December 2009 archive

Off to Oslo: “You Won It, Now Earn It”

Joining the company of those so well known for their efforts, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,  Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Jimmy Carter, President Obama will be at The Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony, 10 December in Oslo, Norway, where the president will give his Nobel Peace Prize Lecture.

According to the Nobel Foundation statutes, the Nobel Laureates are required “to give a lecture on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded”. Which presents quite a challenge for a president only in office less than 2 weeks before he was nominated, and who has twice escalated the Afghan war this year, after being selected to receive the peace prize. Perhaps his speech will include “some war for war but we war for peace?”

Anti-war activists who say that Obama’s escalation of the Afghan war by 30000 more soldiers has made a mockey of the Nobel Peace Prize, as the award includes honoring those who work for the reduction of standing armies,  will be on demonstrating near his hotel on Thursday, chanting and carrying signs “Change: Stop the War in Afghanistan.” and “You Won It, Now Earn It”

Barricades around Oslo’s compact downtown have been erected to help control the crowds expected to surge into the capital when Obama arrives. Norwegian police with machine guns guard the Grand Hotel, and bulletproof glass was installed at the hotel to protect the president during Thursday procession. Security at all time high for Norway costing them in USD 16 millions: There will be about 2,500 police and the Norwegian military with helicopters and sharpshooters. Over 400 manholes have been welded shut in downtown Oslo, and police will remove all downtown trash cans on Wednesday afternoon to eliminate potential hiding places for bombs. “This is the biggest and most demanding security operation in Norway’s history,” said Johan Fredriksen, chief of staff for the Oslo police.

Fredriksen said, however, protesters would be extended the same courtesy as Obama fans. “Whether they’re here to honor Obama or to put forth a message – we’re here for both,” he said.

___

President Jimmy Carter, who won the The Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development. President Jimmy Carter’s Nobel Lecture stated: “I am not here as a public official, but as a citizen of a troubled world who finds hope in a growing consensus that the generally accepted goals of society are peace, freedom, human rights, environmental quality, the alleviation of suffering, and the rule of law.”

Significant foreign policy accomplishments of the Jimmy Carter:

the Panama Canal treaties,

the Camp David Accords,

the treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel,

the SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union,

and the establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.

He championed human rights throughout the world.



Ralph Bunche, past winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Highlights of his lecture on peace:

“It is clear that global challenges must be met with an emphasis on peace, in harmony with others, with strong alliances and international consensus.  – not merely to preserve peace but also to make change, even radical change, without violence.”

‘For powerful countries to adopt a principle of preventive war may well set an example that can have catastrophic consequences.”

“To suggest that war can prevent war is a base play on words and a despicable form of warmongering. The objective of any who sincerely believe in peace clearly must be to exhaust every honorable recourse in the effort to save the peace. The world has had ample evidence that war begets only conditions that beget further war.”

House flipping making a comeback

It’s hard to believe it, but the housing bubble has not finished bursting.

 Four years after the collapse of the U.S. housing bubble, flipping homes is back in fashion.



 The minimum bid, as set by a unit of Citigroup Inc., which had a $1.3 million mortgage on the home, was $379,900. After several minutes of bidding among investors and their representatives, some wearing shorts and flip-flops, Mr. Mirmelli won the home for $486,300. A week later, he agreed to sell it for $690,000 to a woman who moved in this month.

After all these years, and all that heartbreak, people are still trying to get back to 2006.

     Just witness the failure of the HAMP program and Fannie Mae’s desperation. Everyone is trying to return to a past that was unsustainable.

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

Now with World and U.S. News.  62 Story Final.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Police illegally execute hundreds in Nigeria: Amnesty

by Aderogba Obisesan, AFP

Wed Dec 9, 10:25 am ET

ABUJA (AFP) – Police in Nigeria carry out hundreds of extra-judicial killings every year and only those who can afford to pay bribes can guarantee their safety from execution or torture, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

“The Nigeria Police Force is responsible for hundreds of extrajudicial executions, other unlawful killings and enforced disappearances every year,” the London-based rights group said in a damning report.

“The majority of cases go uninvestigated and unpunished,” it said.

Ho hum, this is getting boring!

How many times over the last 9 years have we had these moments?

They’re exactly the same, every time, whether they’re about the destruction of Habeus Corpus, funding the wars, whatever.   Seriously, you could just plug in a different issue each time, the response is always the same.   “Congress sold us out!   Harry Reid needs to lose his seat!   I can’t believe Pelosi did that!   Obama lied!”  

Every time the Dems sell us out and we scream and yell and say “they lost me”.

And what do we do about it?

Anybody start any new parties yet?

No?  Why not?

The two parties we have don’t represent us.   They’re two reflections of the same ruling “real” party.

If we want some actual representation, we have to provide it ourselves.

New parties.  New people.  New everything.  

Americans think they can just delegate everything.  They think they can “consume” politics the same way they “consume” other corporate products.

“Well, I buy Budweiser.  Therefore I am served by Budweiser.   I vote with my pocketbook for Budweiser, and that’s what I get, because that’s what I like.”

Doesn’t work that way in politics.   You have to get out there and create shit.   You can’t order your political house out of the Sears catalog any more.   You have to start from scratch, find the plot of land, cut down the trees, chop up the boards, forge our own nails, whatever.

we’re leaving DEMOCRATS, not the left

The left is leaving the left? This puzzles me. I’ve left the Democratic party but nobody is pulling me from my leftward leanings.

Or is this another orchestrated piece of bullshit to keep people attached to a political brand (Democrat)? Somehow the left is once again being misrepresented…

And that’s all I wanted to say. Let’s not be fooled again, guys. Let’s not hang desperately onto Democrats like we have no other choices.

We have choices. But what is it we want to accomplish? Really. What is achievable? Measurable by a wide audience? Where’s the best value for effort?

For me, it has remained thus: reinstate the fucking rule of law. Simple. Demand and achieve this: that those we elect to enforce and uphold our laws are held accountable to those laws. And then? Make sure those laws represent the very best of our values and ethics. Return law to justice. Not convenience or expedience. Not law based on fear or trying to control the things.

Get local and regional: School boards, town boards, zoning boards. Set good examples. Be honest. Be tolerant. Be practical.

We need a values change. Blame games, lambasting others, trying to derail the Sarah Palins of the world by calling them stupid isn’t getting it done… especially when we ought to understand what makes her a study in effectiveness. for me, it only exposes how ignorant and intolerant we are. Or maybe we’re just lazy. But give me a plan that doesn’t involve electing more and better democrats.

Anyway… that’s a 30.

Some GOOD NEWS from Congress! Drug Policy

(HT to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’s Cops say Legalize blog)

The Conference Committee dealing with the 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act has approved three significant reforms, following the lead of the House version,

* Washington, DC will finally be allowed to implement the medical marijuana initiative that voters overwhelmingly approved in 1998 but has been blocked by Congress each year since then.

* Funding for the White House “drug czar’s” ad budget has been slashed by more than a third of its size last year. Studies have repeatedly shown that these ads actually cause teens to use more — not fewer — drugs.

* Washington, DC will be able to use federal funds to implement syringe exchange programs.

The advertising budget for the  National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign comes in at $45 million, $25 million below 2009 and the Obama Administration’s request. This follows steady drops since 2000, when the Clinton Drug Czar’s office had a full half billion to play with. in the Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton years, this money was selectively applied to reward networks and other media outlets which played ball with the respective Administrations on unrelated issues, as originally exposed in a series of articles by D. Dan Forbes at Salon.com.

I’m pretty sure the lions share of the credit here goes to House Appropriations Chair Dave Obey, who sat on the Conference Committee, and has been strong behind the scenes on drug policy reform since 2003.

Obama Punked By Congress

“I want a Public Option,” President Obama says.

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“Fuck you, if you wanted it you should have done something about it, punk,” Congress replies.

Funny how perhaps the most popular Dem Pres since Kennedy can’t get what he wants on what was supposed to be THE signature legislation of his administration. Why it is almost as if he didn’t even try!

TONIGHT: Jessie Ventura Addresses Sept 11 Conspiracy

Last week over 1.6 Million viewers tuned-in to former Minnesota Governor Jessie Ventura’s program “Conspiracy Theory“, on the Cable TV Station TruTV (10:00pm), where he covered the secret Military program known as H.A.A.R.P.

HAARP is a phased-array Ionospheric heater that is capable of focusing large quantities of Electromagnetic energy into very localized regions that are very far away from the source. Ionospheric heaters can use the Ionosphere to reflect their energy at distances several thousand miles away by using the Ionosphere as a ‘mirror’ much the same way as AM radio signals travel over vast distances. Unlike an AM radio, HAARP can use phase interference to focus it’s energy on a localized area (such as the weak point on the power grid).

Simply put, HAARP is an Ionospheric Warfare device that can be used to manipulate and sabatoge Satellites, Electric grids, Computer Networks, and even cause substantial and severe Weather Manipulation.

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During the age of perpetual United States Warfare (and perpetual United States propaganda), along with the U.S. Patriot Act Police-State trend this Country has taken, there is justified concern here that not only would this Dr. Evil” type of weapon be used in Military situations abroad (why else would they have developed it?), but also employed domestically here as well, for whatever pretext du jour our Orwellian government insiders feel is “justified”.  

Thus, it is possible, for example, that weather events as serious as Katrina could be manipulated to occur on cue, and directed at specific areas.

_______

And now: Tonight on TruTV (10:00PM, but check your local listings), Jessie Ventura will have the floor once again to raise America’s most controversial conspiracy by challenging the 9/11 Commission Report and searching for evidence that the September 11th attacks may have been an inside job.

At the urging of victims’ families, he finds witnesses who claim the towers were brought down by explosives, the missing black box flight recorders were actually recovered and ground control knew the hijackers were in the cockpits before the jets took off.

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Full Court Press — what the OpenLeft brouhaha was about

This is the piece that briefly got posted on OpenLeft Saturday night, was yanked under orders from Chris Bowers on Sunday, and was the target of a bizarre counter-attack by Bowers on Sunday night.  I outline this in my comment https://www.docudharma.com/show… on BuhdyDharma’s Blogging and the Left thread.

It is merely a simple tactic, and a work in progres.

The Case

The health care reform debacle is beginning to stink to high heaven, whether or not some rotted carcass labeled “reform” ever gets passed.

Obama now proudly walks in the footsteps of Lyndon Johnson and George Bush as he ships 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Hopes of seriously regulating Wall Street have been dashed to bits by the Goldman Sachs economic team Obama has put in charge of the henhouse, while Wall Street pockets the bailout money that we gave them and plans its next round of Ponzi schemes.

Working families only face more unemployment, and foreclosures, while employers exploit the hard times to crack down on the still employed, and the social safety net provided by state and local governments is ripped asunder.

At this moment, Obama’s Fed nominee is touting creating jobs by gutting Social Security.

And hope is dying.  

Kate’s Old-Fashioned American Christmas

What Elves Really Do at Christmas



I have mentioned that I am an elf. Mama Elf, in fact, and that’s Papa there in the photo. Our children are Dipsy Elf and Elfis (thank you very much, complete with blue suede elf shoes), we do “line maintenance” at the mall during the holiday season where there’s always a long line of parents and kids waiting patiently to sit on some Santa’s knee and inform him of their heart’s desire – and get their picture taken so Mom and Dad can make Christmas cards to send off to the relatives.

We don’t work for the photo ding, though. We work for the mall itself. Pays much better. For the first two years after we’d moved to these mountains Papa and I provided the entertainment at a Christmas theme park in Cherokee, the only steady work we could find in our field in a new state and fairly unpopulated region since we determined to leave the city life behind. Six shows a day, seven days a week, 26 weeks a year from Memorial Day through Halloween. It was grueling, but did get us the ‘in’ we needed to market our elves to malls closer to home, and that allowed us to keep our curly toes in the profession we’d pioneered in North Florida all those many years ago.

We didn’t start out as elves. We started as clowns. Hubby and son as juggling partners, daughter as set designer and fill-in for balloon sculpture and face painting, me as last resort. I refused to learn to juggle because they would have sold me in the birthday party lineup, and I had my hands full already. I made the costumes, built the puppets, maintained the props, wrote the skit scripts, stage managed the rehearsals, and kept the calendar schedule up to date. Which was quite tricky in a region of more than 2 million people. Birthday parties, resorts, country clubs, company picnics, civic events, stage shows at festivals and night clubs and so many other venues. During the summer there was such a demand for your basic birthday party clown that we hired up to a dozen of the kids’ college friends and paid them $20 an hour (out of the $100 an hour we charged) after training, which was our son SkyPup’s department.

“Drying for Freedom” (clothes, that is)

The website asks:

Due to be released in 2010, Drying For Freedom is a film about communities and freedom; with 50 million clotheslines banned in the U.S alone, are we hanging our planet out to dry?

They also state:

Dryers use 10 to 15% of domestic energy in the United States!

Wow — now that’s saying something!

These guys are hilarious, here’s another quote:

We are in hot water… if we don’t use cold!

It is way past time to push people to wash with cold water. Washing with cold water saves almost as much energy as using a clothesline. Join the Cold War!

Their principles are sterling — an answer to questions asked here, I think (what do we do?):

Principles

It is not enough to define a problem and offer no solutions.

Our consumption patterns create the demand for electricity.

The generation of nuclear power is an inefficient energy source producing an abundance of hazardous waste of which we cannot safely dispose.

Raising awareness of existing alternatives to nuclear power and large hydroelectric projects will help people and corporations to make appropriate technological choices.

Nobody should have to live, work, or play near a nuclear facility.

No culture or community should be destroyed by a hydroelectric facility or any other monolithic corporate project.

The sun is the most powerful nuclear reactor and can serve many purposes-none of which should be ignored.

All citizens nation-wide should have the legal right to hang out their laundry.

North Americans, as all people, must lead by example.

Frugality, or thrift, needs to be a universally practiced virtue.

I especially like the last one. I think this use to be a revered principle — true?

Explore the site and find out more, here:

http://www.dryingforfreedom.com/

I blogged this future in 2007

http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Boycott All Fundraising For The Sitting Congress Hotlist

by pinche tejano

Wed Sep 12, 2007 at 09:52:50 AM PST

You are nothing but an ATM to the Democratic Party. Daily Kos is a cash cow they pander to only during election years because of the money you can generate for their campaigns. And once you have secured their seats, they no longer return your calls, and your emails are returned with generated noreply responses. They do not care what you think, they only want you for your money.

Once they have what they want, they do not feel the need to comply with the wishes  of the ones who sent them there. You are irrelevant in their eyes since they have no need for fund raising this year. If they cared, if they truly cared what the netroots wanted, they would act on the principles of those who canvassed, those who worked their phones, those who gave them money.

They don’t. You are just a typing ATM machine to them, and nothing more.

If they cared,

They would have repealed the USA Patriot Act. (Unresolved)

They would have repealed the Bankruptcy Act. (Actually made this worse)

They would have restored habeas corpus. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would have repealed the Military Commissions Act. (Unresolved)

They would have reformed the Prescription Drug Act (Actually turned this into corporate welfare)

They would have repealed the Clear Skies Act. (Unresolved)

They would have reformed the Farm Bill. (Made horrifically worse and let Monsanto expand their intellectual property claims)

They would have dealt with the budget by now. (FUBAR)

They would have crafted a withdrawal plan, ANY PLAN, to get out of Iraq. (Adopted Bush Planning)

They would be supply our troops with legitimate body armor, made camel packs standard issue and fast-tracked the MARP into production to replace the vulnerable Humvee. They would have increased veterans benefits, they would have REALLY dealt with the Walter Reeds of the land and they definitely would have protected the troops from the back-door drafts. They would actually be supporting the troops. (Unresolved, Walter Reed Scandal forgotten, extending tours for broken military)

They would have repealed or reformed No Child Left Behind. (Unresolved)

They would have restored all points of the Geneva Convention. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would have issued subpoenas to the DOJ. (Called to dismiss this case by Holder)

They would have issued subpoenas for warrantless domestic wiretapping. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would have issued subpoenas for intelligence gather before the war. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would have issued subpoenas for corruption in non-bid contracts in Iraq. (Contracts were extended and process still broken.)

They would have helped New Orleans by now. (FUBAR)

They would have reformed the student loan fiasco. (FUBAR)

They would be pro-active in protecting the environment. (FUBAR)

They would be pro-active in protecting worker’s rights. (FUBAR, especially for LGBT)

They would be pro-active in ethics reform. (Unresolved)

They would be pro-active in health care reform. (Ha, we all know how this is ending)

They would be pro-active in restoring our nation’s infrastructure. (Shovel Ready Projects still waiting for shovels.)

They would be pro-active in developing non-carbon emitting power grids. (Unresolved)

They would be pro-active in developing non-carbon emitting transportation. (Unresolved)

They would be pro-active in restoring faith in the ballot box. (Unresolved, Obama took Bush’s One Ring of Imperial Executive)

They would be pro-active in restoring faith in the American dream. (They only hand out nightmares)

They do not care, they have done none of this. They only care about how much money you can put in the war chest. You are just a cash cow they milk every two years and then go about on their merry way.

They are laughing at you. They are laughing at you because you believe you have a place at the table. They are laughing at you because you believe that by supporting them, change will come. They are laughing at you because you bought their pandering hook, line and sinker.

The only power you have is the power of the purse for their campaigns. Get their attention.

BOYCOTT ALL FUNDRAISING FOR SITTING MEMBERS OF CONGRESS WHO USE YOU AS A CASH COW.

Boycott them now, then I bet you get their attention.

Not a single penny more for these people, unless you enjoy being laughed at.

——

Sometimes I really wish I wasn’t right all the time.

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