforts to get aid to as many as 1.5 million who have been affected by Cyclone Nargis, which made landfall on May 3.

"We are at a critical point. Unless more aid gets into the country very quickly, we face an outbreak of infectious disease that could dwarf today's crisis," the secretary-general said. "I therefore call, in the most strenuous terms, on the Government of Myanmar to put its people's lives first."

Meme: Passion Quilt

2008-05-11T12:29:00.000-05:00

Image by ms_mod

That which I am most passionate about my students learning: that every text they read, every text they write, and every "rule" they learn in either process is intended for their own synthesis, leading, I hope, to the discovery of a personal Truth whose result is liberating.

This is a response to a meme posted by Professor Zero. Here are the rules:

+Post a picture or make/take/create your own that captures what YOU are most passionate for students to learn about.
+Give your picture a short title.
+Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt.”
+Link back to this blog entry.

I've cheated a bit because I'm using as the title "the whole is greater than any of its parts," which is original to the image.

Thanks, Professor Zero! I won't tag people, either, though I'd like to see G-Bitch's response.

Clinton Claims White People

2008-05-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

Well, HRC has finally come right out and said it:

Qtd. in Politico:

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

There sure is.

See GB's latest post "Calling a Cracker Vote a Cracker Vote."

Thoughts on (Yet Another) Super Tuesday

2008-05-06T14:30:00.001-05:00

I just noticed that Indiana University's start date for summer courses is today, 5/6. This detail, it seems to me, jeopardizes a lot of votes for Obama because most university students are in transition, having begun their summer vacations elsewhere. Nobody else is talking about this, so I hope it's a futile worry on my part. I just know that university towns become ghost towns at this time of year and IU has campuses statewide. It's said that university towns must be Obama strongholds by about 20 points. I invite you to slap down this idea as I really want it to be dead wrong.

Another thought: No matter what your greatest ambition is in this world, would you feel okay about accomplishing it like this [,HRC]?

(Image from Politico)

Laura Bush on Myanmar

2008-05-05T23:04:00.000-05:00

(Photo Credit: Jacques de Goldfiem)

From CNN:

U.S. first lady Laura Bush blasted the military government, saying the lack of warning before the deadly cyclone hit was the latest example of "the junta's failure to meet its people's basic needs."

Update: Please check out this link to Burma Newsladder, provided in New Orleans News Ladder's comment below!

Update II: Here is a link to the U.K. site Campaigning for Democracy and Human Rights in Burma, which is accepting donations for cyclone relief in Myanmar.

More Guns in the Classroom?

2008-05-02T11:02:00.001-05:00

From TP:

BATON ROUGE -- All college students 21 or older who have qualified for concealed handgun permits would be able to carry firearms to class and other parts of campus under a bill approved 11-3 by a House committee Thursday.

The Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice sent to the House floor House Bill 199 by Rep. Ernest Wooton, R-Belle Chasse, its chairman. Wooton said he expects lengthy debate on the bill's merits when it hits the floor.

The bill drew support from college students who say they feel unsafe and inadequately protected when leaving campus late at night. Student leaders from several campuses teamed with Joseph Savoie, commissioner of higher education for the State Board of Regents, the agency that coordinates higher education funding, policy and curriculum, in asking the panel to reject the measure

Where to begin?

1) Weapons are currently prohibited on college and university campuses. I mean "prohibited" in that (on my campus) there are old, rusty signs suggesting such, but we all know that there is nothing else prohibiting students from bringing guns to campus, whether they have concealed firearms permits or not. That is already the case. The legislation proposed above encourages students to bring firearms to campus by reinforcing idea that they need firearms on campus.

2) Those college students who "feel unsafe and inadequately protected when leaving classes late at night" should be lobbying for heightened campus security. Under Bobby Jindal's current hiring freeze, however, there will not be more campus security on state college and university campuses anytime soon.

3) As usual, unsavory Louisiana legislators have aimed for a solution that costs the state nothing (except, potentially, lives) and essentially outsources campus security to those who will do the job for free, presumably students and faculty.

4) I may often sound grumpy when I talk about my students, but let me tell you, I take my responsibility to them very seriously. I care about every one of them, even those few who try my nerves to extreme levels. The vast majority are nice people. That said, I do not want them carrying guns. I do not want them to become the target of propaganda suggesting that it's their responsibility to themselves or others to do so. More guns on college campuses will not make college campuses safer but rather more dangerous.

5) In the event of a Virginia-Tech episode, crossfire is not the answer. But in the event that the state legislature encourages students to arm themselves, Virginia-Tech episodes are more likely. Of the two students in my long career whose potential capacity for violent outbursts concerned me tremendously, both would have probably qualified for concealed weapons permits and both possessed a mindset which would have led them to apply.

I'm contacting my representative about HB 199. Please join me.

Flooding on Westbank

2008-04-29T19:00:00.000-05:00

While we were reveling about fun in the rain at Jazz Fest, it seems that a lot of the Westbank was floating away. Check out these photos over at EJ's blog.

Jazz Fest Sunday

2008-04-28T17:34:00.000-05:00

(Photo credit: M Styborski)

On the walk from LSU Dental School to Jazz Fest, I experienced some of the happiest moments of my return to New Orleans. I love it here, and just walking toward the Fest, my step was lighter, my spine straighter, and my spirits higher than usual. The first thing I wanted was the food, which I'd been looking forward to for days, and I got a combo: crawfish beignets, puffy oyster pies, and something else I can't remember the name of but which is a pasty combination of crawfish stuffing, crafted to look like an apple. You know that the second I turned around with my plate to walk away from the food stand, though, the sky opened before I had my first bite and the rest of the meal, that which was not splashed right off the plate, was...diluted. But, hey, that's okay.

After an hour standing under a very small green tent beside some beer, it was off to The Gospel tent and a too-brief visit to the Mardi Gras Indians before Al Green. Al sounded the same as ever, though he did let the audience do a lot of the singing, which I thought was kind of funny. He threw roses and would begin, for instance, "I'm so tired of being alone..." at which time he'd turn the mike over to the audience to finish up. He interjected a high, masterful, extended trademark "Ooooooooooooeeeeeeee!" from time to time. That was a great show.

I danced a lot even though my back has been in spasm for about a week, so you know it was a great show.

I was quite excited about downloading my photos here, but 1) I knew them to be out of focus and 2) it now turns out that the camera was in fact adversely affected by water. Hmmf. Pay no mind to those clear, sharp, skillful photos over at Bark, Bugs, Leaves, and Lizards.

Recession Diet

2008-04-27T02:14:00.000-05:00

(Photo h/t SCAN with in-depth commentary)

From New York Times:

Spending data and interviews around the country show that middle- and working-class consumers are starting to switch from name brands to cheaper alternatives, to eat in instead of dining out and to fly at unusual hours to shave dollars off airfares...In Ohio, Holly Levitsky is replacing the Lucky Charms cereal in her kitchen with Millville Marshmallows and Stars, a less expensive store brand. In New Hampshire, George Goulet is no longer booking hotel rooms at the Hilton, favoring the lower-cost Hampton Inn. And in Michigan, Jennifer Olden is buying Gain laundry detergent instead of the full-price Tide.

Without the New York Times, how would we ever keep up with the real hardships that middle- and working-class Americans are facing?

I am relieved, however, that at least one member of our local community is still able to afford Cheetos(TM) for her toddlers rather than having to resort to an off-brand cheese puff with inferior orange dye, preservatives, and saturated fat:

(Photo h/t SCAN)

The Same People, Part II

2008-04-24T01:04:00.000-05:00

Months ago, I became upset with the New York Times Editorial Board's early endorsement of HRC. I don't know why her campaign path thus far is suprising to anyone.

But this is what that same editorial board has to say now, after watching her campaign:

On the eve of this crucial primary, Mrs. Clinton became the first Democratic candidate to wave the bloody shirt of 9/11. A Clinton television ad — torn right from Karl Rove’s playbook — evoked the 1929 stock market crash, Pearl Harbor, the Cuban missile crisis, the cold war and the 9/11 attacks, complete with video of Osama bin Laden. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” the narrator intoned.

If that was supposed to bolster Mrs. Clinton’s argument that she is the better prepared to be president in a dangerous world, she sent the opposite message on Tuesday morning by declaring in an interview on ABC News that if Iran attacked Israel while she were president: “We would be able to totally obliterate them.”

By staying on the attack and not engaging Mr. Obama on the substance of issues like terrorism, the economy and how to organize an orderly exit from Iraq, Mrs. Clinton does more than just turn off voters who don’t like negative campaigning. She undercuts the rationale for her candidacy that led this page and others to support her: that she is more qualified, right now, to be president than Mr. Obama.

Full article here.

The Totalitarian State of Walgreens

2008-04-22T01:57:00.001-05:00

(Photo credit: abchick)

Of the many serious problems here in New Orleans and in the U.S., Walgreens--the one on Felicity, the one on Tchoupitoulas, the one on Magazine, and the two on Claiborne--are the least of our worries. But I brace myself lately before I even walk into any of these locations because of policies and practices that exemplify our bigger problems.

Lock and Key:

I notice with each successive visit to Walgreens that more of its products are locked up. The locked boxes containing them now feature a button that customers can push for help from a Walgreens associate, who may or may not ever appear, and if he or she does, may or may not have the key. I doubt that Walgreens has enough associates to dispense in a timely fashion everything that is locked up, anyway. And if I were working for near-minimum wage (come to think of it, I am, but just not in Walgreens), I would probably be deliberately slow in making it to the locked boxes, so I want to make it clear that this post is not intended to denigrate Walgreens associates. But have you noticed what all is locked up lately?

1) Razors have been locked up for a long time, not all razors--Walgreens is not concerned about a child unwrapping a razor and mutilating him or herself--but only the obscenely expensive razors. Many razors have become so blatantly overpriced that the many of us would consider pocketing them in protest, so, for this reason, Walgreens has locked away all but the less expensive single-blade, 10-to-a-pack razors that perform more ineptly than rusty antique push mowers.

2) Smoking cessation aids have always been locked up. They are obscenely overpriced, as well, much more so than cigarettes, which are not locked up but are behind the counter. My bet is that it's the price and not the danger that an unattended child may open and chew enough nicotine gum or eat enough lozenges to have a stroke. There's little damage a child could do with a patch, but those are locked up as well.

3) I noticed today that pregnancy tests are locked up. For those of you who know me personally and may be curious, no I'm not in the market for a pregnancy test. But it seems to me that if I were, I would be none too thrilled about waiting around for an associate, especially if I were 15 and trying to get in and out of there without a production. Pregnancy tests are probably overpriced, but they are not exhorbitantly expensive, which leads me to believe that The Totalitarian State of Walgreens may hope that pregnant women (those who will not be delighted with the news) are dissuaded from finding out before they are past the first trimester. Perhaps that is a stretch. Perhaps the Totalitarian State of Walgreens is of the opinion that there are many possibly pregant theiving women here in New Orleans.

4) The OTC allergy drug Zyrtec is now locked up. It must contain pseudophedrine, you may say, but, no, it does not. Zyrtec is locked up because it costs more than $1 per dose. The generic form is not locked up but costs almost as much.

Not all of these products are locked up in Walgreens nationally so I'm forced to believe that the Totalitarian State of Walgreens has issued an executive order concerning New Orleanians and theft, and that really rubs me the wrong way. Most of the products are overpriced to the degree that if only one in ten people paid for them, the profits would still be hefty.

Sale Items:

In my past four visits to Walgreens, I have attempted to purchase a sale item. Once I reach the register, however, the product scans at full price. The sale sticker on the shelf is a lying mofo. No, I'm not confusing the products for others close by, I'm not talking about those that require a coupon, and I'm not off on my count or weight. Next time you go in there (though I don't recommend going in there), try buying a sale item! What is even more worrisome is the response of the sales associates when the item rings for full price. When I point out the sign (in one case removing the sign from the shelf and presenting it to the sales associate just to demonstrate that the product, size, and details are correct), the most common response is some variation of "Well, it scans at [a higher price]," as if to say the computer knows all, and that any contrary indication is incorrect. When fellow humans trust The Machine that much, I become frightened. There are also suggestions that the sale must be over and no one has taken down the sign. On two occasions, managers have scanned from the sign rather than the product for me, so if you attempt to buy a sale item in The Totalitarian State of Walgreens, be ready to ask for a manager. Sometimes, though, the store is so crowded and managers so slow that you may rather pay full price in exchange for an evening at home rather than three hours waiting for a manager in the Totalitarian State of Walgreens to agree that The Machine is wrong. There are so many products that do not ring at the sale price that I believe that there is something intentional going on here.

The Pharmacy:

Because of a federal law that is not the fault of Walgreens, all drugs containing pseudoephedrine must be purchased at the pharmacy, and the purchaser must show identification and sign a log that prohibits said purchaser from acquiring more than the daily recommended dose of that drug anywhere in the U.S. I understand that psuedoephedrine is an important component of Crystal Meth, and that a Crystal Meth addiction is almost always deadly, but I'm not sure that this is the means by which to combat it. I don't use the stuff but am not hearing that it's hard to acquire because of this law. If you visit the pharmacy in the Totalitarian State of Walgreens, be prepared to stand behind some person with an obvious cold who is trying to get the usual meds and being told that he or she is not allowed to buy this and that simultaneously, even if he or she is willing to be tracked by the pseuodphedrine tracking mechanism. That person will probably become angry. The other day, it became obvious to me that a woman who had a cold was also otensibly asthmatic and attempting to buy OTC asthma medicine because she (probably) does not have a doctor (probably) because she does not have insurance. She was doing the best she could to take care of herself. The Totalitarian State of Walgreens stopped her in her tracks. No asthma medicine and cold medicine at the same time. Against the rules.

If you have a prescription for a drug that is "controlled," be prepared to pick up that prescription on the same day you run out of it. The Totalitarian State of Walgreens is tracking you and wants to make sure that you don't take too much, even by one dose, and apparently wants to make sure that you don't have a life, either, like a long work day or a trip that would necessitate your picking up the prescription a day early. One may say, "Isn't that between my doctor and me? Can you call her?" The answer is no. Don't bother asking questions in the Totalitarian State of Walgreens (on Tchoupitoulas).

I take a drug that costs only $5.00 for a 30-day prescription. The good news is that there is still a drug that cheap and it's the one I take! When I had insurance, it didn't pay for drugs that cost less than $25. The Totalitarian State of Walgreens has informed me that even though my insurance was never "covering" the prescription, ever, its cost is now $18.80 for people who do not HAVE insurance. Yeah, you heard me right. This is a new rule. The drug was recently the same price for people with and without insurance, but that must not have seemed fair to the Totalitarian State of Walgreens.

Before ringing in my last prescription, with her fingers poised on the keys of the computer database beside the cash register, the Walgreens associate asked perkily, often as we're asked for our phone numbers when we make a retail purchase, "Are you completely out of your medication today?" I don't know what she (or the database) intended to do with this information, but I did not offer it. My response was, as pleasantly as possible, since I know she was only taking orders, "Why do you ask?" She smiled reassuringly and offered this non-sequitor: "That's no problem, Ma'am," and completed my sale. I paid $18.80.

I'm defecting. But what I dread about that is finding out that most or all of the above is true in other establishments as well and not only in the Totalitarian State of Walgreens.

Liveblogging the Debate

2008-04-16T19:04:00.001-05:00

7:02 Good that Obama chose the word "frustration" rather than that divisive term "bitterness."

705: "Continue to fulfill" what "promise," HRC?

Break: Good luck with moderating the time if one candidate speaks longer than the other (Hillary)

7:07: Why use the Constitution? It's gone.

7:08: Running mates? Hell damn no. And I'm not so big on keeping the Democratic Party together, Obama, and I don't think that anybody else really is, either. Let me just repeat: I will NOT vote for HRC.

7:12: Oh here we go with the "bitter." "Patronizing?" No, it's the truth, I was born in a small town and I grew up in a small town and I have no idea if that's where they'll bury me, but nevertheless, Obama's comments were TRUE. Yes, Obama, good, "wedge issues"...stay on the point. I'm guessing HRC is about to jump all into that.

7:15: There she goes, no such thing as religion overtaking politics. No, you don't believe it, HRC, of course not--you've spent too much time introducing those wedge issues in the past two months alone. Liar.

7:17 Hate to go lowbrow here, but can't believe she'd say "cauldron" in public. Excuse me, that was below the belt.

7:18: Obama, will you please point out that Gallup polls show you 11 points ahead of her?

7:20: Yeah, you're right, Obama, it's not going to help the person at the kitchen table trying to pay the bills. "The politics we've been accustomed to" and "using the same tactics." Yes, he's nailing her.

7:21: Hillary, nobody would have even noticed anything wrong with his "remarks" if you weren't telling them they were being condescended to when they're not even. HRC: "A proven record of results"??? Yes, and I wouldn't brag about that, either. A bunch of poor people killing each other is what I've been seeing in the past decade.

7:23: How predictable, we'll spend a (yawn) half hour talking about Jeremiah Wright's (also true) comments. Good, Obama, just don't even get into it.

7:25: Well, here's two minutes, now HRC has to go Jeremiah Wright. Oh.my.god. Yes, his post 911 speech would have been "intolerable" for you, HRC. See above use of "cauldron."

7:29: Six minutes later, George Stephanopolous (sp) on Jeremiah Wright. (yawn) I'll be back when this part is over. Ha: Do you believe he's as "patriotic" as you are? "He was a Marine." That'll cover it.

7:31: HRC back on Jeremiah Wright. I cannot believe HRC is talking about "overcoming divisiveness" and "bitterness." See "cauldron," above.

7:32: 6 in 10 people don't believe HRC is honest and trustworthy? What are the other 4 in 10 thinking? "On a couple of occasions, I just said some things that I knew weren't the case!"--HRC Oh lord. But having gone to Bosnia gives her "an advantage" in this campaign? Shaking the little girl's hand? What I said "Didn't jive with what I knew to be the truth"--HRC

7:36: Obama's getting mad now, fired up--"we're involved in two wars!" Thank you. Ooh, "obsessed with these kinds of errors." (Ooh people clapped, too!)

7:38: "Dew you beleeeve in the American flag?" Ima have a heart attack.

7:41: George Stephanopoulous brings William Ayers up on Obama's ass. Really digging here. I questioned whether to watch this cat piss and think now I shouldn't have. Ooh, Obama, that "doesn't make much sense, George!" Ooh, Obama's madder now. Good. "Anybody I know, somehow their ideas are attributable to me??"--Obama

7:43: HRC slams Obama on Ayers after he just gave her a high-minded pass on her freakin' lying her ass off. She will stoop to any level. Don't forget "cauldron," above. Obama cannot run against John McCain because he knows William Ayers?? HRC stoops again. Has Obama stooped?? I haven't heard it. Ooh, here we GO: "Your husband PARDONED members of the Weather Underground!" Ha!

Commercial for Lunesta: You should tell your doctor if you take Lunesta and you drive while sleeping. Not making this up.

Where are these "questions" coming from?

7:54: HRC is going to make it clear to the Iraqis that they do not have a blank check from the United States. I doubt that they are perceiving mangled bodies, broken infrastructure, raped and tortured people, etc., as a "blank check," but of course I may not be as familiar with Iraqi culture as HRC is. HRC: "Iraqis have to take responsibility for their own future." I'm sure there's a problem with laziness in general among the people in Iraq.

That weird blue light on the audience is awful.

7:59: Notice that Obama said nothig of "blank checks" or failure of responsibility among Iraqis. Commentators raked him over the coals on Israel before the debate started. He's disappointed me with the lockstep with Israeli policies.

8:01: HRC and massive retaliation. I find that not hard to believe. Oh, HRC is complicit with possible invasion of Iran. Obama may have just said he was, too. I hope not. Dogs were barking. Oh, here we go again after Iran. Now she's agreeing with Bush on Iran. She's gonna get the rest of the world on our side, though.

8:04: Hope is going to raise taxes. "Audicity" (McCain). HRC is about to make a read-my-lips claim about not raising taxes on the middle class. Taxes are not my problem. Are they yours? "Making college affordable and so much else"--HRC. No middle-class tax increases of any kind.

8:06: Obama will "offset" payroll tax on middle-class. Again, yawn, taxes are not my problem. I used to be middle-class and taxes were not my problem then, either. "Lack of oversight on lenders and 185 million from lobbyists for lenders." Now we're talking.

These blue people in the audience, except for Chelsea and Mayor Nutter, who are not cast in blue, are making me nervous. Chelsea and Mayor Nutter make me nervous, too, but at least they're not blue.

8:10: Obama refers to infrastructure, additional 420 billion in debt under Bush, Obama says. Charlie's got to hammer his baloney conservative argument from the pulpit there.

8:11: HRC claims that in the 1990s there was an "economy that worked for everyone." I was alive then. And my long-term and short-term memory are still working. And there was not. Oh, HRC says if she'd been president a year ago, we'd've avoided foreclosures. She said "Ed Rendell saw this coming." HRC saw it coming, too. That's why she worked on the you-can't-claim-bankruptcy bill.

Charlie Gibson and GS are reminding me why I don't watch network tv.

Very loud train going by.

Ooh, Obama tattles on HRC for saying she'd consider raising tax cap as soon as she got off camera. Ha.

8:17: HRC takes credit for Clinton legislation and suggests that he'd have saved social security. What? She's gone after Obama for praising Reagan and now she's doing it.

8:18: Ha, "that commission raised the retirement age!" says Obama of HRC's praise of Reagan. HRC is confident we'll work everything out.

Why have we not seen Michelle Obama or the children in the audience, only Chelsea and Mayor Nutter? Is Michelle lost in the blue light somewhere? Have I been typing while she was on camera?

8:25: Oh, geez, here we go with the individual's right to bear arms. Oh and HRC tells us that Mayor Nutter is here when she refers to the gun violence in Philadelphia. Obama's looking at HRC like she has lost her natural mind as she goes on about police outgunned. She'll reinstate automatic weapons ban. Setting the bar low. 80% of the guns are in the hands of THAT CRIMINAL...sounds like Charleton Heston. I've heard about enough of "keeping those guns out of the wrong hands." HRC is going to strike the right balance, protecting people from guns in the wrong hands. Oh good. She's gonna put more cops on the street.

8:28: Obama states that individuals have a constitutional right to bear arms and that govt has a right to constrain that right. Oh he's talking "common sense" approaches just like HRC. "Common sense" arguments bother me.

GS looks at HRC like he's in middle school and wants to ask her out.

8:32: HRC likes what works in New York City. Manhattan, I'm sure. Gun control is not working in Manhattan; pushing out everyone who doesn't make about 200K is.

8:33: Of course, GS goes to Obama with a question about how to make sure that rich African-American kids are not getting advantages and that poor white kids are? Surely, I misheard. Obama confirms that race is still an issue in America. Oh lord, Obama has gone and said that he still believes in affirmative action, undercuts that by condemning quotas. I hope HRC is not about to say the word "entitlement." HRC thinks we should achieve our goals differently, to enable people to fulfill their god-given potential...has to talk about the global society.

8:36: Oh HRC has met with a group of truckers in Harrisburg and is going after these gas prices. She believes there to be some kind of chicanery going on. People are not going to be able to afford to drive to work! she says, as though she's just discovered America.

Now Obama is looking at audience like HRC has lost her natural mind.

8:38: Obama repeats HRC's points on gas but in a less folksy way.

HRC believes in "using" former presidents according to GS. Sorry, below the belt again. Oh, she's not even going to exclude GWB from use as a former president.

8:40: Well, at least Obama is not going to "take advice" (avoids the word "use") from GWB but rather from his father. Praises Bush I's foreign policy. Well, looks good in comparison. Low bar.

Thank goodness this is over soon.

8:47: Yawn. HRC is going to convince superdelegates to support her. She's gonna make everybody feel that they're part of the American family again. She can't do it alone. Says she wants people to look at her "track record." You know she's addressing those who cannot read here. Blah blah. Oh, she's demonstrated "over a lifetime" that we can count on her.

8:49: Obama answers the same question about superdelegates. Reminds us he's not taking PAC money or money from lobbyists. Yes, he has raised money in record numbers in small contibutions. Bottom-up argument. Can form a new coalition.

Sigh. Lackluster debate. Spelling and grammatical errors to be corrected later.

Update: "Lackluster" because it's so clearly rigged by MSM to focus on wedge issues. Glad Obama called those tactics what they were several times, but that didn't keep everybody else's focus off wedge issues for approximately 78 of 90 minutes. Those in power are clearly very angry at Obama for talking outwardly about wedge issues because they believe that this type of talk should be left to elistists behind closed doors. Without wedge issues, ABC, whoever owns ABC, whoever owns whoever owns ABC, and the vast majority of politicians, especially the Bushes and the Clintons, would be out of business. Powerful people are clearly trying to make Obama pay for talk like this by subjecting him to the in-your-face homage to wedge issues that we witnessed last evening. Somebody probably whispered, "And there's more where this came from," "You've gone WAY too far now," and probably much eviler things into his ear as they shook his hand and patted him on the back afterward.

Torture

2008-04-16T01:34:00.000-05:00

Ten years ago, I never thought that I'd be signing a petition to hold a POTUS, VPOTUS, and other Fascists accountable for approving the widespread use of torture. Well, here is that petition in case you want to sign it, too.

I did, however, read this article, Michael Levin's "The Case for Torture" in 1993. Levin is a professor of philosophy at CUNY and is closely linked with the Heritage Foundation, The Pioneer Fund, and other "neo-conservative" organizations. I was so upset by the article that I used it to teach logical fallacies in all of my composition courses, year after year. And it's chock full of textbook 101-level fallacies, so it served that purpose well. What is, of course, alarming is that any professor of philosophy knows his fallacies, so it's unlikely that the man believes a word he's saying. My real motivation in using this work in the classroom, though, was the worry that we were ripe for some far right maniac to take office and act on the ideas presented there, manipulating the populous in the same way Levin manipulates a naive audience. I felt that one of the few constructive things I could do was to make a couple hundred students aware of Levin's argument, so that when/if they saw it again in the mainstream, they'd associate it with a failure of reason.

One thing that this article makes abundantly clear is that the agenda we associate with 9-11 and Bush-idiocy and Cheney-evil was in the pipes long before they were elected. But now, Levin's argument sure sounds familiar, doesn't it?

2008-04-07T15:46:00.000-05:00

Image by Maitri

Please donate to the Ashley Morris fund, which will help to provide his family with needed support and lessen their overwhelming expenses.

Dog and Man on Magazine Street

2008-04-07T03:36:00.001-05:00

I'll try to relate here that which would work much better on film. This is perhaps one of those instances when you'd have had to be there:

Yesterday, I was in class in a yoga studio on Magazine Street, down by the Jewel Food Store. Yes, thanks to classes there, there are actually moments in which I'm kind of centered and not ranting about something or someone because it's hard to talk while doing yoga.

During a lengthy, quite contorted pose, I noticed on the sidewalk outside the studio windows a white sheep-looking dog, walking on an extendable leash beside his or her owner. The practicing yogis inside were a great source of amazement to that dog, enough for him/her to strain on the leash, making his/her way right into the alcove leading to the front door. The dog then stood in the doorway, peering into the glass door, captivated, for quite some time. I swear that dog was really grinning.

The first question that may come to mind is what the owner was doing all this time: He extended the leash as far as he could, and stood off to the side, with his eyes averted, as the dog took it all in. When the man glanced over, ostensibly to check on whether the dog was even near ready to go, I waved out because this scene was so damn funny to me. The man responded to my wave with a look that seemed to say, "I know, I know, I'm not being a creepy voyeur here, honest, it's just that Dog is having the time of Dog's life. I'd be a real asshole to haul Dog away." He averted his eyes even further and then faced the street for good measure.

When dog got ready, dog returned to man and the two walked off.

It wasn't just me. Yoga Instructor had been much more inverted/contorted than anyone else at the time, but once she released the pose, I asked, "Did you see what just happened??" She was right there: "What a DOG!"

Coincidence?

2008-04-06T00:46:00.000-05:00

Charlton Heston dies at 84

and

Bible stops bullet from hitting family

A general mood of displeasure

2008-04-05T22:43:00.000-05:00

(Photo credit: kier42)

From CNN, regarding the renewal of the U.S. defense contract with Blackwater:

Blackwater guards shot and killed 17 people, including women and children, last September, prompting an outcry and protest from Iraqi officials.

"This is bad news," al-Maliki adviser Sami al-Askari said. "I personally am not happy with this, especially because they have committed acts of aggression, killed Iraqis, and this has not been resolved yet positively for families of victims."

About 25,000 private contractors from three companies protect diplomats, reconstruction workers and government officials in Iraq. Under a provision put into place in the early days of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, security contractors have immunity from Iraqi prosecution.

Al-Askari said he would push for the Iraqi government to contest the contract renewal.

"The U.S. government has the right to choose what contractors it chooses, but Iraq should also have the right to allow or ban certain contractors from operating on its territory," he said.

Al-Askari said there is a general mood of displeasure within the Iraqi government because of the contract renewal.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said a joint Iraqi-U.S. commission was set up after the shootings, and Iraqis told U.S. officials that the rules of engagement and use of force must be changed.

As a result, a State Department security officer accompanies every convoy manned by contractors, Al-Dabbagh said, and every vehicle is outfitted with a security camera. Recordings from the camera are sent to a command center.

Oh, well, the oversight of a State Department security officer. Great. A camera and a command center. And what command center would that be exactly?

Just for the record, CNN's initial title for this story was "Blackwater renewal irks Iraqis." Somebody had the damn sense to change that title before I could even link to its ass. But at least MSM is covering the story now.

See below on KBR (a subsidiary of Halliburton), another group of contractors.

U.S. servicewomen are more likely to be raped by U.S. servicemen than to be killed by Iraqis

2008-04-05T14:00:00.000-05:00

Here are details of the rape of one member of the U.S. military, as described by Karen Houppert, writing for The Nation.

That dawn, naked, covered in blood and feces, bleeding from her anus, she found a US soldier she did not know lying naked in the bed next to her: his gun lay on the floor beside the bed, she could not rouse him and all she could remember of the night before was screaming and screaming as the soldier anally penetrated her while a colleague who worked for defense contractor KBR held her hand--but instead of helping her, as she had hoped, he jammed his penis in her mouth. (full article)

Details such as these confirm what we instinctually know is happening, behavior that we have to know is exacerbated by military engagement and by far-right ideology generally. Any system or culture that strives to destroy any traditionally "feminine" characteristic breeds violent rage against women and all who are perceived as “weaker.” And those with a core belief that life is one big power play, that it is not only a prerogative but, indeed, a responsibility, to exploit wherever possible and a duty to take responsibility for their own exploitation are bound to initiate and perpetuate, consciously or not, the type of behavior described above, both on literal and metaphoric levels.

I agree with Noam Chomsky that many of the “surprises” associated with the U.S. landscape from 9-11 forward are not surprising at all except in the demographic of the victims. Women serving in the U.S. military raped by men in serving in the U.S. military are one of those “surprises,” (maybe, to some). There is an unexpressed shock that this would happen to women engaged in a traditionally masculine role instead of only to those many disempowered Iraqi women. Well, boundaries never hold up as we expect them to, and even if a person has no empathy at all, no reason to care about those being victimized, he or she should take heed because in real life, from any historical perspective, everything comes back. Chickens come home to roost. They just do.

Here’s the personal: I’m a woman and, like most women, I’ve been raped. The rapist was a member of the U.S. Marines. I don’t believe that those two facts are coincidental, either. Cold comfort: I was not brutalized as horribly as the woman whose experience is described above.

Before you tell me that all men in the military are not rapists, just don’t. I know that good and well. But the careful conditioning of a patriarchal organization whose raison d’etre is violence can’t really help, can it?

All this shit, all of it, gets overwhelmingly upsetting to contemplate.

Additional links to accounts of the frequent rape of U.S servicewomen:

L.A. Times

Salon

A hat tip to RBL, who posted these links and in-depth commentary.

Clinton Tax Returns and InfoUSA

2008-04-04T20:05:00.000-05:00

I wondered why the holdup over the Clintons' release of tax returns. Partially because of much more than a cozy relationship with InfoUSA, one of the world's largest compilers of consumer information? Maybe. The company was accused of selling the information of the elderly, including those with Alzheimer's, those with gambling problems, and those who'd demonstrated a desire to make money fast. Their bank accounts were quickly emptied, with a little help from Wachovia.

Find out more here, here, here and here.

I realize that any of us could easily get entwined with a wicked company, especially when our loose millions are lying around, longing to multiply. I'm not without sympathy.

There's a related labyrinthine story here of Clintonian greed and shady dealings, also.

Enjoy.

Jake Tapper's Olfactory Nerve

2008-04-04T05:11:00.000-05:00

Original photo and article here, at the ABC News Site:

"Last August, I ran into Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, outside the Senate chamber in the Capitol...

As any close friend or family member can attest, I have an unusually keen sense of smell and immediately I smelled cigarette smoke on Obama. Frankly, he reeked of cigarettes.

Obama ran off before I could ask him if he'd just snuck a smoke, so I called his campaign.

They denied it. He'd quit months before, in February, they insisted. He chewed nicorette.

But I knew what I'd smelled and I asked his campaign to double-check and to ask him if he'd had a cigarette.

They reported back that he had told them he hadn't had a cigarette since he quit.

And maybe that was true. Maybe I imagined the cigarette smoke. My olfactory nerve somehow misfired.

Except….last night on MSNBC's Hardball, Obama admitted that his attempt to wean himself from the vile tobacco weed had not been entirely successful.

“I fell off the wagon a couple times during the course of it, and then was able to get back on," he said. "But it is a struggle like everything else.”

Now I wonder about last August.

It's not a big deal in the scheme of things -- the war on Iraq, a major economic crisis -- indeed, it's miniscule. Hardly worth mentioning.

Except that I don't like feeling that I wasn't being dealt with honestly. And as much as citizens who are suspect of the media might scoff at such a notion, many of us consider ourselves to be your representatives to help make sure our leaders are telling us the truth, and leading the country down a path we're confident is the right one. (Corny, I know.)

This isn't the only time I've felt that way about the Obama campaign, of course -- its response to the Austan Goolsbee controversy was a profile in dissembling. (Not that Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain or their campaigns are entirely innocent in this area either. Or even that Obama is necessarily the worst offender.)

Still."

Jake Tapper, ABC News Senior National Correspondent, I ask you (and the rest of the "press" corp), could you have used your "unusually keen sense of smell" to have determined that the build up to the Iraq war reeked precisely of shit? And that question is just a beginning. Anybody else who believes that this article exemplifies what is wrong with both our press and our country at large, please feel free to use this as a venue for further questions for Jake Tapper and his ilk.

Since you take your role as my "representative" so seriously, I think it's my right as an American to call "any close friend or family member" of yours, Jake Tapper, and double check your claim of extranormal olfactory skill. I hope for your sake that the claim is false because it's blatantly clear to me that your head is completely up your ass. If they support your claim, I'll call them back and ask them to double check. If they support it again, I'll haughtily concede that perhaps my uncanny ability to notice lazy, apathetic, intellectually devoid "reporting" is "misfiring" on me. But still, I'll feel a little cheated, you see, because I like to believe that the function of a free press is to provide me with information I need to make critical decisions pertinent to my best interests in a "democratic society."

Frankly, right now, I wish that the Senator had blown a huge toke of that "vile tobacco weed" straight into your face, the same way you're blowing smoke up my ass.

Jake Tapper, I hear that In Touch Magazine is hiring. You could use your above article as a representative sample of your work.

Ashley Morris

2008-04-03T14:05:00.000-05:00

Photo: Humid City

Here is a link to one of Ashley Morris's premiere posts, "Excitable boy, they all said."

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and many fans. This was a man who cared fiercely about this city and everybody in it (except the many fuckmooks who fucked everything up), and I'm deeply sorry that I did not know him personally.

Video by Suspect Device.

Homicide charges?

2008-04-03T00:34:00.000-05:00

At age 12, if I heard my mother scream and found someone strangling her on the kitchen floor, my instinct (as far as I know) would have been to grab a knife or blunt object and do serious damage to that person.

I do not understand why authorities in Hyattsville, Maryland, are considering pressing charges against the child who did just that.

I am staunchly opposed to the death penalty and do believe that this woman's attacker had a right to a trial or, more appropriately, to have been confined and treated in a psychiatric facility. Ideally, he would have simply been disabled until police arrived. But it would never, ever occur to me that any child warding off a parent's attacker would or should face criminal charges.

What does occur to me is that if the incident had occurred in an expensive house in a ritzy neighborhood, rather than in a boarding house where a woman struggled to support herself and her child on "widow's benefits," the boy would be cast as a hero with few questions asked. I really hope that I am drawing the wrong conclusion here.

Just Stop

2008-04-02T18:27:00.000-05:00

Raving Black Lunatic has written a masterful post on HRC's comparison of herself to Rocky Balboa.

I made a decision a while ago to try to ignore these types of blood-pressure-raising remarks from the former First Lady, but...

From AP:

Speaking to the same unions a day earlier, Clinton said as first lady she had forcefully battled the agreement President Clinton labored hard to win.

"I did speak out and oppose NAFTA," she said. "I raised a big yellow flag and said, 'I don't think this will work.'" [I remember, oh yes, of course that big yellow...I was distracted at the time because I was in a bloody battle with, um, poachers off the coast of...]

Teamsters president James P. Hoffa, who is backing Obama, disputed her claim.

"No one who was around in the time of NAFTA remembers her doing that," Hoffa told The Associated Press during a telephone interview. [Ahem, well, you know I do blog a lot and it's late at night and so I might have misspoken about that memory, it proves I'm human and I make mistakes.] "Let's face it, she's tied to NAFTA no matter what she says."

At an economic summit in Pittsburgh organized by her presidential campaign, Clinton said she would eliminate tax breaks for companies that move jobs to other countries and use the savings to persuade them to keep jobs in the U.S. [I'm not sure I understand...]

Clinton's plan would offer new tax benefits for research and job development. It would also create "innovation and research clusters" across the country and provide $500 million annually in investments to encourage the creation of high-wage jobs in clean energy. [I see, taking away the tax cuts but replacing the tax cuts with other 'incentives' that will actually benefit us.]

Clinton called it her "insourcing agenda."

"We hear so much about outsourcing," when jobs are lost to other countries, she said. "I want to put an end to it. We're going to change the tax code, we're going to change the giveaways to the special interests." [Was her insourcing agenda in place when she voted for the trade agreements that outsourced jobs?]

Clinton also broadcast a new TV ad in Pennsylvania explicitly challenging Republican John McCain's economic credentials.

Echoing an earlier ad aimed at Obama on national security, it begins with images of sleeping children while a narrator says a phone is ringing in the White House at 3 a.m. but this time the crisis is economic. As the phone rings on and on, the sleeping children are replaced by adults grimly reviewing bills during daylight hours. The narrator faults McCain's response to rising home foreclosures and teetering markets and says he'd just let the phone keep ringing. The ad ends with an image of Clinton answering a phone.

Now, does anybody really believe that this ad is actually aimed at McCain, whom she's not even running against in Pennsylvania, or could it be a desperate attempt at reinforcing the stereotypes that the first ad introduced into her campaign? Nah.

Step up to the WHAT?

2008-04-01T00:34:00.000-05:00

(Photo Credit: Washington Centerville)

Indulge me for a moment in a hypothetical scenario: Imagine that a band of thugs from another country invade us, bomb and destroy our infrastructure, dismantle our government, disband our armed services, kill at least half a million of us, rape and torture many others of us, all for no reason. Then, in response to dissenters from their own country, they eventually consider leaving us alone, but before doing so suggest that it is time for us to "step up to the plate" and solve our own problems? Since baseball is an "American" sport, though, that's probably not the metaphor they'd use. But you get the point.

Helpful Definitions:

Arrogance: overbearing pride evidenced by a superior manner toward [perceived]inferiors

Narcissism: a psychological condition characterized by self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem.

Symptoms of antisocial personality disorder: People with antisocial personality disorder may believe that only threats of punishment, rather than personal values, cause people to play by the rules. The belief leads to a tendency to exploit others, take advantage of their fairness or soft-heartedness, and feel indifferent toward or even contemptuous of their victims. A person with this disorder has little, if any, ability to be intimate with another person. Any lasting relationships involve abuse or neglect. Yet people with this disorder are sometimes charming and can be good actors who use lies and distortion to keep relationships going. Some with antisocial personality disorder have no goal beyond the pleasure of deceiving or harming others.

In reference to Iraq or the Iraqis, this metaphor must die:

''We needed the Iraqis to step up to the plate,'' said a senior administration official, who said American officials had conveyed the sense of urgency to the handpicked Iraqi delegates at Monday's meeting, sponsored by the United States and Britain. New York Times. April 30, 2003.

"We're trying to come up with ways to get the Iraqis to step up to the plate, to push them along, because the time is coming," a senior Bush administration official told the New York Times. The Guardian. October 23, 2006

Senator Hart, General Gard, and General Johns: The United States must begin leaving Iraq to force both the Iraqis and the international community to step up to the plate. Council for a Livable World. September 12, 2007

"How do you get them to do the reconciliation process as long as you give them a blank check?" said Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon official and now informal adviser to Obama. "It's time for the Iraqis to step up to the plate." Dispatch Politics. February 24, 2008

Army Col. Michael Fuller, Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq’s chief of staff: Indicative of the security forces’ improvement, Fuller said, the Iraqi army recently moved two brigades to Basra province to battle insurgents. “The Iraqis planned, coordinated it, and executed that move on their own,” Fuller said. “This is just an indicator that the Iraqis are beginning to be able to step up to the plate and execute operations on their own.” U.S. Department of Defense Website. March 28, 2008

In his statements about letting Iraqis handle their own civil strife, perhaps Rumsfeld was trying to drive home to Iraqis the message that they should not count on the distant American superpower to bail them out if civil war begins. This message is grounded in a sound logic; Iraqis do need to step up to the plate and solve more of their own problems. Brookings. April 1, 2008

Is it just me?

Cause for Concern?

2008-03-31T23:21:00.000-05:00

From Truthout, "Why Hospitals Want Your Credit Report":

Consumer advocates say the practice creates the potential for hospitals to misuse the information by denying or cutting back on patients' care if they can't pay. Hospitals say that doesn't happen. Hospitals often ask patients for permission to access their financial records, but such authorization is sometimes buried in the fine print. What's more, hospitals could scour a patient's financial records for credit lines and encourage the patient to tap them, despite high interest rates or other costs. "It has the potential to put people at risk financially," says Mark Rukavina, executive director of the Access Project, a research and advocacy group that focuses on medical debt

I have no health insurance until October 1, 2008. Six months from that date, on April 1 (this is not a joke), 2009, said insurance will begin to cover pre-existing conditions. I do not qualify for independent insurance because I am 40 years old with expensive pre-existing conditions. My debt-to-income ratio resembles the numbers on the monitor pictured above because of (and ONLY because of) student loan debt in preparation for the career that is currently not offering me health insurance. Should I be worried?

Clinton Mistakes Teapot for Two Irish Women Discussing Their Menfolk

2008-03-26T04:49:00.000-05:00

(Photo credits: bottom--Nilgangilga top--Simple Life)

From Telegraph.co.uk:

Central to Mrs Clinton’s claim of an important Northern Ireland role is a meeting she attended in Belfast in with [sic] a group of women from cross-community groups. "I actually went to Northern Ireland more than my husband did," she said in Nashua, New Hampshire on January 6th.

"I remember a meeting that I pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall there, bringing together for the first time Catholics and Protestants from both traditions, having them sitting a room where they had never been before with each other because they don’t go to school together, they don’t live together and it was only in large measure because I really asked them to come that they were there.

"And I wasn’t sure it was going to be very successful and finally a Catholic woman on one side of the table said, ’You know, every time my husband leaves for work in the morning I worry he won’t come home at night.

"And then a Protestant woman on the other side said, ’Every time my son tries to go out at night I worry he won’t come home again’. And suddenly instead of seeing each other as caricatures and stereotypes they saw each other as human beings and the slow, hard work of peace-making could move forward."

There is no record of a meeting at Belfast City Hall, though Mrs Clinton attended a ceremony there when her husband turned on the Christmas tree lights in November 1995. The former First Lady appears to be referring a 50-minute event the same day, arranged by the US Consulate, the same day at the Lamp Lighter Café on the city’s Ormeau Road.

The "Belfast Telegraph" reported the next day that the café meeting was crammed with reporters, cameramen and Secret Service agents. Conversation "seemed a little bit stilted, a little prepared at times" and Mrs Clinton admired a stainless steel tea pot, which was duly given to her, for keeping the brew "so nice and hot".

Do read the whole account for perhaps a fairer treatment and the real photo of the event in question.

Fact vs. Opinion: Such Tricky Business, Like Really, Really Hard Math

2008-03-25T13:32:00.000-05:00

(Photo Credit: and then)

Associated Press:

A chunk of Antarctic ice nine times the size of Manhattan has suddenly collapsed, putting an even larger glacial area at risk.

Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 220-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica.

British scientist David Vaughan says it's the result of global warming.

Free Republic:

On the subject of global climate change, McCain acknowledged his position on the subject might be at odds with some in the audience.

"Suppose I'm wrong and climate change (is) not taking place," McCain said. "All we've done and given our kids is a greener world."

MSM Finally Admits that Clinton is NOT a Populist

2008-03-25T03:10:00.000-05:00

(Photo Credit: bgramer)

I am very grateful, even at this late date, for such an admission because this particular fairy tale--that Hillary Clinton is the "working class" candidate--has grated my nerves more than any mass delusion since Saddam's link with 911:

From Politico:

When her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination slid into a ditch in Iowa, Clinton found her way out by moving left and now is delivering a full-throated populist message worthy of her vanquished rival, John Edwards.

But it’s a message that seems an awkward fit for the Clinton campaign. Many of the corporations and companies she rails against on the campaign trail today are primary sources of income for her top consultants in the off-election years.

A few examples:

• “We’ll take on the credit card companies so that you and your families aren’t drowning in debt,” Clinton vowed in Ohio.

And who might be defending those evil credit card companies during such a fight? Roy Spence, Clinton’s new advertising guru from Texas, who produced the now famous “3 a.m. phone call” commercial and whose firm also does work for MasterCard.

Let's also not forget her role in engineering the 2001 version of the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act. Both versions were lobbied by predatory lenders who undoubtedly saw the risks inherent in their adjustable rates.

• “We’ll take on the insurance companies and tell them they can no longer discriminate against the sickest people who need care the most. They spend more than $50 billion a year trying to figure out how not to cover people,” she said in the same speech.

Among their Capitol Hill strategists is the Glover Park Group, which represents America’s Health Insurance Plans and also employs Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson.

Could this be the reason that she's so adamant about a mandate on individuals to purchase health insurance?

• “And I’ll go after drug companies and insurance companies that are overcharging consumers and the government — it’s time to end their profiteering at our expense,” Clinton told Ohioans.

Meet Tony Podesta of The Podesta Group, who has parachuted into Pennsylvania to help the Clinton campaign take the last big state and stay in the primary hunt. In his day job, he represents pharmaceutical companies such as Amgen, Merck Serono and Pfizer.

Uh huh.

• “We’ll take on Wall Street and tell them: ‘You’re going to finally pay your fair share in taxes, because it’s outrageous that a teacher making $50,000 pays a higher tax rate than some Wall Street investment managers making $50 million,’” was another Clinton line that day.

But John A. Merrigan may take a different view. He’s a major fundraiser for Clinton and a partner in the global law giant DLA Piper, whose client list includes Goldman Sachs.

A teacher making 50K? Where? And after how many years of service?

Now Clinton is honing her anti-corporate message in the Keystone State. And she’s vowing to take “back at least $55 billion per year from special interests, including the drug companies, oil companies and firms that ship jobs overseas.”

It will be the job of Steve Elmendorf, who toiled away without pay to drum up Iowa caucus-goers for Clinton during the Christmas holiday, to help his client, Shell Oil, blunt those losses.

And Clinton is telling Keystone State voters that “after seven years of an energy policy written by and for the oil companies — with help from Dick Cheney — oil has now reached $107 a barrel, and gas prices in some areas are approaching $4 a gallon.”

For help in pushing those prices down, Clinton may want to turn to one of her campaign’s most senior advisers, Mark Penn, whose lobbying and public relations shop represents none other than oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

"Dick Cheney in a pantsuit," even though uttered by Andrew Sullivan, was not that far off the mark.

Clinton’s new populist theme also hits some static when reviewing her campaign contributions.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan tracker of campaign money, Clinton had received $783,290 in donations from federally registered lobbyists through January.

Pennsylvania, North Carolina, West Virginia, Indiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Oregan, Montana, South Dakota, and Puerto Rico: Please lend an ear!

Real ID, Real Scary

2008-03-23T16:31:00.000-05:00

(Photo Credit: Chris)

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin... the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

--Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today, an entry at Kos shook me up.

I generally try not to count the ways that advanced technology in the wrong hands turns people into products and tracks our every move. I try to keep my mind off this topic because 1) it scares the living hell out of me worse than the most horrific horror film, 2) the insistence that people are being tracked or "remotely controlled" has traditionally been considered textbook paranoia, and 3) I try to preserve my sanity by focusing only on the surface of just how fucked humankind is in this brave new world.

But Real ID has bubbled over that surface. In case you've not heard of it, or like me, didn't want to think about it, in short, Real ID legislation is a federal mandate on states to gather extensive information on all driver license applicants (and renewers, too, of course) and link that information to a micro-chipped state driver license which will then be used as a valid "national ID card." The card will be necessary to conduct routine business, such as entering federal buildings or even opening bank accounts. The scope of the linked information on individuals can be widened at any time and the card, over time, is expected to become necessary for more and more routine transactions.

The good news is that 15 states have told the federal government to take a flying leap since funding for the Real ID is astronomical, and the federal government is not offering that funding to the states. As you might imagine, though, Louisiana, under Bobby Jindal, is not going to be one of those states. But I don't think that funding is the real problem here; the problem is the very concept.

There is currently anti-Real ID legislation, H.R. 1117, that you can find out about here.

Who opposes Real ID?

1) ACLU
2) Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton (but both seem to oppose it because of the funding issues and not on principle).
3) Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee (on principle)
4) Anybody who does not believe that U.S.A., Inc, is inherently benevolent and trustworthy

Who supports Real ID?

1) George W. Bush et al (I doubt that a link is necessary)
2) John McCain
3) Bobby Jindal
4) Anyone who buys into the idea that we must give up our humanity/privacy/freedom to protect ourselves from terrorists/evil-doers/extremists/illegal immigrants

If anyone you know supports Real ID legislation, please furnish them with a copy of Orwell or Huxley or the work of any author who may help, and then hope to god that they can extrapolate.

Good grief.

Jindal Watch

2008-03-22T02:15:00.000-05:00

The story of the youth correctional facility in need of a direct care provider has the happiest possible ending: the position and candidate were approved by Bobby Jindal and Angele Davis, and the candidate is still available.

I think it's important to remember, however, that the job would have been filled in January if not for the beaurocratic nightmare that ensued after it was advertised. Perhaps some taxpayers can feel good about the fact that two months' salary for this provider has been saved thanks to Jindal's vigilant supervision of the state hiring process. I cannot.

Since this case is closed, please feel free to inform me of any similar situations that come to your attention. I'll be more than happy to offer whatever effect the Funk Bump may have in resolving them :)

Viva...

But That's No Reason To Be Angry or Anything, Right?

2008-03-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

T/P, 3/19/08

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed out a Kenner man's conviction and death sentence for killing his estranged wife's male friend 13 years ago, finding that a district judge in Gretna erred in allowing a Jefferson Parish prosecutor to cut black people during jury selection.
In giving Allen Snyder a new trial, the high court, in a 7-2 vote, found Jefferson Parish prosecutors had "discriminatory intent" during jury selection in the August 1996 trial. (full story)

I Think I Hear the Angels Singing Again.

2008-03-19T04:27:00.000-05:00

I found at Kos this Atlanta man's moving description of watching Obama's speech at a suburban Jeep dealership. The whole story is really worth reading:

I pulled up to my dealership, just down the street from an Air National Guard base, near the Lockheed plant that builds C-130s and F-22s for the Air Force. The guy who took my car was friendly. The salesman inside who showed me a diesel Jeep was friendly. Everyone's real friendly in the suburbs. But I kept thinking that I was in the suburbs, not friendly territory for my "Brite Blue Dot" and Obama stickers...

I'll just say that I was watching intently, pleased with what I was hearing. When, after about 5 minutes, the guy who was working on my car came by to tell me that the car wouldn't be ready until the afternoon, I thanked him and stayed right where I was to watch the rest of the speech. But something curious happened. I was snapped out of the moment of the speech by the mechanic's visit, which was fine because Obama was, in a very real sense, giving the speech about race in America that I've wanted to hear my entire life: genuine, personal, intelligent, and direct. I've watched the speech again since this morning, and it didn't disappoint, but just at that moment I stopped watching it ...

... and started watching the people around me. The young black man. The elderly white couple. The two white women, one college-aged, one in her late-20s. One middle-aged white woman. Two white men, one college-aged, one in his late-30s. One Asian couple. All of them were watching the speech. Rapt. Nodding.

Gradually, the twentysomething white woman went back to her laptop, but kept smiling when Obama would say something important. The elderly white couple whispered in their Southern accented way: "He's really good... He's saying good things... He's a good young man..." The young black man chuckled when Obama said that Sunday morning was the most segregated hour in America, but was otherwise simply watching. And at one point, the middle-aged white woman asked one of the dealership folks, in another thick, thick Southern accent if she wouldn't mind turning up the volume, because she really wanted to hear this speech.

She, this white Southern woman from the suburbs, wanted to hear this speech, delivered by a Black man with a funny name running for President. And she was nodding.

But she wasn't the only one. Folks from the dealership, passing through on their way to and from whatever they do (most of them for not a lot of money) stopped and watch for 3 or 4 minutes. A young mechanic of ambiguous ethnicity stopped by at least a half-dozen times (hours later he stopped me as I was walking to the cashier to pay and said "That was some speech," then paused awkwardly, and said, hushed, "It's good that folks our age are getting involved, I think, right?"). Two salesmen, white, mid-40s, Southern as sweet tea, stopped and watched. And nodded. And I wasn't the only one to stick around to watch the speech after my business at the dealership was done.

Free the Angola 3

2008-03-18T16:22:00.000-05:00

From Color of Change:

For 35 years, Jim Crow justice in Louisiana has kept Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox locked in solitary confinement for a murder everyone knows they didn't commit.

Despite overwhelming evidence of their innocence, the 2 remaining "Angola 3" prisoners (one has been exonerated) spend 23 hours each day in 6 x 9 cells at Angola--the site of a former plantation--because they challenged the violence and segregation inside the prison1. Prison officials--and the state officials who could intervene--won't end their horrible confinement. They've locked them up and thrown away the key.

Just like in Jena, we can turn things around by making it a political liability for the authorities to continue the racist status quo. Join us in calling on the Department of Justice, which funds Louisiana's prisons with our tax dollars, and Louisiana Governor Jindal, to investigate and intervene:

http://colorofchange.org/angola3/?id=1709-432471

"Angola", sits on an 18,000 acre former slave plantation and its history is telling: considered among the most violent, racially segregated prison in the 70s, almost a prisoner a day was stabbed, shot or raped2. Inmates were often put in inhumane punishment camps for small infractions.

Although not activists when arriving in prison, brutal, squalid conditions and news of a civil rights movement on the outside prompted the Angola 3--Herman, Albert and Robert King Wilkerson--to begin routinely speaking out against injustice. They organized hunger and work strikes and a Black Panther chapter within the prison to protest corruption and horrific abuse, including systematic rape3, facing the largely Black prisoner population.4

Shortly after these protests became public, the Angola 3 were charged with murdering a prison guard and quickly convicted with fake evidence, by all-white juries. The bloody fingerprints at the scene don't match any of the Angola 3. Both men have alibi witnesses, with nothing to gain--the witnesses who testified against them have admitted to being coerced by prison officials. Even the widow of the correctional officer who was murdered does not believe Herman and Albert killed her husband; she's urging state and federal officials to find the real killer.5

The Angola 3 don't pretend to be saints. They committed crimes many decades ago, and more than served their time. They should not be held in solitary confinement for standing up against unimaginable conditions in prison--including violent segregation and 16 hour, 6 day a week work schedules.

NBC Nightly News6 just aired a piece this week about the plight of the Angola 3. And it's time to finally get some justice for Herman and Albert. When we spoke up about the Jena 6, it was about more than helping six Black youth in a small town called Jena7. It was about standing up against a system of unequal justice. That broken system is at work again and we're joining The Innocence Project and Amnesty International8 to challenge it in the case of the Angola 3.

It's now time for the Governor of Louisiana and the Department of Justice to step in and say enough is enough. Please join us in demanding that they both intervene--to ensure justice for the Angola 3 and to bring about reform and accountability in Louisiana's prison system:

http://colorofchange.org/angola3/?id=1709-432471

Thank You and Peace,

-- James, Van, Gabriel, Clarissa, Mervyn, Andre, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
March 18th, 2008

References:

1. "Justice for the Angola 3," Comment is Free Blog, February 21, 2008

2. "Free the Angola 3," AnitaRoddick.com, March 4, 2002

3. "Ending the hidden, savage routine of prison rape," The Huffington Post, March 17th, 2008

4. "Lawyers call for release of 'Angola 3'..." NOLA.com (The Times-Picayune), March 17, 2008

5. "Angola 3: approaching 36 years in solitary confinement," Angola3.org

6. "Cruel and Unusual?," NBC Nightly News, March 16, 2008

7. ColorofChange.org Jena 6 campaign page

8. Amnesty International Public Statement, AmnestyUSA.org, September 19, 2007

Update: Thanks Rent Party: And let's not forget Gary Tyler.

Obama on Race and Politics

2008-03-18T13:15:00.001-05:00

Has John McCain Rejected the Support of This Man?

2008-03-14T21:06:00.000-05:00

(Photo Credits: 1. Old Shoe Woman 2. Raford2)

From Huffington Post:

Hagee on Hurricane Katrina
"All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

Hagee on Islamic Beliefs
Fresh Air host Terry Gross asked if Hagee believed that "all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews," to which Hagee replied, "Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

Hagee on African-Americans
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported:

"Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a 'slave sale' to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, 'The Cluster.'

"The item was introduced with the sentence 'Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." [San Antonio Express-News 3/7/96]

Hagee on Catholicism
"Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews." [Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee]

Hagee on Women
"Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist." [God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, Sarah Posner]

"[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family." ["Bible Positions on Political Issues," John Hagee]

Hagee on LGBT Americans
"The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

Hagee on Iran
"The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty," Hagee wrote [in 2006] in the Pentecostal magazine Charisma. "Israel and America must confront Iran's nuclear ability and willingness to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons. For Israel to wait is to risk committing national suicide." [The Nation, 8/8/2006]

The Truth Hurts

2008-03-14T20:18:00.001-05:00

(Photo credit: eggmoney)

I can't make sense of any of John Hagee's comments (above), but Jeremiah Wright's comments make a lot of sense to me.

2008-03-13T14:15:00.001-05:00

What Does Bobby Jindal Have Against Children Receiving Health Care?

2008-03-12T20:17:00.000-05:00

I promised to keep you updated about the local youth correctional facility in need of a direct patient-care provider. The position was not exempt from Jindal's hiring freeze on state positions (despite the state's current sizeable budget surplus). It was over a month ago that the facility submitted an exemption request. It still has not been approved. And again, if the facility's chosen candidate accepts another position, the facility will have to start over again by submitting another request.

Funky Drama

2008-03-10T03:31:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I attended a 6-hour seminar, populated by people I don't know. The subject matter was serious--serious as in if you do a good job, people's lives will be saved. It was draining but for an excellent cause. I instantly liked almost all these strangers and felt that by the end of the day we'd developed a bond.

I'd noticed throughout the seminar the keen analytical ability and quick thinking of one woman in particular. She quickly uncovered some dangerous assumptions inherent in one speaker's discourse. At the end of the day, she asked where I live and it turned out that we're practically neighbors. She needed a ride home. No problem.

This is where it gets weird. Although anyone who reads this blog will not believe this, I do not go out and about discussing politics unsolicited. I wasn't wearing my Obama shirt. And I don't embark on rants except here and in the company of close friends who, bless their hearts, tolerate them.

Anyway, the moment this woman, a relative stranger, was in my car, she got straight to the point: "I saw your Obama bumper sticker! Why Obama and not Hillary??" Although there was an accusatory tone in her voice, I assumed that this question was just an icebreaker and that we'd get through the moment pleasantly enough even if it were true that she was one of those unfortunate bark eating (TM) HRC supporters.

Not so. I explained that I had liked Hillary until she had a voting record and could not forgive her support for the war or for exploitative trade agreements, etc. (This was before I'd heard Ferraro's evil-bullshit comments, too). She proceeded to tell me that Obama voted for legislation that kills live babies (?), that he talks down to people, and, of course, that his popularity among voters has been based on a fairy tale. Then the real vitriol surfaced: "You're a woman!" she told me. "Don't you want a woman president? How can you be a woman and a feminist and vote for Obama? You know, the blacks support Obama, so why don't the women support Hillary? Why do you think that is?" I was aghast. But I kept my cool and explained the myriad logical fallacies in the above comments without ever using the word "you," as in "You don't know what you're talking about," keeping the focus on the points instead of the person (her). I have to listen to tons of bullshit from my students and manage not to pummel them physically or verbally, so I'm pretty practiced in this regard. At this point (and I swear, ya'll, I didn't raise my voice or a hand to this woman), she told me to stop the car and let her out right then, that she'd rather walk!

Damn. Back where I come from, the first lesson in Hitchhiking 101 is to make pleasant chitchat with the driver, even if she wants to talk about getting abducted by aliens or something.

I've been stunned ever since.

Is it just me or does HRC have some kind of bizarre karma? Whenever so much as her name comes up, people square off. And given that she is actually playing on this unique quality of hers lately as an asset rather than a liability, I'm starting to feel that she's so polarizing that she's capable of starting a war. No, not starting another one in the Middle East, starting one HERE!

And I hope that person enjoyed her walk home.

It's 3 a.m...

2008-03-09T03:17:00.000-05:00

and the little girl asleep in HRC's fearmongering attack ad is now 17 years old. The footage is owned by Getty Images and was captured years ago when she was working as a t.v. extra. Not only does she now support Barack Obama, but she has also been volunteering for his campaign for months. Ha. I'm not making this up:

2008-03-08T01:50:00.000-06:00

(h/t Cheap Thrills, a great blog)

2008-03-06T07:25:00.000-06:00

(Photo credit: lucyellen06)

MSM and Mass Delusion: A Case Study

2008-03-05T16:09:00.000-06:00

(Photo Credit: S2K Jaeger)

When HRC dramatically reduced her ever-dwindling budget last month by hiring "consultants" rather than funding substantial face time with the populous of remaining states, her new campaign strategy became extremely clear: to create the most effective spin in media history since the build-up to the Iraq War.

I would say that MSM blindly climbed aboard (if MSM had ever been off board to begin with). The proof that this type of "campaigning" works rests with Karl Rove's history of wins for candidates who demonstrate a blatant agenda to attack public interests in favor of private ones. Those who truly support public interests have a clear record of doing so and don't typically believe themselves to need this type of spin.

It seems to go something like this:
* Begin by suggesting there is a serious MSM bias against your candidate at a point when there is a media bias in your candidate's favor. MSM will both repeat the charge and attempt to disprove it by creating an even greater bias in favor of your candidate. This worked for Bush, and, once he was in office, laid a clear path for his agenda.
* Repeat and repeat and repeat in the simplist possible terms (no lofty terminology or sound arguments are necessary since history proves that repitition is more effective than logic) that your candidate favors the working class/"common (wo)man"/underdog. Also suggesting repeatedly that the candidate makes sense to this demographic is helpful since the majority of this demographic is now too busy working and meeting basic needs to have much time for other than sound bytes.
* Express extreme frustration about unfair attacks coming from your opponent at the moment you begin attacking him or her unfairly. MSM loves a fight.
* Scare people as often as possible. MSM is big on a scare.
* Visually distort reality as often as possible. Confetti balls while you're losing after which you will meet your husband (or father or uncle or whatever mutherfucker in your family lived in the White House last) in Washington are a good example. MSM loves confetti. It's very lively. This strategy is fun for the candidate, too. How often does a frat boy from Maine get to play a Texan ranch hand? And how often does an Ivy League former Republican and corporate lawyer get to play Flo, the Waitress?

As a highly paid advisor, I'd have suggested that Hillary adopt the theme song from "Nine to Five"...but the million or so bucks that this type of advice yields is not worth overlooking the reality that a candidate whose campaign is dependent on MSM delusion is not going to overcome that dependency once in office.

Democratic National Debate #20

2008-02-27T08:10:00.000-06:00

I would have blogged this last night, but after enduring pre-debate coverage of Cunningham's introduction to McCain's speech (I won't dignify it with a link), I needed a a glass of wine. It was best for everyone not to hear the things I was willing to say after said glass of wine.

On health care: Despite repeatedly interrupting and re-introducing the topic for 16 minutes (by Brian Williams' count), HRC did not effectively counter the argument below, and it's a good one. Given the caving in and corporate pandering that is central to her voting record, there is no reason to trust that HRC's mandate on individuals to purchase health insurance will be coupled with mandates on the industry. She does not explain how she would enforce a mandate and she does not elaborate on the subsidies she would provide. And as I've said before, mandates on individuals tend to outlast regulation on industry, even if she did enforce regulation on industry. A mandate would enable her to say later, "When I took office, 48 million people were uninsured, and now..." (Pan out to all of us peeping through the bars of debtors' prison).

Additionally, her claim that 15 million people will be left out under Obama's plan is questionable. Perhaps there are 15 million people who "can [ostensibly] afford" health insurance but don't have it. What is the measure by which she can determine this? A crystal ball? She has no way of determining the financial obligations of those 15 million whose salaries suggest that they can afford health insurance. They may be paying child support, massive student loan debts, and/or sub-prime mortgages.

OBAMA: The reason she thinks that there are more people covered under her plan than mine is because of a mandate. That is not a mandate for the government to provide coverage to everybody; it is a mandate that every individual purchase health care.

And the mailing that we put out accurately indicates that the main difference between Senator Clinton's plan and mine is the fact that she would force in some fashion individuals to purchase health care.

If it was not affordable, she would still presumably force them to have it, unless there is a hardship exemption as they've done in Massachusetts, which leaves 20 percent of the uninsured out. And if that's the case, then, in fact, her claim that she covers everybody is not accurate.

Now, Senator Clinton has not indicated how she would enforce this mandate. She hasn't indicated what level of subsidy she would provide to assure that it was, in fact, affordable. And so it is entirely legitimate for us to point out these differences.

But I think it's very important to understand the context of this, and that is that Senator Clinton has -- her campaign, at least -- has constantly sent out negative attacks on us, e-mail, robocalls, flyers, television ads, radio calls.

And, you know, we haven't whined about it because I understand that's the nature of these campaigns, but to suggest somehow that our mailing is somehow different from the kinds of approaches that Senator Clinton has taken throughout this campaign I think is simply not accurate.

While we are on the topic of whining: HRC's whining to Tim Russert that she often gets the first debate question came off as immature and undignified. Obama was often wise to let her carry on in this vain. Whining that the press is Obama-biased is ridiculous, given that that man has 11 straight wins, and she should thank her lucky stars that commentators at large continue to spin for her. Notice that since it's now very unlikely that she will win Texas, the media focus is on her imminent win in Ohio. I've never seen a candidate maintain the spotlight because s/he is perpetually one state away from domininating the race. How long can this go on?

But back to health care and a blatant untruth that shouldn't be perpetuated:

CLINTON: We will continue to have a hidden tax, so that when someone goes to the emergency room without insurance -- 15 million or however many -- that amount of money that will be used to take care of that person will be then spread among all the rest of us.

When these 15 million (?) people go to the emergency room without health insurance, the debt is not spread among all of us. The uninsured patient is billed at a much higher rate than one who has insurance (which caps the amount that a hospital can charge for its services). If the uninsured patient is unable to pay, the hospital can and will hold that individual responsible in the same manner that any financial institution can and will. The only way of avoiding the debt is by claiming bankruptcy, which the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform bill, first introduced in 2001 with HRC's blessing, as Obama later pointed out in the debate, made it near impossible to do for anyone whose income exceeds the median income for their state. I've blogged on this before, and I hate to belabor the point, as I've accused her of doing. But she irks the hell out of me by trying to create a delusion about "universal health care," assuming we'll think that means a single-payer system.

Stumbles for HRC: Pro-Iraq war, then against it. Pro-NAFTA, then against NAFTA, well kind of. Confident on creating 5 million jobs, actually losing 30,000 once in office, then admitting her estimate was contingent upon Al Gore becoming president, then having the gall in this debate to promise 5 million jobs again. Gleefully joining into the Rev. Farrakhan smear (yet another attempt by the press to associate Obama with the concept of "Islam" one way or another--would he have to "denounce" Muhammad Ali's support, too?) when it was none of her business, implicitly accusing Obama of anti-Semitism, and, by a very weird extension, trying to march him into the appalling lock-step favoring Israel's policies carte blanche.

Good things for Obama to call her out on: Counting her period as First Lady as "experience," cherry-picking and taking responsibility for popular [Bill] Clinton legislation, and most most most of all, driving the bus into the ditch.

Full transcipt of the debate.

Hey, Newsweek? The First Woman President?

2008-02-26T18:42:00.000-06:00

Martin Linsky, don't go ripping off the Funk's premiere post, Man!

I want some royalties. I'm getting one of those creative commons copyright agreements, too. Is there a lawyer in the house??

Photo of the Day

2008-02-26T18:19:00.001-06:00

(Photo credit: roadlust1, h/t Kos)

Too bad that the rules don't seem to be the same for every political figure dressed in customary apparel. I wonder why that is.

Comment of the Day

2008-02-26T17:50:00.001-06:00

From bdogg, on Bobby Jindal's hiring freeze:

This centralized micro-managing harbors the moral authority of fascism and the efficiency of communism. Jin-“dull” has created a bureaucracy to judge the merits of bureaucracy! At the job position level, how will his appointed turtle-soup brained minions better determine if its worth the money than the local administrator? “Boobie”seems to federalist big government pumpkin-head of the 1st order.

Whoo-hoo!

Let's keep up the rippin' on that Reagan-Baby Jindal.

Update: Just to further clarify: Hiring freezes are not usually concurrent with news like this:

State's surplus expected to double
Posted by The Times-Picayune December 10, 2007 9:19PM
Categories: Breaking News
By Jan Moller
Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE -- Boosted by strong income-tax collections and high energy prices, Louisiana's rosy revenue picture continued to improve Monday, when a forecasting panel added $1.1 billion to the state's budget projections for the next 18 months.

Sesame Street Was Funky

2008-02-25T15:09:00.000-06:00

This is the first time in my adult life that I've felt proud of America, too, Michele Obama.

You know, the last time I felt this much hope in the air was when I was between the ages of 4 and 6. I'm not kidding about this. I watched Sesame Street as a little kid, and that was one show that really did its work. First, it portrayed a reality that was not at all like what was up in my neighborhood, but it was able to convince me that this is what was up in other neighborhoods and I couldn't wait to find them.

It is obviously not a rich neighborhood that the little girl moves into on the first Sesame Street episode, but it's the hippest neighborhood there is. The first day she gets there, Gordon shows her around and introduces her to the neighbors. He respects her as a human, you know, something that you really appreciate when you're a kid. He even takes her by his house, and his wife, Susan, invites her over for milk and cookies. It starts to look like Sesame Street is a place where anybody will give you milk and cookies just any old time 'cause that's just the decent thing to do. Plus, Susan is pretty and she wears really cool dresses and shoes, and you know that if you take Susan up on her invitations, she'll also tell you straight about all the woman-stuff you need to know when you're 4-6, and she'll talk to you like a person and not like a child.

That little girl gets to meet everybody in the neighborhood, too. There is no discrimination. I mean, Gordon says he wants to introduce her to Bert, who lives in the basement apartment with his friend Ernie. Ernie is taking a bath at the time, singing "Ring Around My Rosie" and, next thing you know, Bert is the bathroom with him. And, hey, that's totally cool. Ernie is a little on the dramatic side, and he breaks into tears of revelry about beautiful things, like the number 2. Bert consoles him. They're both such good people. Gordon also introduces her to Oscar, who lives in a garbage can. He's not ever in a good mood, and you can dig that 'cause you wouldn't be either if you lived in a garbage can, but that's no reason not to dig Oscar, too. He lives in the neighborhood.

That Mr. Hooper is a pushover. And you know that Maria will teach you how to knit and crochet, but not like grandmother shit. She knits and crochets the good shit.

All that "10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1!" is totally psychadelic. And you also get to see kids outside the city milking a cow. You learn that milking a cow is best because milking machines might hurt the cow. The show pops in with little vignettes, like a black hand and a white hand shaking in friendship. You're 4-6, and you know there's hope in the air while you're watching Sesame Street. There was not hope in the air in my household and some rough personal things went down, but what I'm trying to say is that there was a good and hopeful vibe in the air at large.

In addition, Beatles movies came on network tv on Saturday mornings, and once that stuff was in my head, I just wasn't settling anymore.

A couple years later it seemed like everything had just gone to hell. All the sudden, everything was dangerous and the "hip" outlook was to be scared of everything and everybody and move to the suburbs, out by the WalMart. Reagan got elected when I was 13. It was all over. Clinton didn't undo any of that. And then the country got overthrown by fascists. It's been a long stretch.

This all may sound crazy, reductive, or stupid, and readers (all three of you :) may have three words for me: "Save To Draft." But there's a feeling in the air now, despite everything fucked up about the country and the world, that somebody can help us figure out how to get (how to get) to Sesame Street. And it's not that "It takes a village" lady, either. If this is a delusion, I say let it be. But also refer to all the wonky posts on the blog about policy differences. They're real.

Amorphous Post

2008-02-24T15:58:00.000-06:00

1. See Bark, Bugs, Leaves and Lizards' excellent post on one New Orleans woman's "road home."

2. Bobby Jindal's "ethics reform" is about as convincing as John McCain's. Knowing that McCain has no chance against Obama, I wish that McCain would beknight Jindal as his losing mate, thereby forcing Jindal out of his office more often and giving him less time to deprive Louisiana of state services, at least for awhile.

3. Bill on Hillary: "Her fate should be decided in Texas." I agree. But if Mr. Funk had uttered such a statement about me, I'd get a restraining order.

4. Will somebody please serve Ralph Nader some Obama-aid?

Femicide in Ciudad Juarez and Guatemala City

2008-02-23T16:19:00.000-06:00

(Photo credit: jtowns)

How NAFTA figures in (from Intercontinental Cry: "The Femicide in Ciudad Juarez"):

For more than a decade, the cities of Chihuahua and Juarez, near the US-Mexico border, have been killing fields for young women. Over 400 women have been murdered and an additional 4000 women have gone missing since 1993.

As relayed on the Juarez Project website,

“A significant number of victims work in the maquiladora sector - sweatshops that produce for export, with 90% destined for the United States. The maquiladoras employ mainly young women, at poverty level wages. In combination with lax environmental regulations and low tariffs under the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the maquiladoras are amassing tremendous wealth. Yet despite the crime wave, they offer almost no protection for their workers. High profile government campaigns such as Ponte Vista (Be Aware), a self defense program, and supplying women with whistles have been ineffective and are carried out mainly for public relations purposes.”

More about femicide in Guatemala and how U.S. policies figure in (from "Femicide in Guatemala" by Risa Grais-Targow, Marxsite.com):

As the United States and the rest of the world focus their attention on the Middle East, atrocities are taking place in other regions of the world unnoticed by the international community. The violence that ravaged Latin America during the 1980s is not over. A wave of violence is taking place at this moment in Guatemala that is unknown to most of the world. The targets are young women between the ages of 15 and 26, and the murders are taking place primarily in or around the nation’s capital, Guatemala City. The pattern of violence includes sexual assault and physical torture before the women are killed and left in public places. In a country fraught with residual violence from its thirty-year civil war, murders are not front-page stories. This is particularly true when the victims are women, who are not valued by paternalistic Guatemalan society.

In the past three years nearly 1,500 young women in Guatemala have been murdered. Already this year, 257 women have been murdered, with the perpetrators going unpunished.1 In the Mexican border towns of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, a similar pattern of violence against women has caught the attention of international human rights groups and non-governmental organizations. According to a new report by Amnesty International, 370 women have been murdered in Mexico during the last
ten years.2 Among the responses to the international press on the Mexican killings is a new resolution in Congress (H.Res 466), which calls for the United States government to work with the Mexican authorities in an effort to solve the cases.

This article (in PDF) is a must-read. When I first heard about femicide, via a co-worker, the details were so horrific that I hoped they were the stuff of urban legend. They're not.

WTF???

2008-02-22T13:42:00.000-06:00

Police concerned about order to stop weapons screening at Obama rally
By JACK DOUGLAS Jr.Star-Telegram Staff Writer
STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON

DALLAS -- Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.

The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.

Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department's homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order -- apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service -- was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena's vacant seats before Obama came on.

More when I pick up my jaw off the desk.

If Only We Were So Lucky

2008-02-21T22:50:00.000-06:00

Isn't it a buzzkill to see all this promise in the national elections, only to return to the bleak reality that we're stuck with abysmal state and local leadership?

I promised I'd keep you informed with any anecdotal evidence on the state hiring freeze. (here)

The youth correctional facility in need of a direct healthcare provider is still awaiting approval from Bobby Jindal's office. It is unlikely that the unemployed provider of their choice will still be available as time passes, and passes, awaiting that approval. If the chosen candidate accepts other employment before (and if?) an approval is granted by Angele Davis/Bobby Jindal, the facility will have to choose another candidate and start from square one.

But we're all saving money here, right?

Not Breaking News

2008-02-21T15:04:00.000-06:00

(Photo Credit: GirlforGirl)

With the exception of Katrina coverage, I've gotten my news the old-fashioned way for the past 10 years--by reading it (on the internets). Lately, though, with all the debates and primary coverage, I've cautiously returned to shoddy politicotainment of the tv "news" channels. So last night during *Hardball,* I was sucked right into the "Breaking News," interruption of programming and all, that was the flap over John McCain's decade-old near-dalliance. Upon hearing the first bit of the news, that McCain's top aides had found it necessary to "protect" the man "from himself," I flew out of my chair and entreated a prominent N.O. blogger who I already knew was quite busy at the moment to turn on MSNBC right away. Gee, did I ever feel stupid as the coverage dragged on...and on. Back in my day, they used to interrupt programming only when something really bad really had happened.

There is absolutely nothing that would ever sway me to vote for John McCain. But damn, I really don't care if he almost, maybe, or did have a thing with a lobbyist eight years ago. While the tv news networks tossed around the story as though it was NYT itself interrupting their programming, I noticed that the kinda-sorta-maybe-coulda-been sex scandal was not even the focus of the NYT story to begin with.

I felt the same way about the Bill Clinton scandal and agree with Howard Zinn:

What the [Monica Lewinsky] incident showed was that a matter of personal behavior could crowd out of the public's attention far more serious matters, indeed, matters of life and death. The House of Representatives would impeach the president on matters of sexual behavior, but it would not impeach him for endangering the lives of children by welfare reform, or for violating international law in bombing other countries (Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan), or for allowing hundreds of thousands of children to die as a result of economic sanctions (Iraq) (659-660).*

That's the worry with McCain, as well as all that is metaphorically exemplified in the photo above. And now there's McCain's unfortunate but predictable response: to "go to war" with NYT.

* Source: Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States, 1492-
Present. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Update: Further Reading: Joseph A. Palermo, "John McCain and Vicki Iseman: It's the Money, Stupid (Huffington Post)