Amnesty International has a new, graphic campaign to gather together the many voices who demand that the United States tear down Gitmo.
October 2007 archive
Oct 05 2007
The Other Affirmative Action
Via atrios and TAPPED, Jack and Jill Politics and my old blogging friend Prometheus 6:
At the elite colleges – dim White kids
By Peter Schmidt
September 28, 2007AUTUMN AND a new academic year are upon us, which means that selective colleges are engaged in the annual ritual of singing the praises of their new freshman classes.
Surf the websites of such institutions and you will find press releases boasting that they have increased their black and Hispanic enrollments, admitted bumper crops of National Merit scholars or became the destination of choice for hordes of high school valedictorians. Many are bragging about the large share of applicants they rejected, as a way of conveying to the world just how popular and selective they are.
What they almost never say is that many of the applicants who were rejected were far more qualified than those accepted. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, it was not the black and Hispanic beneficiaries of affirmative action, but the rich white kids with cash and connections who elbowed most of the worthier applicants aside.
White Man’s Burden.
Oct 05 2007
“We Do Not Torture”
Oct 05 2007
I Got Nuttin’
Or rather there are a whole bunch of little Somethings that add up to Nuttin.
Oct 05 2007
Iraq: Not The President
Ezra Klein wrote a great piece taking apart the very silly Roger Cohen's lament that “liberal hawks” like himself are misunderstood. They are NOT neocons Cohen insists. Ezra responded:
This shouldn't be necessary to say, but increasingly, it seems like the only point worth making to the commentariat. American politics isn't about you. It's not about your ideas, or your personal vision of the world, or your purity. . . . It is the impact of your ideas, and your commentary, that matters. . . . Here's why: Roger Cohen is not president. George W. Bush is. And until Roger Cohen's foreign policy vision integrates itself with an understanding of American power, and how ideas interact with the current administration, he is, effectively, a neoconservative, or, worse, an enabler of the neoconservatives who's able to advocate for their policy agenda without needing to answer for their failures.
(Emphasis supplied.) Great stuff. But it is worth asking this question – are progressive pundits, progressive blogs, and progressive activists considering how their “ideas interact with the current administration?” I think not. There is precious little discussion from most about the fact that the only way to stop the Bush Administration's Iraq Debacle is to not fund it after a date certain. So either they are of the view that NOTHING can stop the Iraq Debacle while Bush is President (and if they think so, they should say so), or they are just as guilty of the narcissism Klein accuses Cohen of. Moreover, while George Bush will not be President after January 2009, neither will Ezra Klein or any other progressive pundit, blogger or activist. More.
Oct 05 2007
The TaleMaster 1…A’Drui
This little tale started itself about a dozen years ago. It was originally a one page background for a D&D character. Then came a dream or three which added so much more. Life & Death interfered for many years. I’ve begun dreaming of the tale again, recently. This will eventually be a book, I hope.
This is the first public ‘showing’ of my scribblings. Please tell me what you think!
PS
my Heartfelt Thanks to Pfiore8, DianeW and Cronesense for their many words of encouragement & inspiration…
Especial Thanks to ek…for making this readable…
And last but certainly not least…
Thank You buhdy! I Love this place.
This never would have seen the light in orange.
Oct 05 2007
Rest in Peace
Alice Walker had to defend herself from fierce attacks after she wrote “The Color Purple.” Mostly these came from folks who didn’t like the fact that she was writing about a black man (she just called him “Mr.”) abusing a black woman. I think it probably was difficult work to do, since it would very likely be used as fuel for racism.
But she explained, in her book of essays, “Living by the Word” that she carefully portrayed Mr.’s father as “light skinned” in both the book and the movie. Her point was that Mr.’s father was the son of a slave and a slave owner – a son of both the oppressed and the oppressor. All of this came from deep in Alice’s soul where she battled for years to accept her own white great-great-grandfather, who had raped a girl of 11 and she bore him a son, her great grandfather.
Oct 05 2007
Pony Party, something silly
Shitty Day:
I wanted to do something ‘light’, hopefully make someone smile today. I hope you can find a smile somewhere today if not here.
Oct 05 2007
Wakey, Wakey It’s Morning News
Grab your morning cup of coffee and I’ll have a beer and let’s discover what’s been happening in the world while you slept.
Remember Morning News is an Open Thread
Myanmar democracy leader Suu Kyi considers offer to meet top general
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will consider positively a heavily conditioned offer to meet the junta leader, her party said Friday, as a US envoy headed to meet leaders of the isolated regime.The ruling generals made the offers of dialogue as the United Nations readied to discuss the violent crackdown on the largest pro-democracy demonstrations in almost 20 years in the country formerly called Burma.
U.S.: 25 killed in firefight with Shiite militia
Military says troops were targeting commander believed linked to Iran
BAGHDAD – U.S. forces killed at least 25 members of a rogue Shiite militia in a heavy firefight early Friday, the military said.The troops were targeting a militia commander believed to be associated with members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force and responsible for moving weapons from Iran into Baghdad, the military said.
Pakistan court ruling a setback for Musharraf
Court OKs election, but rules that announcement of results has to wait
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that the country can hold its presidential election Saturday but may only declare the winner after the court rules on whether President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the expected victor, is eligible to run.
Editorial
Misleading Spin on Children’s Health
Trying to justify his ideologically driven veto of a bill to expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, President Bush and his staff have fired a barrage of misinformation about this valuable program. Before the House votes on whether to override the veto, all members – especially those from Mr. Bush’s party who say they are concerned about millions of uninsured children – must look behind the rhetoric.
Oct 05 2007
Comparing Two LA Times Pieces on Guantanamo and Torture
The LA Times is today running a news story and an opinion piece that together make for an interesting contrast.
The news story is about congressional efforts to obtain copies of the two recently revealed secret Justice Department memos. These memos, it appears, reversed an earlier abstention from cruel and painful treatment of terrorism suspects.
The opinion piece is by Clive Stafford-Smith, a lawyer for detainees in Guantanamo Bay. He describes some of the things he sees every time he visits his clients. That is, things about which there is no dispute at all, unread memos aside.
Reading these two pieces side-by-side leaves the reader slightly dizzy, bewildered. Congress is demanding memos which may disclose that Justice is secretly allowing the infliction of inhuman, painful, or degreading treatment of prisoners.
Meanwhile, Mr. Stafford-Smith sees inhuman, painful, or degrading treatment of prisoners every time he visits Guantanamo. For example, he is not allowed to bring throat lozenges to an imprisoned journalist whose anti-hunger-strike feeding tubes are inserted and removed twice a day by Guantanamo guards, unnecessarily, increasing the discomfort and pain he endures.
Let’s read snips of these pieces, side-by-side.
Oct 05 2007
What are you reading?
Oct 05 2007
Muse in the Morning
 Muse in the Morning |
The muses are ancient. The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them. Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward. In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.
It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse. Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets. Others have been suggested throughout the centuries. I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts. And maybe there should be many more.
Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…
[Inside: Part II of America the Ugly]