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Press Clips:10-11-07
1) ‘Blue Dot in a Red Sea’, jacksonfreepress.comhttp://www.jacksonfreepress.com/comments.php?id=15117_0_4_0_C
2) Democrats to spotlight community leaders, montclairtimes.comhttp://www.montclairtimes.com/page.php?page=15955
3) Notes around town, atlanticville.gmnews.com
http://atlanticville.gmnews.com/news/2007/1011/arts_zest/020.html
4) Jim Dean, Dan Maffei and Open Thread, openleft.com
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1833
5) Impeachment? Tomhull.com
http://www.tomhull.com/blog/archives/675-Impeachment.html
6) Pre-empting a war with Iran – Make Congress take a stand, pacificviews.org
http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/22541...
last thread
More about Mark Penn. Frankly this guy worries me a lot. Too many ties to corporatiions. And part of the polling company that did skewed exit polling in other countries.
Using exit polls to facilitate coups abroard.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1121
The Coup Plotters:
"Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating coups. Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. The group began work in Serbia during the period that its principle, Mark Penn, was President Clinton's top political advisor."
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More about Penn...here is how he blamed Gore for losing in 2000. Putting down populism and touting centrism. I am so tired of the word "centrism".
Mark Penn's analysis of why Gore lost
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1569
"nstead of running as a New Economy Democrat, Al Gore used an old-style populism that reduced his appeal rather than expanded it. The message prevented him from reaching the swing voters who could have pushed him over the top. Gore narrowly won the popular vote with this message by piling up large wins in states like California, where extra votes fail to count. But the message sent him tumbling backward in key border states, in his home state and, finally, in the electoral college. Liberal positions on social issues along with populism and big government positions took what could have been a substantial win and turned it into a draw. Had Gore combined his positions of conscience on social issues with a new vision of the role of government, he would have carried a larger percentage of upwardly mobile, socially tolerant suburban men that would have helped him win."
NOW’s Senior Correspondent Maria Hinojosa travels around the world for a revealing exploration of child marriage in developing countries, and how people can act locally and globally to solve the problem.
The hour-long special, "Child Brides: Stolen Lives," marks the first time the subject has been documented in a primetime television newsmagazine. Countries visited include Niger, India and Guatemala.
More about Penn...here is how he blamed Gore for losing in 2000. Putting down populism and touting centrism. I am so tired of the word "centrism".
Today's "center" was "right" when I was younger.
DENISE!!! Wow, great report and a GREAT time, it seems.
I LOVE Bonnie. I was sorry her marriage with that actor failed. She is awesome and that smile...great. I loved her videos with Dennis Quaid. Oh well, I just think she's a cutie and so talented.
And, good to hear Mr. Gore dived in to so many important areas.
And even better that the crowd shared their support. :)
Yes, you are one lucky lady. When I saw you post St Francis, I almost thought you were talking about somewhere here in SF NM (the other SF) Fortuitous. You can send some my way. :)
Thank you again.
Transcript: Maziar Bahari on the Similarities Between U.S. and Iran
9.15.06
HINOJOSA: Wow. So, when you talk amongst Americans, one of the first things that they'll say about your President is the statement that he made about Israel, it should be wiped off the map, that the Holocaust was a myth. Help us understand why he made those statements and how we should interpret those statements and if they're as big a deal in Iran as they are here in the United States.
BAHARI: No, they are not as big a deal. And I don't think you should take it really seriously because I mean. In Iran, talking about the Holocaust is like talking about Armenian genocide in Turkey or the Cambodian genocide by the Khmer Rouge. So, it's not a matter that, you know, people really care about in their daily lives. And it may not be right, but you know, I don't think that people in Israel care that much about the genocide in Armenia or Khmer Rouge killings.
HINOJOSA: But to say that Israel should be wiped off the map, that's that's pretty extreme.
BAHARI: I mean, that's something that I think that and, I mean, both of those sentences I think he had the Arab audiences in mind, because in Arab countries people have a very deep hatred of Israel which some part of it comes from Ignorance about the plight of the Jews during the Holocaust and the nature of Israel, and the other parts comes from Israeli atrocities and American's support of Israeli atrocities. So, I think that our President, for very strange reasons, tried to appease the Arab masses and the Muslim masses around the world. And at the same time, what he did with that, it was made before I mean people inside the government as well. He tried to radicalize the atmosphere in order to marginalize the more pragmatic, more reformist politicians from the arena, because from the political arena, because these are the two issues that people, you know, have almost the same feeling.
I mean, Israel issue, I mean, most politicians in Iran, they like Israel, of course, but I mean not many people think that Israel can be wiped off the map. And I think the President clarified himself as well. He said that what I meant by wiped off the map was not through violence but through a referendum, and after referendum Israel will be just annihilated automatically because there will be a democratic Palestinian government that will include Jews, Christians and Muslims in it. So he tried to, I mean, but people in Iran, a lot of people, don't think that he said the right thing. I don't think that he said the right thing, you know, and he became President denying Holocaust was not one part of his mandate, and people did not vote for him to deny Holocaust. The sad thing I think is that is not the fact that he denied the Holocaust, the sad thing is that he is the President of Iran, and you know, we have such a President who does not know about history, and he does not know about the sensitivity of international community this issue. And, you know, I think it's just very dangerous for Iran to make such comments.
HINOJOSA: So if you have a President that you say basically lacks a broader world vision, lack a kind of historical education, than can you in fact see some positive movement forward with this perspective that you have of your own President?
BAHARI: I think we do. I mean, I don't think that your President really has a much better perception of the world and what's going on what's going on in the world either. You know,...
http://www.pbs.org/now/news/237-transcri...
Linda you're welcome. Left a short note for you at the end of the last thread.
RUN AL RUN!!!
5.Sitka
Today's "center" was "right" when I was younger.
==============
Not necessarily, it is just the opposite on some issues. It depends on the issue.
Oh, Eldorado. We were this \/ close to buying there. But they went buck wild on their pricing jacking it up over 11 pct from last years increased prices. Of course, most of the houses are still all for sale from the summer, and they actually come down like 10 K at a pop, like that's going to do something. But yes, there you have the acreage which was one of attracting bene's. And, you can get some great views.
But, I liked being closer to the city and the commute to Albuquerque, so it worked out for us to find what we did. Eldorado actually adds 20 minutes to the drive to ABQ.
The nice part is there are pluses and minuses with each.
But yes, aren't our skies incredible. Our community is Enviro friendly with the little lighting and all facing down, so it usually looks pitch black out so the stars and planets are so visible. And we have 50 pct land undeveloped with trails. Hubby can't wait to set up the Telescope. I'm sure folks aren't used to being right under the Milky Way...or at least seeing it. But this is one of the few places left that has such clear skies.
Next time maybe you'll have some extra time on your visit and you can come by here.
i paid radiohead $10 for the download album just because i want to support the effort to break free of the record companies. i'm listening to it now and it starts out pretty strong...
a hearty bravo to reed!!!
denise, i wanted to go to the event tonight, but had already called a political meeting before i heard about it. so, i was sitting talking local stuff rather than being wooed by the rock stars. lucky you!
time for shut down......Romancing the Stone is on :)
nite all, sending good vibes to Oslo. :)
Everything You Need to Know about Disinformation in 2 Minutes
George Washington's Blog | October 10, 2007
The topic of disinformation is a very complicated one. Essays, lengthy papers and whole treatises have been written on the subject. But the very length of most discussions overwhelms people, so that they never get an accurate picture of what disinformation looks like.
So I thought I'd take a crack at a very simple definition of disinformation, something that is short enough to read in two minutes.
Disinformation is:
* Repeating the same factual claims over and over even when people have proven that such claims are contrary to the evidence (for example, the claim that no planes hit the Twin Towers)
* Spending more energy causing in-fighting and disruptions then helping to promote the truth, and causing dedicated activists to waste time rebutting obviously false claims and theories
* Unnecessarily alienating large sections of the population by attacking victims' families, certain religious or ethnic groups, or political parties with no reason
* Calling someone names instead of addressing that person's theories or claimed facts
* Making knowingly false statements about someone
* Threatening people or their families with violence, job loss, or other forms of intimidation or harassment
* Acting as provocateurs to disrupt peaceful groups or gatherings
People who repeatedly do one of the above things even after people have pointed out what they are doing, are spreading disinformation -- consciously or unconsciously. Indeed, because disinformation may be an unconscious activity, I prefer to call it "disruption". These actions disrupt the ability to spread 9/11 truth and to obtain justice against all of those who carried out the attack.
No matter how much seemingly good 9/11 truth work someone has done in the past, if someone starts causing more disruption than good, than he or she should not be followed any more. This is especially true if people have pointed out that person's disruptive behavior
like the picture, sitka. what smells like...do i hafta guess...
btw, i thought your edit take on my post last night was fair enough. i'll add though, that one thing at a time isn't nearly enough. we can juggle, chew gum, walk, talk, and think all at once if you get my drift...
Linda I'll be back to NM many times. I'd like to buy some property there someday. Thanks for the invite. I'll let you know. They want me to come for Thanksgiving, but since I can't make it to Thankful's, I'm just going to lay low this year and stay local.
mprov!! I was wondering if you were in the crowd somewhere. I didn't see anyone I knew - not even any of my SMCDFA friends. Maybe it was because Al wasn't supposed to be there, and then he was afterall.
My hotel contact had some other interesting stories to tell about other people she's dealt with in the course of the job. Like the time Teresa Heinz-Kerry dropped her Chanel suit in the bathtub and she asked my buddy to have it dried in 45 minutes before she took the stage during John's campaign. They wouund up using a bunch of hair dryers. But at least she was nice and sent orchids to say thank you.
like the picture, sitka. what smells like...do i hafta guess...
It certainly wasn't your posts.
As for Iran, I refuse to say anything that will in the slightest way play into the NeoCon's latest scam to attack it.
Lots of countries have bad governments, including ours. Let's fix ours and not hurt the efforts of Iranians who want to fix theirs by meddling in their affairs -- because nothing plays into the hands of the mullahs more than the Great Satan threatening their country or trying to manipulate their government.
22
Clever :)
Hope I wake up to good news.
Night all
20. i think there's reasonable people in iran just waiting to have a say so. true democrats should transcend borders. we're all in the same game together trying to oust the powers that would do us all harm. where's the difference? whether its "america" or american progressives binding together with our brothers and sisters in different countries, where's the difference?
all for one, and one for all!!! democracy at its lowest is preferential to all other forms of government at their height.
The Peace Prize will be announced at 5AM EDT (11AM in Oslo).
It's good to want the best for others, but meddling in Iraq's politics will only hurt them.
Their NeoCon's' first excuse to attack was Iran's nuclear "weapons." But that can't fly alone so they now charge Iraq with attacking US troops. The next excuse will be to deliver them freedom through bombs.
I'll wait until the US has a regime which isn't itching for another war and has been reformed itself before saying bad things about Iran's government
Maziar Bahari on the Similarities Between U.S. and Iran
9.15.06
HINOJOSA:...Your president met for the first time with the Iraqi Prime Minister this is you know, people know that Iran and Iraq went through a very brutal, vicious war, a lot of animosity between the two countries, and yet Iran Iraqi President is saying now that the talks were very constructive, called Iran a very important country, a good friend...
BAHARI:...most Iraqis and most Iranians don't believe that it was really a war between Iran and Iraq, it was a war between Saddam Hussein and his cronies against Iran. And most people know that while Iranian authorities Islamic Republic of Iran was sheltering the opponents of Saddam Hussein in Iran, the United States and many countries in the West, they were supporting Saddam Hussein.
Among those opponents of Saddam Hussein who were refugees in Iran were Nouri al-Maliki, the current President of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the former President of Iraq, and many members of Iraqi Parliaments and government. So, for the United States to not to like the fact that Iran and Iraq they have a close relations, it just doesn't make sense you know? It these people, the people in the government of Iraq right now, they were receiving money from Iranian government for 27 years.
They were getting support here for 27 years before 25 years when the Americans, they were supporting Saddam Hussein. And they cannot just expect that, you know, these people forget what happened during those 20, 25 years, and then all of a sudden change their alliances and say that, okay, Iranians are our new enemy, and we are supporting the United States against Iran.
It just doesn't happen like that. And Iraqis know that Iran will be their neighbors forever, but the United States and the American forces may leave soon. And many of them hope that they leave soon.
BAHARI:...cause you know, it's American people worrying about Iranian and— Iraqi relations, it's as if Iranians worry about American relations with Canada and Mexico, you know? I don't think that Iranians have any right to worry about NAFTA, North American Free Trade Agreement, so I don't think that the Americans really should be concerned about Iran and Iraqi relations.....
http://www.pbs.org/now/news/237-transcri...
meddling in Iraq's Iran's politics will only hurt them.
26. fair enough.
meddling is the word i'd have a problem with. if we voice our opposition to the way the government in myanmar, for example, is treating their people, are we meddling? and, this is at our expense as some other countries are thinking that we're meddling. and, some factions in myanmar publisize the fact that its americans doing the opposition. are we in the wrong?
Good morning, BFA!
Thanks so much for the Gore report, Denise! And that picture shows a slimmed-down Al ... hmmm!
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Thankful, sorry that I had left by the time that you popped by. Waves! How's the moving-in going? When will you ever head this way?
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I am afraid that I agree with Phil on the Armenian genocide item. I would like Congress to begin doing something really meaningful right now, i.e., getting us out of Iraq, impeaching putzCo, getting our country back on the right economic track, getting a national health care system, etc. Right now, we have completely lost the moral authority to speak out about anything (and yes, Sitka has a point about the genocide of Native Americans ... and there is also the continuing spate of racially motivated incidents like Jena and the noose on the door of the professor at Columbia).
Yes, governments should be held accountable for such horrendous incidents, but there are more effective ways of doing that (generally through quiet negotiations in the background that create some kind of reparations program, even if payments are token). Simply *declaring* a genocide is merely grand-standing. Right now, all this is seen generally as yet another slap at a Muslim country by the US, which is absolutely not on good moral footing right now.
Lest anyone forget, we have some contemporary genocide of our own to account for.
Out. Now.
=====================
AFX News Limited
US kills 15 women and children in Iraq
10.12.07, 1:54 AM ET
BAGHDAD Thomson Financial - A US air strike north of Baghdad has killed at least 15 women and children, one of the largest losses of civilian life in a single American operation since the war began, the military said.
'Nineteen suspected insurgents and 15 women and children were killed in an operation Thursday in the Lake Tharthar region north of Baghdad,' a US military spokesman told Agence France-Presse.
A statement from commanders said intelligence reports had indicated that members of Al-Qaeda were meeting in the area.
'Surveillance elements observed and confirmed activity consistent with the reports and supporting aircraft engaged the time-sensitive target,' it said.
[...]
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/fee...
More of our own infamy ... because yes, so long as we suffer this administration to remain in power, it is WE who are responsible for BW.
This is what our Congress apparently does not *get.*
There are two legal ways to remove an administration: one is through elections; the other is through impeachment.
We simply cannot wait for elections when so many grounds to impeach exist. We are disappointmenting our last remaining friends in the world.
==========
Blackwater Guards Fired at Fleeing Cars, Soldiers Say
First U.S. Troops on Scene Found No Evidence of Shooting by Iraqis; Incident Called 'Criminal'
By Sudarsan Raghavan and Josh White
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 12, 2007; A01
BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 -- Blackwater USA guards shot at Iraqi civilians as they tried to drive away from a Baghdad square on Sept. 16, according to a report compiled by the first U.S. soldiers to arrive at the scene, where they found no evidence that Iraqis had fired weapons.
"It appeared to me they were fleeing the scene when they were engaged. It had every indication of an excessive shooting," said Lt. Col. Mike Tarsa, whose soldiers reached Nisoor Square 20 to 25 minutes after the gunfire subsided.
His soldiers' report -- based upon their observations at the scene, eyewitness interviews and discussions with Iraqi police -- concluded that there was "no enemy activity involved" and described the shootings as a "criminal event." Their conclusions mirrored those reached by the Iraqi government, which has said the Blackwater guards killed 17 people.
The soldiers' accounts contradict Blackwater's assertion that its guards were defending themselves after being fired upon by Iraqi police and gunmen.
Tarsa said they found no evidence to indicate that the Blackwater guards were provoked or entered into a confrontation. "I did not see anything that indicated they were fired upon," said Tarsa, 42, commander of the 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. He also said it appeared that several drivers had made U-turns and were moving away from Nisoor Square when their vehicles were hit by gunfire from Blackwater guards.
In Washington on Thursday, an injured Iraqi man and the families of three Iraqi civilians who were killed in the Sept. 16 shootings sued the company in federal court, calling the incident a "massacre" and "senseless slaughter" that was the result of corporate policies in the war zone.
[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
Well, *disappointmenting* was certainly a creative disappointment that should have been *disappointing.*
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E. J. Dionne has an excellent column in today's WaPo.
================
Meanies And Hypocrites
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Friday, October 12, 2007; A17
Conservatives claim to be in favor of stable families, small businesses, hard work, private schools, investment and homeownership. So why in the world are so many on the right attacking the family of Graeme Frost?
Frost is the 12-year-old from Baltimore who delivered the Democrats' reply to a radio address by President Bush in September. The seventh-grader pleaded -- in vain, it turned out -- that the president not veto Congress's $35 billion expansion of the children's health care program known as SCHIP. A car crash in December 2004 left two of Halsey and Bonnie Frost's children comatose, Graeme with a brain stem injury and Gemma, his sister, with a cranial fracture.
The kids were treated, thanks to SCHIP. The Frosts spoke out so the public would know that real people lie behind the acronym.
Their reward was to be trashed on right-wing blogs and talk radio as if they were multimillionaires ripping off the system. The assault on the Frosts apparently began on the Free Republic Web site and quickly spread to National Review Online, Power Line and Michelle Malkin's blog, as well as Rush Limbaugh's radio show.
And of what were the Frosts guilty? Well, they own their own home, which they bought for $55,000 in 1990 and which is now worth about $260,000; they invested in a commercial property, valued at $160,000; Halsey Frost, a self-employed woodworker, once owned a small business that was dissolved in 1999; and Graeme attends a private school on scholarship. I rely here on facts reported this week in the Baltimore Sun and the New York Times, both of which set straight the more outlandish claims made by the Frosts' attackers.
The right is unapologetic. "The Democrats chose to outsource their airtime to a Seventh Grader," wrote National Review's Mark Steyn. "If a political party is desperate enough to send a boy to do a man's job, then the boy is fair game."
Okay, the Democrats are "fair game," but a 12-year-old? No wonder nobody talks about compassionate conservatism anymore.
[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
Well, a lot of cheating will help that *suspension of disbelief,* I'm afraid ... and cheating has certainly not been unknown in past elections.
Eugene Robinson on the recent debate by the Republican candidates.
====================
What Happened To Arthur Branch?
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, October 12, 2007; A17
For most of his first presidential debate on Tuesday, Fred Thompson looked like a tennis umpire. Standing between Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, peering down from somewhere above the fray, he would swivel his gaze to the left, then to the right, then to the left again, as Sampras and Agassi traded serves, volleys and cross-court backhands. You almost expected him to call the lines. "That one was out, Rudy. It's deuce."
Hey, at least Thompson was present and accounted for, finally. And he did get off a terrific line at the end, saying that the umpteen Republican debates had been "getting a little boring without me." But if his goal was to advance the narrative that he's the next Ronald Reagan -- another Great Communicator with the instincts, presence and glamour of a movie star -- he didn't make much progress. I'd suggest a bit more time in rehearsal.
For one thing, Nancy would never have let her Ronnie show up for a televised debate wearing a jacket that draped so awkwardly at the neck. For another, it's hard to imagine how an actor with such talent for exuding an air of supreme command -- think of him in "Law & Order" or "The Hunt for Red October" -- could fail to summon his inner Patton for such an important scene.
Yes, I'm focusing on style rather than substance. Thompson's supporters might think that's unfair, since he was arguably less vague on economic issues -- the intended focus of the debate -- than his major competitors. He offered a specific fix for Social Security, for example, saying he would index benefits to prices rather than wages. The others simply promised to make everything better by growing the economy, which apparently means eliminating all taxation.
But style, or the promise of style, is the only reason Thompson has been able to credibly enter the race so late in the game. If all that Republican primary voters wanted was a reliable social conservative, they could vote for Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter or Tom Tancredo, none of whom is tainted by long association with evil Hollywood. Thompson's potential appeal to the party is that he can do that "District Attorney Arthur Branch" thing and make people believe in his wisdom and authority.
Getting a Republican elected president in 2008 is definitely going to require suspension of disbelief.
[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
You go, Jimmy!
Dan Froomkin's round-up.
=================
The Carter Critique
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, October 11, 2007; 1:10 PM
Former president Jimmy Carter is once again lambasting the current occupants of the White House.
In one interview yesterday, Carter accused President Bush of abandoning the basic principles of human rights, engaging in torture, and lying about it. In another, he called Vice President Cheney a disaster for our country and a militant who is "trying again to promote once again what might well be a counterproductive and catastrophic military venture."
While it's traditional for former presidents to show some deference to their successors, this is not the first time Carter has publicly scolded Bush. Back in May, for instance, he infuriated the White House by calling Bush the worst president of all time when it comes to international relations. A Bush spokesman responded by calling Carter "increasingly irrelevant."
Carter may or may not be politically irrelevant, but the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner's critique is certainly timely -- coming as Bush's torture policy and Cheney's itchy trigger finger continue to provoke controversy.
[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
I wondered just how long this would take ...
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October 12, 2007
Relations Sour Between Shiites and Iraq Militia
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
BAGHDAD, Oct. 11 — In a number of Shiite neighborhoods across Baghdad, residents are beginning to turn away from the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia they once saw as their only protector against Sunni militants. Now they resent it as a band of street thugs without ideology.
The hardening Shiite feeling in Baghdad opens an opportunity for the American military, which has long struggled against the Mahdi Army, as American commanders rely increasingly on tribes and local leaders in their prosecution of the war.
The sectarian landscape has shifted, with Sunni extremists largely defeated in many Shiite neighborhoods, and the war in those places has sunk into a criminality that is often blind to sect.
In interviews, 10 Shiites from four neighborhoods in eastern and western Baghdad described a pattern in which militia members, looking for new sources of income, turned on Shiites.
The pattern appears less frequently in neighborhoods where Sunnis and Shiites are still struggling for territory. Sadr City, the largest Shiite neighborhood, where the Mahdi Army’s face is more political than military, has largely escaped the wave of criminality.
Among the people killed in the neighborhood of Topchi over the past two months, residents said, were the owner of an electrical shop, a sweets seller, a rich man, three women, two local council members, and two children, ages 9 and 11.
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/...
Congratulations, Ms Lessing!
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October 12, 2007
Nobel to Lessing, Incisive Voice of Women’s Fate
By MOTOKO RICH and SARAH LYALL
Doris Lessing, the Persian-born, Rhodesian-raised and London-residing novelist whose deeply autobiographical writing has swept across continents and reflects her engagement with the social and political issues of her time, yesterday won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Announcing the award in Stockholm, the Swedish Academy described her as “that epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.” The award comes with a 10 million Swedish crown honorarium, about $1.6 million.
Ms. Lessing, who turns 88 this month, never finished high school and largely educated herself through voracious reading. She has written dozens of books of fiction, as well as plays, nonfiction and two volumes of autobiography. She is the 11th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Ms. Lessing learned of the news from a group of reporters camped on her doorstep as she returned from a visit to the hospital with her son. “I was a bit surprised because I had forgotten about it actually,” she said. “My name has been on the short list for such a long time.”
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/...
More of the continuing *passive genocide* and this one Congress will NEVER speak out against.
====================
October 12, 2007
Gaza Banks Out of Cash as Israeli Banks Halt Business
By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ISABEL KERSHNER
GAZA CITY, Oct. 11 — Gaza’s banks have run out of cash, an economic adviser to Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, said Thursday. The cash shortage followed a decision by Israeli commercial banks to halt all business transactions with Palestinian bank branches in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
“People responded by withdrawing their deposits,” said Ala al-Araj, the adviser to Mr. Haniya. The spate of withdrawals brought about the cash shortage.
Later on Thursday, Israel allowed some cash into the strip to alleviate the crisis, according to a Gaza bank manager who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Israel has declared Gaza under Hamas “hostile territory,” and the legal risks of doing business with banks in an area controlled by a group listed as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union have prompted Israeli banks to cut their ties. Hamas seized Gaza in June, routing the forces of the rival Fatah faction there. Since the takeover, Israel has closed the main crossings in and out of Gaza to ordinary traffic.
The decision of the Israeli banks has added to the pressure exerted on Hamas by both Israel and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
In a statement late on Wednesday, Israel’s Discount Bank said it had “decided to end all activities with banks associated with Gaza and with all branches of other banks located there.” It said its decision was made in light of the Israeli government decision last month to declare Gaza “hostile territory.”
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/...
Like E. J. Dionne, Krugman calls Rethugs Rethugs (in different words, but the intent is there).
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October 12, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Sliming Graeme Frost
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Two weeks ago, the Democratic response to President Bush’s weekly radio address was delivered by a 12-year-old, Graeme Frost. Graeme, who along with his sister received severe brain injuries in a 2004 car crash and continues to need physical therapy, is a beneficiary of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Mr. Bush has vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have expanded that program to cover millions of children who would otherwise have been uninsured.
What followed should serve as a teaching moment.
First, some background. The Frosts and their four children are exactly the kind of people S-chip was intended to help: working Americans who can’t afford private health insurance.
The parents have a combined income of about $45,000, and don’t receive health insurance from employers. When they looked into buying insurance on their own before the accident, they found that it would cost $1,200 a month — a prohibitive sum given their income. After the accident, when their children needed expensive care, they couldn’t get insurance at any price.
Fortunately, they received help from Maryland’s S-chip program. The state has relatively restrictive rules for eligibility: children must come from a family with an income under 200 percent of the poverty line. For families with four children that’s $55,220, so the Frosts clearly qualified.
Graeme Frost, then, is exactly the kind of child the program is intended to help. But that didn’t stop the right from mounting an all-out smear campaign against him and his family.
Soon after the radio address, right-wing bloggers began insisting that the Frosts must be affluent because Graeme and his sister attend private schools (they’re on scholarship), because they have a house in a neighborhood where some houses are now expensive (the Frosts bought their house for $55,000 in 1990 when the neighborhood was rundown and considered dangerous) and because Mr. Frost owns a business (it was dissolved in 1999).
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/opinio...
There are indeed more similarities than differences between the two.
But I am one for whom any man's version of *religion* does not tell the true story. All *organized* religions left me by the wayside long ago, I'm afraid.
I appreciate and respect religions when they inspire true goodness in people and make them happy. I excoriate and loathe them when they inspire radical zealotry and bigotry, so that anyone who does not believe as that religion allegedly teaches (always interpreted by someone with an agenda) is fair game.
I am an agnostic in that I believe that it is easier to believe in a Prime Mover just in case there is one and to try to live one's life accordingly. I have also felt an unseen guiding benign presence in my own life at times, and so am honored, awed and privileged ... I am more of a believer than not.
I believe in the following general maxims, which actually encompass a lot:
- know yourself
- nothing to excess
- love your neighbor as yourself
==========================
Conflict between religions threatens future of the world, Muslim leaders tell Pope
· Plea to Christian leaders to find common ground
· Initiative likely to appeal to Vatican's thinking
Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent, John Hooper in Rome
Friday October 12, 2007
Guardian
The survival of the world is at stake if Muslims and Christians cannot make peace with each other, Islamic scholars have told the Pope.
In a letter addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and other Christian leaders, 138 prominent Muslim scholars from every sect of Islam urged Christian leaders "to come together with us on the common essentials of our two religions", spelling out the similarities between passages of the Bible and the Qur'an.
"If Muslims and Christians are not at peace, the world cannot be at peace. With the terrible weaponry of the modern world; with Muslims and Christians intertwined everywhere as never before, no side can unilaterally win a conflict between more than half of the world's inhabitants. Our common future is at stake," the letter said. "The very survival of the world itself is perhaps at stake."
Scholars used quotations from the Bible and the Qur'an to illustrate similarities between the two faiths such as the requirement to worship one God and to love one's neighbour.
The letter, A Common Word Between Us and You, also referred to wars in Muslim-majority countries by urging western governments not to persecute Muslims.
"As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them - so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes."
The letter was issued by Jordan's Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought following its annual convention last month in Amman. Many of the signatories are grand muftis who each have tens of millions of followers. There are four British supporters, including the Cambridge academic Abdal Hakim Murad Winter.
At the UK launch, Aref Ali Nayed, one of the British signatories, warned people not to get "too hung up" on expecting an answer from the Pope.
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33094...
Sitka and puddle especially might find this one interesting (Sitka for the genocide comments and puddle for the *insurgent* t-shirts in Canada) ...
===================
Columbus toppled as indigenous people rise up after five centuries
Explorer's reputation is victim of region's pink tide of leftwing governments
Rory Carroll in Caracas and Lola Almudevar in Sucre
Friday October 12, 2007
Guardian
He had been sailing west for five weeks and sensed he was close when at 2am on October 12, with nothing but stars and moon to illuminate the waves, it was spotted: a dark lump ahead. Land. Christopher Columbus had reached the New World.
At sunrise he took a small boat and armed men to shore and planted a royal standard. With a solemn oath he took possession of the territory for the king and queen of Spain. Natives emerged from the trees and watched from a distance, puzzled. It was 1492.
More than five centuries later the anniversary of that event resounds with an ominous clang. Millions of people in central and South America lament that encounter in the Bahamas as the beginning of their ancestors' annihilation.
The indigenous inhabitants lost everything to the invaders: gold, land, freedom, culture, until there was almost nothing left. Disease and slaughter wiped most of them out. "It was a calamity," said Mark Horton, an archaeologist and Columbus expert at the University of Bristol.
Now, however, a counter-attack is under way. After centuries as underdogs, indigenous people are rising up - peacefully - to seize political power and assert their heritage.
The so-called pink tide of leftwing governments has surged on the back of indigenous movements intent on dismantling the region's eurocentric legacy - starting with Columbus.
Across the Andes the explorer once feted as a hero by the Europeanised elite is having his story rewritten, his statue toppled and his name turned to mud. Leading the assault is Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez.
"They taught us to admire Christopher Columbus," he said during a recent televised address, his tone incredulous, while flicking through a 1970s school textbook. "In Europe they still speak of the 'discovery' of America and want us to celebrate the day."
Instead Mr Chávez has renamed October 12 "indigenous resistance day" and mounted a campaign against colonial residue. Textbooks are to be revised under a curriculum that will stress the opposition to Spanish conquest as doomed but heroic.
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33094...
They must still be *in their last throes* ... at least according to prick.
And we all know how prick is ALWAYS right.
===============
Sunni insurgents form alliance against US
· Political umbrella group announced on al-Jazeera
· Statement pledges to continue resistance
Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Friday October 12, 2007
Guardian
Six Iraqi insurgent groups took a step towards unifying the factions fighting the US yesterday by announcing the creation of a political umbrella organisation.
A spokesman for the new alliance, his face blacked out, made the announcement on a video broadcast by al-Jazeera. He described the alliance as "the political council of the Iraqi resistance".
The six Sunni groups have been in discussion about the move for months. The aim is to reduce the fragmented nature of the insurgency but also to try to claim a slice of the political agenda after the expected US withdrawal.
The talks about the alliance were disclosed by the Guardian in July. The groups had been close to making an announcement at that time but delayed because of disagreements over how to respond to the US policy of doing deals with Iraqi tribal leaders.
In a lengthy statement published yesterday, the six groups listed a 14-point political programme, of which the first was continued action against US forces. "The occupation of Iraq is an act of aggression and an act of gross injustice which is rejected Islamically, legally and rationally, and which all laws grant the right to oppose and resist," it said.
It declared all laws passed by the Iraq government null and void.
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,33094...
Clueless incompetent Condi ... on yet another tour and exacerbating a very sore point
====================
Rice: Missile Defense Plans to Proceed
Friday October 12, 2007 8:01 AM
By ROBERT BURNS and MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press Writers
MOSCOW (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says plans to expand the U.S. missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic will proceed, but she wants to seek Russian suggestions for cooperation to address Moscow's opposition to the program.
Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates gathered Friday morning at President Vladimir Putin's dacha, or residence, outside Moscow to kick off a series of high-level meetings on missile defense and other thorny issues including Iran's nuclear program, U.S.-Russian arms control and Russia's commitment to democracy.
Shortly before the talks began, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov strolled into the dacha's billiards room, where American reporters had gathered, for a cigarette break. He was asked whether he expected any breakthroughs in the talks.
``Breaks, definitely. Through or down, I don't know,'' he said.
[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/st...
Yet another fruit of hypocrisy ...
==================
World failing mothers in childbirth as survival rates fall short of 2015 targets
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 12 October 2007
An international drive to cut the global toll of deaths among women in childbirth has made almost zero progress after 15 years, experts said yesterday. They blame governments and agencies for seeking a "silver bullet" to solve the problem instead of building up desperately needed local health services.
Children could be protected by vaccination against infectious disease but there was no equivalent measure to reduce the 500,000 maternal deaths that still occur every year, according to Anne Starrs, vice-president of Family Health International. She said: "You cannot give a woman a pill to prevent an obstetric death. You need a fully functioning health system. People have been looking for a silver bullet and it doesn't exist."
The World Health Organisation launched its Safe Motherhood initiative 20 years ago but a series of papers, published today in the UK medical journal The Lancet to mark the anniversary, show that the Millennium Development Goal of cutting the maternal death rate by 75 per cent between 1990 and 2015 remains a pipe dream.
Deaths of mothers in childbirth are almost unchanged since 1990. In 2005, 536,000 women died due to complications of pregnancy or labour compared with 576,000 15 years earlier, according to figures published by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and other agencies today.
[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/health/art...
It is not that Turkey's actions against the Armenian people were not genocide. It is pretty clear that they consituted genocide.
But the US, of all nations, is certainly not in the best position to address that genocide at this time.
For some facts about the event itself, here is the inimitable Robert Fisk.
======================
Robert Fisk: A reign of terror which history has chosen to neglect
Published: 12 October 2007
The story of the last century's first Holocaust – Winston Churchill used this very word about the Armenian genocide years before the Nazi murder of six million Jews – is well known, despite the refusal of modern-day Turkey to acknowledge the facts. Nor are the parallels with Nazi Germany's persecution of the Jews idle ones.
Turkey's reign of terror against the Armenian people was an attempt to destroy the Armenian race. While the Turks spoke publicly of the need to "resettle" their Armenian population – as the Germans were to speak later of the Jews of Europe – the true intentions of Enver Pasha's Committee of Union and Progress in Constantinople were quite clear.
On 15 September 1915, for example (and a carbon of this document exists), Talaat Pasha, the Turkish Interior minister, cabled an instruction to his prefect in Aleppo about what he should do with the tens of thousands of Armenians in his city. "You have already been informed that the government... has decided to destroy completely all the indicated persons living in Turkey... Their existence must be terminated, however tragic the measures taken may be, and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to any scruples of conscience."
[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/artic...
One person's view of us, with some good questions.
=================
Guru of greed: The cult of selfishness
Fifty years after it was first published, Ayn Rand's most influential book offers a vital clueto why so many Americans vote against their economic and social interests. By Leonard Doyle
Published: 12 October 2007
Why is it that millions of ordinary Americans vote for conservative policies that seem inimical to their lives? Why are the politicians who support healthcare reforms to give access to a doctor for the 47 million Americans without insurance branded as closet socialists or worse?
Why, in this upside-down world do so many blue-collar Americans vote Republican, and family farmers support a President whose Wall Street friends would gladly push them off the land?
Why do people shrug and say "tough", when they read that hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their homes, after falling victims to crooked mortgage salesmen? The most common response is that millions of people who otherwise could never have afforded a home are now enjoying the American Dream.
Perhaps the greatest political riddle of the US is why so many Americans vote against their economic and social interests?
If it were otherwise, then surely John Edwards, the telegenic Democratic candidate for President would lead the polls since he has dedicated his campaign to lifting tens of millions out of poverty. Instead it is Hillary Clinton, whose economic policies might as well have been drafted by the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, who looks a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination.
So what's the matter with America?
[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/amer...
And ... it's definitely time for me to get cracking.
I leave you with this last. It's the first part of a two-part essay and the releationship between super capitalism and super imperialism.
===================
SUPER CAPITALISM, SUPER IMPERIALISM
PART 1: A Structural Link
By Henry C K Liu
Robert B Reich, former US Secretary of Labor and resident neo-liberal in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, wrote in the September 14, 2007 edition of The Wall Street Journal an opinion piece, "CEOs Deserve Their Pay", as part of an orchestrated campaign to promote his new book: Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Afred A Knopf).
Reich is a former Harvard professor and the former Maurice B Page 1 of 5
SUPER CAPITALISM, SUPER IMPERIALISM
PART 1: A Structural Link
By Henry C K Liu
Robert B Reich, former US Secretary of Labor and resident neo-liberal in the Clinton administration from 1993 to 1997, wrote in the September 14, 2007 edition of The Wall Street Journal an opinion piece, "CEOs Deserve Their Pay", as part of an orchestrated campaign to promote his new book: Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Afred A Knopf).
Reich is a former Harvard professor and the former Maurice B
Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. He is currently a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California (Berkley) and a regular liberal gadfly in the unabashed supply-side Larry Kudlow TV show that celebrates the merits of capitalism.
Reich's Supercapitalism brings to mind Michael Hudson's Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1972-2003). While Reich, a liberal turned neo-liberal, sees "supercapitalism" as the natural evolution of insatiable shareholder appetite for gain, a polite euphemism for greed, that cannot or should not be reined in by regulation, Hudson, a Marxist heterodox economist, sees "super imperialism" as the structural outcome of post-World War II superpower geopolitics, with state interests overwhelming free market forces, making regulation irrelevant.
[...]
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Econ...
Whoops, apologies to all for messing up the posted paragraphs in that last link. I had previewed, but apparently not enough.
Just go directly to the url to straighten things out.
Sorry about that.
Now gone.
a HOWARDLY shout out to Reed, and a thank you to Denise for the write up.
I'm staying up for the announcement after a barn check.
Gore/Boxer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
you heard it here first
yyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Time for that exploratory committee to form Al.
CNN reporting that Gore has won.. the prize.
"The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to former Vice President Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change"
beat you to it chilimac, best firsties in months
Despite the tireless efforts of millions up til now the real Draft Gore movement begins today.
Howard just reminded us, it was always true.
YOU HAVE THE POWER.
a deserved win for Al:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071012/ap_on_re_eu/nobel_peace_10
Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize
17 minutes ago
OSLO, Norway - Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures needed to counteract it.
...
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said global warming, "may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states."
Jan Egeland, a Norwegian peace mediator and former U.N. undersecretary for humanitarian affairs, also called climate change more than an environmental issue.
"It is a question of war and peace," said Egeland, now director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in Oslo. "We're already seeing the first climate wars, in the Sahel belt of Africa." He said nomads and herders are in conflict with farmers because the changing climate has brought drought and a shortage of fertile lands.
Super capitalists are a combination of the predator and the pack rat.
The top 1% took home more income than the bottom 50% combined last year and the trends are accelerating.
no wonder Mexicans migrate to America, it reminds them of home
sharing is good --
-- besides Al, the other recepient for the Nobel Peace Prize Award, is the 1000's of scientists's panel work at the UN'sThe Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that is the underpinning of what we all know now about global warming and how that affects stability and peace (and the lack there of) around the globe:
where is Linda in NM?????????????/
Her guy Al won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Yeah for Al and for Linda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press."
IF SOMEONE DOESN'T GET THEIR SHOES ON AND GO TO THE WHITE HOUSE AND PULL THAT YOU KNOW WHAT OUT OF OUR HOUSE, I DON'T KNOW WHAT CAN BE DONE.
THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE.
Wonderful news about Al winning the Nobel Peace prize. I agree that:
- this boosts his already high prestige worldwide
- even without it, he stands head and shoulders above the rest of the Democratic field, not to mention the thuglican moral and mental pygmies
- He would make an exceptional president.
My u-4-ia is somewhat dampened by the prospect of a vicious fight, first within the Democratic party , then with the thugs who own the media.
An example is the ABC hit piece:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3719791&page=1
The headline is:
An Inconvenient Verdict for Al GoreBritish Court Ruling on Errors in 'An Inconvenient Truth' Resurrects Global Warming Debatefollowed by:
One day before the announcement that he was a co-winner the Nobel Peace Prize, a British High Court judge ruled that Gore's global warming film, "An Inconvenient Truth," while "broadley accurate", contained nine significant errors.
The emphasis is, of course, on the errors, not on the overwhelming truths the film presents.
We can expect the US media to resume their biased and vivious coverage of Al if he gets in the race.
Printable version Armenian sway over US lawmakers By Laura Smith-Spark BBC News, Washington
Despite a direct appeal by US President George W Bush, lawmakers in the US have backed a description of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks after 1915 as genocide.
The resolution was written by Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, whose California district is home to the country's largest ethnic-Armenian community
Opening the debate, Tom Lantos, the committee's Democrat chairman, acknowledged that the resolution posed a "sobering" choice.
"We have to weigh the desire to express our solidarity with the Armenian people... against the risk that it could cause young men and women in the uniform of the United States armed services to pay an even heavier price than they are currently paying," he said.
vicious
the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV
>
Tut-tut. This is nothing. Wait til the contractors return to the United States and protect the gated communities of the petite bourgeoisie.
The petite bourgeoisie will retort, when folks complain of the lawlessness simple folk experience when they approach stately gated communities, "I paid for this community"
An so it goes. WE might as well call it what it will be - The Divided Communities of the Petite Bourgeoisie.
mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks after 1915 as genocide.
>
let the decider veto that.
Congratulations to AL GORE....WINNER OF NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.
Shout out to Linda in SFNM who is no doubt on cloud nine today.
Peace out, folks.
69.
Watertown, MA has the third largest Armenian-American community in America.
I'm glad 27 US House or Representatives stood up to Bush, stood up to the Turkish government strong-arming, and passed the H. Res 106 resolution officially labelling the Turkish massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 a genocide.
http://www.empowermentproject.org/sso.html
Soldiers Speak Out is a powerful, first-hand testament to the reality of the military experience told entirely in the words of American veterans who have been to war and are now opposing it. We hear how they came to join the military, about their experiences in training and in war, and what led to the turning point when they decided they could no longer, in good conscience, participate in the war or keep silent. This half-hour documentary sheds light on the growing and courageous anti-war and anti-occupation movement within the military and their families, and serves as a counter-recruitment and organizing tool for activists, schools and organizations. It provides a sober view of the war in Iraq and an important counterpoint to the 'stay-the-course' rhetoric of the Bush administration.
Heard some complaints about administration officials sent to a Nascar event
told to get a battery of immunization shots - diphtheria, malaria, T.B. etc (a lot of 'em)
<So, some folks complain, but the way I see it they were smart - because they won't have to trouble with the expense when the W-Decider is out of office and they back to civilian life (they will already be set to go on that safari in the Congo, Hong Kong for shopping, Thailand foe a little horring...)
GORE SHARES NOBLE PEACE PRIZE
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/press.html
Congrats Al Gore..........Mr. President.
Huron John
Fri, 10/12/07
7:56 am
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Yes Huron, that he is......and the history books will write that this country went outer limits around 1980 with the election of buffoons like Reagan and later his wormy VP Bush........they laughed and mocked liberals and Democrats then, but the policies and failures of both these ginks set the stage for the decline we are seeing today..............
Both should always be held accountable for their idiocy childlike tendencies, and the voters who put them in office will always have to live with that fact............
Gore/Boxer
67. Few things are as puzzling to me than the apparent propensity of some people to enjoy locking themselves up in their houses and their enclaves.
The only way I can explain it is to assume that they are plagued by a pervasive sense of paranoia. If so, they deserve our sympathy.
Wow ... the TV installers were here to install the new wall-mounted TV when the first headline was that Al had won the Nobel Peace Prize.
I really astonished the installers when I started whooping and hollering around the apartment. They had big smiles on their faces when they left.
Yes, he shares it. But WOW!
A wall-mounted TV!!!!!
There are a couple of wonderful Freudian misspellings in relation to Al's win ... *noble* and *goer* ... both apply, but in a different sense.
Wow ... Linda ... sending warm vibes from here! Denise ... you saw him last night, you lucky thing!
I got to see him last May. Hope that he'll make a swing through here when next he's this way ... it will certainly make for a wonderful triumphal tour.
O frabjous joy!
I am so excited, I can hardly concentrate on anything.
Monica Smith
Fri, 10/12/07
8:21 am
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I can appreciate this post Monica but have to admit you dont sem to accept the fact that we are living in the USA...with the worst homicide rate amonsgt majpr indistrialzed nations......guns are al over the place, many are out of work, there are more homeless now than ever, the poor are poorer and even the most Christian of neighbours steals from their fellow men.............
We have many "gated" communities in this area........I dont live in one, but they are clean, safe, their seems to be pride of ownership (in other words no cars, abandoned school busses or old tires sitting on the front lawn), alot of silly nonsensical rules too.......the people probably pay extra for the security but dont blame them, they are not the ones perpetrating the crimes...........they work for their lot in life and IMO deserve whatever they may attain..........
Good morning everyone and so nice to see the celebrations, congratulations and honors to congrats to Al Gore for his much deserved Nobel Peace Prize!!
CONGATULATIONS PLANET EARTH and her citizens, Al Gore and IPCC have been given the recognition and the clout to save you!!!
Time for a COOL change,
Gore
2008
Yup, Monica ... doesn't it sound completely decadent?!
This is my husband's anniversary, birthday, and Christmas present this year (as well as for any lesser known festivals that may occur in between) and it had better last for the rest of our lives because it is the last one that I am buying.
You know that they have the flat screen TVs, but the flat screens can also be wall-mounted wall.
I have access to most of the major European channels and when any broadcast films or TV series in the original language as well as in the country's language and the original language happens to be English, I can with a flick of the switch, get the original English version.
Ah yes, and some like to perpetrate the myth that *Old Europe* is passe. More fools they.
Got an extra *wall* in my last ... please blame it on my excitement over Al!
Imn2Paine
Fri, 10/12/07
7:40 am
___________________________________________________________________________
Yes, but this is nothing new......the many immigrant families who moved here from Europe worked very hard to achieve a certain "status" they did not have before.......in the 1950s many fled the cites for suburbia. to be followed by the people they were fleeing from.........to the gated communities we have today..............
I seriously doubt you and Monica are living in a van down by the river...........if so, then if you are content with that then fine, but many would not be and would therefore either at their own choosing or by their parents encouraging seek their castle elsewhere..............
95.
Mike -
Monica, Paine, Reed, myself live in New England. Gated communities are not a common site here, due to the area already been maxed out land-wise decades ago (dense population), in comparision with other areas of the country, and due to the often larger zoned plots of land and the older tracts of land where zoning was looser than it is today.
The abandoned cars thing in the front yard can be a common site in some places, especially what I saw in Florida (what with small plots, as I witnessed in the southern part of Orlando), but up this way things are different --
-- we keep abandoned cars in the back yard.
92. Michael, I have lived in:
Watts
San Francisco
San Diego
Spanish Harlem
Bronx
Rural Pennsylvania
Washington, D.C
Durham, NH
Gainesville, Fl
Coastal Georgia
The only time I have been assaulted was when university police came to our house, supposedly to follow up on a complaint WE had made the previous day and assaulted the spouse when he refused to answer their question about his height. Then when I objected, after directing the kids to call the police and the mayor, they assaulted me, handcuffed me and stuffed me into a patrol car. The only real mistake I've made in my life, that I really regret, was that we did not sue the university for the false arrest. In part that was because we'd hired a lawyer who kept insisting we should plead to something and then revealed, when all the charges were dropped, that he'd never had an innocent client before. That was totally depressing.
That crime is the result of poverty is a myth. Rich people think that poor people want what they've got. They don't. Besides, if you look around you can't but miss that the most serious crimes are being committed by people who are already filthy rich.
The struggle we are in now is between the equal and the elite and the elite are running scared because they're in a real quandry. In order to be elite they need someone who's less. But, they not only fear those lesser mortals, they live in constant fear that they will become the less, as well. And so they lock themselves up in prisons. Sad. That's not liberty; it's not even freedom.
AL GORE WINS THE NOBEL PRIZE!!! I was in the shower when I heard the news and screamed out YESS!!! YESS!!! The neighbors have been calling to find out what kind of soap I use. 
YAY!!!!!!!
Thanks blog mates for the firsty news. Yes, is it possible we can get on an ethical, constructive, cooperative, and long term vision track. I'm elated and hopeful.
AL GORE, OUR HOPE FOR THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE! AL GORE FOR PRESIDENT!
95. Michael, the house I live in now was a barn (which we bought in 1969 for $2500 from a neighbor who wanted to send her daughter to nursing school) that the spouse and I converted with our own hands. The house across the road we "restored" forty years ago was originally built in 1740, as was the barn. The house next door was a barn in Concord the spouse took apart and turned into a house on a new foundation here.
We did not flee to the suburbs. I ended up in a suburban-type New England town but not by choice. I fled the Bronx for the simple reason that the divestment of public services had already begun--resources were being spent on highways and new suburbs, instead of keeping the cities in good working order. Well, actually, only parts of the cities. Fifth Avenue and Park and Greenwich Village never suffered from public disinvestment--only where the lesser people lived. More than the actual disinvestment, I was repulsed by the fact that there was the obvious discrimination. Little did I know then that there was much worse to be found in Florida. I battled that for seventeen years and then, when I realized I was nostalgic for the Bronx, I gave up.
Oh, yes forgot about Ithaca, New York, a minor city which was also seeing disinvestment in the core in the late '60s. The downtown high school had to be moved to the suburbs because the merchants didn't like the students hanging around after school. Then, a decade later, they were surprised that there were no shoppers in their stores and felt compelled to move to the malls along the highway.
http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/22546...
New thwead.
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By Annilow on Oct 11, 2007 11:04 PM EDTHoward Dean is first and I can't sleep till the Nobel is announced and there are sure gonna be a lot of disappointed Deaniacs if he doesn't get it.
Also:
Seashell -- Light & Prayers Lady -- Take care of your self.
On Turkey, there is a long and I'm sure learned diary at KOS on the subject and I tried to wade through it and will try again tomorrow. Must say on the surface though and surely an opinion based in pragmatism, seems absolutely suicidal to p*ss those folks off at this time, considering our shaky rep all over the world but especially in the ME, and with Turkey next to Iraq, and with Turkey being a democracy, secular, with mostly Muslims, that is pretty much working from what I know of it. I think the resolution is kind of like what I thought when Bush invented the Axis of Evil in his SOTU speech.
See y'all on the flip. Night.