From the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/busines…
July 2008 archive
Jul 12 2008
Through the Darkest of Nights: Testament XXVI
Every few days over the next several months I will be posting installments of a novel about life, death, war and politics in America since 9/11. Through the Darkest of Nights is a story of hope, reflection, determination, and redemption. It is a testament to the progressive values we all believe in, have always defended, and always will defend no matter how long this darkness lasts. But most of all, it is a search for identity and meaning in an empty world.
Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb, we did not know our mother’s face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father’s heart? Which of us has not remained prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? ~Thomas Wolfe
All installments are available for reading here on Docudharma’s Series page, and also here on Docudharma’s Fiction Page, where refuge from politicians, blogging overload, and one BushCo outrage after another can always be found.
Jul 12 2008
Friday Night at 8: “So you can do whatever you want with me”
I don’t know how to write about this, but I’m going to try anyway.
I’ve been following the discussion on immigration for over a year, and there are a lot of complexities to it and a lot of back story.
But this story is so terrible that I don’t think you need to know all the details of the law or intricacies of how we got to where we are in the United States as far as our broken immigration policies are concerned.
This story is about an essay written by Dr. Erik Camayd-Freixas, a certified Spanish interpreter for federal courts, who was present at the ICE raid in Postville, Iowa.
I found out about this essay in a circuitous way. I first read the entire essay at The Sanctuary where Duke had it up in its entirety. Immediately after reading it, I rebooted the essay and found he had removed it … turns out Dr. Camayd-Freixas had asked him to refrain from posting it after finding that the New York Times was going to do a front page story on it. Duke and other pro-migrant bloggers complied. Now that the story has been published, the essay is once again up at The Sanctuary.
Today I read the story in the New York Times which, of course, was heavily edited due to space concerns and as a result, the true impact of what happened was highly muted, though it was still an incredibly terrible story.
Dr. Camayd-Freixas was called to Postville to interpret but was not initially told why or what was going to happen. The ICE, now part of the Department of Homeland Security, had planned this raid on Agriprocessors, Inc. for a long time in utter secrecy.
Jul 12 2008
Friday Philosophy: Despondency
Each day I can watch him trudging home from wherever he has been. Fortunately it is downhill from the bus stop to where he lives. He never smiles, eyes focused on the ground a few feet in front of his pace.
Beaten down.
The world so heavy that he can’t even look up.
Shoulders sagging under the weight of the last straw, and the last straw before that… and the one before that. A succession of so many minor beatings to the ego that he flinches reflexively at anything, everything, expecting the worst
Back bent from too many sorrows.
And you want him to rise up?
Why? Is his life going to be better? Tomorrow, when he rolls out of bed, is anything he interacts with going to be better than it was? Is it worth his effort? Does he have any effort to give?
I’ve been there, a time or two…or ten, when all one worried about was where the next bottle, or toke, or hit was coming from, anything to reach numb. Anything more than numb was a bonus.
Jul 11 2008
Healing the Divide: Hey Crackhead
Sometimes other people disappoint us. Sometimes people we don’t even personally know let us down and cause us pain. At those times we have a choice to make: reach out to the offending party in peace to keep open the lines of communication or declare all-out war and severe any hope of connection.
Perhaps we can take a lesson from the creative response of one injured individual. He used Craigs List to reach out, offering connection, vulnerably sharing his pain while holding firm to his principles. Here is exemplary letter, courtesy of Best of Craigs List.
This may look long, but the subtlety is mostly in the details. I assure you every word contributes to the whole.
Jul 11 2008
Four at Four
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The NY Times reports the OPEC leader issues a warning about Iran and the oil supply. “Iran, the second-largest producing country in OPEC after Saudi Arabia, produces about four million barrels of oil a day out of the daily worldwide production of close to 87 million barrels.”
Abdalla Salem el-Badri, the OPEC secretary general, warned that “oil prices would experience an ‘unlimited’ increase in the event of a military conflict involving Iran”.
“We really cannot replace Iran’s production – it’s not feasible to replace it… The prices would go unlimited,” Mr. Badri said during the interview, referring to the effect of a military conflict. “I can’t give you a number.”
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The Guardian reports an Afghan government inquiry has concluded that a US air strike wiped out an Afghan wedding party. “A US air strike killed 47 civilians, including 39 women and children, as they were travelling to a wedding in Afghanistan, an official inquiry found today. The bride was among the dead. Another nine people were wounded in Sunday’s attack, the head of the Afghan government investigation, Burhanullah Shinwari, said.”
“Fighter aircraft attacked a group of militants near the village of Kacu in the eastern Nuristan province, but one missile went off course and hit the wedding party, said the provincial police chief spokesman, Ghafor Khan. The US military initially denied any civilians had been killed.“
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The LA Times reports that About 33% of coral species threatened with extinction. A worldwide assessment by international group of scientists have found that 32.8%, nearly one-third, of the more than 700 coral species “face an elevated risk of extinction from global warming” and destructive fishing practices and pollution. According to the study’s co-author, marine biologist David Obura, the “loss of coral reefs could have a profound effect on more than 500 million impoverished fishermen in the tropics who rely on them to feed themselves and their families”.
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Finally, this from BBC News — Urban farming takes root in Detroit.
The idea is very simple: turn wasteland into free vegetable gardens and feed the poor people who live nearby.
Motown has lost more than a million residents since its heyday in the 1950s and it is common to see downtown residential streets with just a few houses left standing.
Taja Sevelle saw the hundreds of hectares of vacant land in the city and came up with the idea of creating an organic self-help movement that would be “affordable (and) practical”…
Visiting one of the largest allotments, on a site that had been derelict since Detroit’s infamous 1967 riots, locals spoke about an astonishing transformation…
“That’s one cucumber you didn’t have to pay 69 cents for,” she adds, with a smile.
There are no fences but one local said greed had not been a problem.
“People are only taking what they need, because they know it’s for everybody,” he said.
NPR also has a story about this: Farms Take Root in Detroit’s Foreclosures. Transforming Motown into Growtown!
Beginning on Monday and for the following two weeks, Four at Four will hopefully be brought to you by an amazing guest editor!
Jul 11 2008
Whaaat? No Parting Gifts???
“Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither.”
How bout some frikkin Turtle Wax then? Or a years supply of Rice-A-Roni?
Can I at least get, like, a $10 phone card?!?!?
I’m a AMERICAN dammit! If you sell my Constitutional Rights….
I at least want some decent shwag in return!
In fact I am putting CorporAmerica on notice right NOW!
When you guys finally drown my planet, I at least want a Korpororate Kommemorative Kayak!
Jul 11 2008
Life Not Worth As Much As 5 Years Ago – WTF?
Your Government is at work. It’s HARD WORK to put a value on an American life, but by gosh, Your Government is willing to do it. Not only are they willing to do it, but in the past five years, Your Government has downgraded the WORTH of your life by $900,000.00.
Let’s take a peek into this piece of unsavory news.
From AP:
It’s not just the American dollar that’s losing value. A government agency has decided that an American life isn’t worth what it used to be.
The “value of a statistical life” is $6.9 million in today’s dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May – a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago.
The Associated Press discovered the change after a review of cost-benefit analyses over more than a dozen years.
Though it may seem like a harmless bureaucratic recalculation, the devaluation has real consequences.
When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule. The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution.
Jul 11 2008
Brave New Foundation: “In Their Boots” Episode 2- Webcasts
The first episode of the groundbreaking new live webcast “In Their Boots” aired on Wednesday, 2 July 2008, with host Jan Bender as he explored the lives of the Babin family as they care for their wounded veteran son Alan. That premeir show was Part 1 on Alan and the Babin family, Part 2 aired this past wednesday, 7-9-08.
Jul 11 2008
Docudharma Times Friday July 11
Cowboy George
Sure Loves
That Good Ole Fashion
Air Pollution
Sudan Leader To Be Charged With Genocide
Peace Efforts in Darfur Could Be Hampered, Some U.N. Officials Fear
By Colum Lynch and Nora Boustany
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 11, 2008; Page A01
UNITED NATIONS, July 10 — The chief prosecutor of the Internationals Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant Monday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity in the orchestration of a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the nation’s Darfur region during the past five years, according to U.N. officials and diplomats.The action by the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, will mark the first time that the tribunal in The Hague charges a sitting head of state with such crimes, and represents a major step by the court to implicate the highest levels of the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur.
South Korean tourist shot dead in North Korea
Jonathan Watts, east Asia correspondent
guardian.co.uk,
Friday July 11, 2008
A North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean tourist who wandered into a restricted zone today, casting a shadow over hopes of a resumption of bilateral talks between the two sides of the divided peninsular.The fatal shooting at the Mount Kumgang resort this morning coincided with a breakthrough offer by the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, to resume dialogue and provide food aid to the North.
According to the Seoul-based Yonhap news agency, the soldier opened fire on the 53-year-old woman tourist surnamed Pak after she crossed into a military area.
USA
A Trickle That Turned Into a Torrent
By CHARLES DUHIGG
Published: July 11, 2008
The word began spreading across Wall Street trading desks on Monday morning: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the giant companies at the heart of the nation’s housing market, might be in trouble.
The tumult, which continued on Thursday, started with a cautionary analyst’s report, one that might have caused few ripples in normal times. But these are not normal times. Within minutes, the price of the companies’ shares was plunging, sending shock waves through the financial markets, the economy and Washington.
Jul 11 2008
Muse in the Morning
 Muse in the Morning |
If there is a “We” and we want the world to be a better place, then one would think we would want to join in common cause, which requires finding common ground. That last thing is not so easy.
State of the Onion XXVII
Art Link Suspended in Blue
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