A fellow traveler, Diane G, needs a new roof. So do I. She needs help. I do not.
October 3, 2010 archive
Oct 03 2010
“Dump Corporate Dems” – Going Green at the State Level, to “make Dems do it” at the Federal level
Bruce Dixon, from the Black Agenda Report, wrote a very interesting diary for OpenLeft called “Moving the conversation forward — our plan in Georgia”
http://openleft.com/diary/2033…
In that diary, Dixon goes into the substantial roadblocks to primarying bad Dems, including a dearth of plausible allies inside the Democratic Party:
Though Rev. Lowery and some others are dear friends and respected elders, the traditional civil rights organizations have also been captured by corporate donors. Neither they nor labor are any use at all in challenging any elected Democrat.
Primarying these corporate Democrats has many disadvantages, some of which I’ve discussed elsewhere. The most telling for me are that
1. no news coverage on political issues makes getting people’s attention in primary seasons much harder work than it ought to be
2. once the primary season is over, you have to flog the vote out for a slate of corporate Dems who often despise your entire community.
Dixon then goes into the strategy for growing a Green Party in GA, initially in at least the black areas of the state. His plan seems reasonable and do-able, though on re-reading it, I have to confess I’m not sure if he’s only focussed on attaining state offices, for the time being! That’s how I read the diary, when it came out.
More after the flip
Oct 03 2010
Banks Spin Illegal Foreclosures, Media Act As Stenographers
Talk about journalists being stenographers to powerful, banking interests. Banks which are foreclosing home mortgages are getting a walk in the traditional press because the press insists on reporting that the banks “didn’t read the documents” filed in court, rather than that the banks swore to documents that were palpably false and filed in courts, all in the service of taking title to homes in foreclosure so they could be re-sold and their present occupants could be evicted.
Join me in the fine print.
Oct 03 2010
Had To Cry Today
(for those who don’t know, my husband has inoperable lung cancer, stage 3 1/2… and we need roof because its full of mold, and he thinks we can do it but we can’t but we must – so its up to me to beg, borrow or steal before all 3 of us die of black mold…I wrote about it here last week)
I despise me weak, but I so often am. I suppose, my honesty about when I am endears me to people. You know, people who, like the watchers of reality TV cannot imagine themselves bleeding publicly. I’m the live bloody accident you cannot look away from, a curiosity in the human condition. Reality unscripted. But trust me, I hold back more than you can imagine.
But other times, I just tell the stories I CAN tell, otherwise I could not breathe.
In some ways, you are my lifeline. But in reality you are nothing, for I would write even if there was not an eye left to view it. Its how I survive,
I had to cry today; no! I didn’t have to, it was drawn out for the oddest reasons, and reached into my most vulnerable places, places I never write about. In fact, until I’m done typing, I don’t know if I’ll even go there now.
Oct 03 2010
Obama, CIA destabilizing Pakistan with expanding war
A generation ago Lyndon Johnson’s secret CIA war in Laos caused liberals to take to the streets in justified moral outrage. That morality, idealism, and liberal values have been replaced by bland pragmatism that threatens to allow another military and political catastrophe.
The standoff began three days ago when a pair of Apache helicopters attacked a border post inside Pakistan, killing three soldiers.
But a change of direction may ultimately place a great strain on relations with Pakistan and prove counterproductive, according to retired general Talat Masood.
“These attacks are very serious for Pakistan. It goes to show [coalition forces] are expanding their zone of conflict and violating Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty,” he says.
“This war against militants is not just a question of using force – you have to get the whole country to support you. You should not alienate the people in such a way which can be very harmful,” he says, adding that such strikes have the power to “destabilize” Pakistan.
The lesson from the wars in south-east Asia was that bombing unstable countries has unintended and disastrous consequences. It appears we are determined to learn that lesson all over again.
Oct 03 2010
One Nation–Nice Notion
I went to the One Nation rally today–walked around as much as I could took photos and so on. The day was beautiful–this is the best time of year in the Washington area.
The focus of the rally was really on organized labor and the multi-cultural community and it very much reminded me Jesse Jackson’s old rainbow coalition. It was a pleasant outing with some a lot of speeches, Marian Wright Edelman speech struck me as important–the rest, with the exception of Harry Belafonte’s (rightly warning us about the spreading authoritarianism) speech weren’t much to write home about.
I liked the fact that labor unions were so well represented. It always makes me sad to see unions try to organize and represent people–it’s such an uphill battle for them and all the cards are stacked against them and they know it.
The rally wasn’t that large, it was, as the papers say, in the tens of thousands–for once they got the crowd size reasonably right.