October 2007 archive

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Blackwater involved in 195 Iraq shootings
By Sue Pleming, Reuters
45 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Security contractor Blackwater was involved in at least 195 shooting incidents in Iraq since 2005, said a congressional report on Monday that also panned the State Department’s oversight of the company.

State Department contractor Blackwater, under investigation for the shooting deaths of 11 Iraqis on September 16, will answer questions about that incident and others at what is expected to be a testy congressional hearing on Tuesday.

Senior State Department officials will also be grilled by the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform examining whether the growing use of military contractors undermines U.S. efforts in Iraq.

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
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…

Can realism avert global catastrophe?

This is an attempt to unmask the paucity of thought implied in political “realism” as typically portrayed on DKos and elsewhere.  It concludes with a plea for “unrealism” in politics.  Realism has punted in Iraq, civil rights, health insurance, and education; can we expect it to do any better with climate change?

(crossposted @ DKos)

The Clintons and Gores: Not So Peaceful Coexistence

crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress

Bill Clinton is the consummate politician.  The man remains wildly popular with many constituencies in the Democratic Party.  Some even remember his presidency fondly, given the nightmare of what has followed him.  With his wife Senator Hillary Clinton seeking to become the 2008 Democratic nominee, Bill is enthusiastically campaigning for her. 

Will someone new emerge to challenge Hillary in 2008?  This from the New York Times blog ‘The Caucus’

But perhaps the biggest takeaway from it all is a meta-story – that Vanity Fair‘s editor, Graydon Carter, apparently seemed to think that Al Gore was going to jump into the ’08 race sometime soon.

Mr. Gore could still enter the race, of course.  But this is the second major Vanity Fair piece this fall that attempts to dig deep into Goreworld.; the first piece assessed the media’s coverage of Mr. Gore during the 2000 campaign, reminding readers of the Vice President’s press problems way back when and ruminating on how he would fare with the Fourth Estate if he were to run again.

Music REVOLUTION!!!

cross posted at Dailykos.com

Just thinking about the amount of change that our country needs to return to an actual Democracy is extremely taxing mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

As I have read these diaries I have almost decided to stop even bothering with politics or believing in social change.  It seems that we are stuck in a society that feeds upon human blood, takes advantage of the poor, and begins war out of a desire for quick profit for the rich, while keeping it out of the eyes of a media dazed public…AND NOBODY CARES. 

DailyKos must make this information from this website available to the world.  Some have taken to the streets in D.C.  Others make documentaries, post things on our car windows, houses and etc. 

These things will attract more attention, however, we need a complete revolution of conciousness if change is to occur.

In the hope that seeds of vast change will blossom before we are screwed 30 years from now with even more war, death, poverty, overpopulation; I suggest the soothing, meditative qualities of music to bring us back to the present challenge.

So music lovers of DKOS:  What songs are most enlightening to you right now as you seek change?

Midnight Cowboying – 1953

Okay, show of hands, who remembers 1953? Don’t be shy, I know there are few here who fondly remember that year. It was just yesterday to some, all those years ago. America was in its post-war prime.

Ah yes, 1953. Quite a year! The movie Peter Pan premiered at the Roxy Theatre, New York City. The first transsexual Christine Jorgenson returns to New York after successful sexual reassignment surgery in Denmark. The first 3D film, Bwana Devil opens, sparking the 3D glasses craze. James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce that they have discovered the structure of the DNA molecule.

Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay perform the first successful ascent to the summit of Mount Everest. The first Chevrolet Corvette is built at Flint, Michigan. The Korea War ends. And of course, the first color television sets go on sale for about $1,175.

In the theaters, Here to Eternity is a big smash, as is the western Shane. And who can forget War of the Worlds, or the Wild One.

For the Love and Rememberance of…..

COOKBOOKS.

This weekend was chock o’block full of mind altering talks. First a panel, held during the Santa Barbara Book & Author’s Festival, discussing the future of newspapers. Followed by a talk given by Naomi Klein on her new book The Shock Doctrine and later a discussion with friends over coffee and dessert about the lecture.

Then, there was the Annual Planned Parenthood Booksale and it’s myriad of donated selections…including cookbooks. So, what’s all the fuss and a diary about cookbooks? I’ll try to explain below the fold.

Looking For Allies

At Talk Left, Miss Devore wrote in response to a comment pooh poohing not funding the Iraq Debacle:

great idea

let’s just accept we have to continue a criminal pre-emptive war, whereby we are visiting unimaginable suffering upon people. let’s just say it’s an out-of-control frat party. ok, mebbe a million dead, another 2M displaced, an entire country trashed.

and you worry about Pelosi being fragged?

You don’t seem to get the arrogance.

the Senate supported partitioning Iraq.

you go and sit on some other country telling you what your bidness should be.

At pff, sabrina wrote:

. . . If ending the war is, as he claims, his primary reason for being involved, he could have joined forces with all the other blogs who really were working for the same thing, and saying the same things he was. . . . I would join forces with anyone (with the exception of a very few) and set aside all  former feelings about them temporarily, if together we could force this govenrment to stop this war. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) So would I. I ask both of them what they suggest we can do. I am prepared to work with anyone to try and end the Iraq Debacle. I’ll be reading both of them where they write for suggestions.

I hope they see this diary and respond with their best ideas.

We Have a Dream

Each year approximately 2.8 million students graduate from US High Schools. Some will go on to college, join the military, or take other paths in life, hopefully all becoming productive members of society. But for approximately 65,000 of them, these opportunities will never be available. Not because they lack motivation, or achievement, but because of the undocumented status passed on to them by their parents.

Lacking legal status and social security numbers, these students, raised and schooled in the US, cannot apply to college, get jobs other than those at the bottom of the economic ladder, or otherwise follow their dreams. They grew up on American soil, worked hard and succeeded in spite of all odds, and want nothing more than to be recognized as individuals and not just the holders of a status they had no part in acquiring.

In Washington, politicians have debated the fate of these kids for more than seven years, holding lives and futures in their hands while vying for political advantage. But lost in the debate are the voices of the children – voices that should be heard. 

Welcome to Canuckistan

noblesse oblige pachter

A lot of progressives mention a desire to come to Canada.

Doing this can take a bit of time and effort, but it is pretty simple.  

No Beast So Dumb As Man

a Docudharma exclusive

I woke up this morning recovering from the flu, still weak and vaguely feverish.  I haven’t written much lately and feel the need to do so.  Where to begin, the cold-blooded murder of peace-loving monks in Myanmar, the outrageous crimes of our own outlaw government, the shameful bastards in our do-nothing congress, the back-stabbing republican-lite democrats, the hot air from our ‘leaders’ on global warming, war profiteering as the new national pastime, the black-hearted evil of the military-industrial-congressional-media complex, the armies of lying blowhards on the TeeVee, the Halliburton detention centers being constructed across the country for the detention of ‘potential terrorists’ (such as bloggers, demonstrators, peace activists, and real democrats), national indignation at silly newspaper ads while the killing and dying goes on unimpeded – so much horror and madness, so little time.

Weakened and overwhelmed by the harsh realities of the day, I am reduced to communicating via art and poetry.

Stop Blaming Democrats in Congress!

(This was originally posted earlier on DKOS and slightly altered)

It’s not that I’m sick of hearing how the Dems are selling out and all that–it’s always good to vent, to express yourself and so on. But here’s my beef: enough already! We know the score or should by now–nothing wrong with a little ranting but at this point let’s rant creatively and in an entertaining way rather than constantly expressing the obvious.

People in Congress are there to respond to realpolitikal conditions they see–that’s their expertise. They are not in their position because they are philosophers, mystics, men and women of letters, common ordinary folks–don’t expect them to “do the right thing” that’s not how the world has ever worked except on rare occasions. In a few instances men (usually) of extraordinary abilities got together and made sine little miracles that change history. Our own country was founded by these extraordinary characters. The last three political leaders that had that kind of stature were John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King; true, they all had flaws but they were extraordinary human beings that would have set the groundwork for a very different society than the Bush family and others have created.

Load more