January 2010 archive

Jan 09 2010

On Pots And Kettles, Or, Peter King: Tool Of Terrorism, Victim Of Irony

As a result of a recent event involving an aircraft and underpants Representative Peter King (R-Not From Iowa), the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, has again come forth to bring his expertise on questions of international terrorism to the national debate.

King, a Congressman who represents a district that straddles New York’s Long Island (NY-3), previously served as the Comptroller of Nassau County and a member of Hempstead, New York’s Town Council, which wouldn’t seem to be the kind of résumé that would give you much credibility in this arena-but Mr. King is a special case.

You see, Mr. King knows a great deal about terrorism…from the inside…because for many years the personal cause that drove his life was to be an active and public supporter of a terrorist group.

And that’s why, today, we’ll be connecting the dots between Congressman King and the Irish Republican Army.

Jan 09 2010

Funkalicious Friday

Jan 09 2010

Never forget, never forgive

Nearly four and a half years ago this nation experienced the two worst disasters of this past decade: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans’ federal flood. Today many consider them old news, if not history, but they still are present in the lives of those who survived them.

Jan 09 2010

Marcy Winograd Nails Waxman and Harman

Congressman Waxman wrote a vicious attack on Marcy Wingrad and in support of blue dog Jane Harman.  

Here is part of his disgusting letter attacking a progressive:

To me, the notion that a Member of Congress could hold these views is alarming. Ms. Winograd is far, far outside the bipartisan mainstream of views that has long insisted that US policy be based upon rock-solid support for our only democratic ally in the Middle East.

In Marcy Winograd’s foreign policy, Israel would cease to exist. In Marcy Winograd’s vision, Jews would be at the mercy of those who do not respect democracy or human rights. These are not trivial issues; they cannot be ignored or overlooked. Jane’s victory will represent a clear repudiation of these views.

http://news.firedoglake.com/20…

Here is Marcy’s response to Waxman:

Jan 09 2010

VP Biden’s Mother, Jean, Has Died

Vice President Biden’s Mother, Jean, Dies at 92

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Jean Biden, who raised her son Vice President Joe Biden to believe in what he called ”America’s creed … everyone is your equal,” died Friday after falling seriously ill in recent days. She was 92.

In a statement, the vice president said she died in Wilmington surrounded by her family and loved ones. She had suffered a broken hip in a fall in March 2009.

”Together with my father, her husband of 61 years who passed away in 2002, we learned the dignity of hard work and that you are defined by your sense of honor,” he said in the statement. ”Her strength, which was immeasurable, will live on in all of us.”

Joe Biden Jr. was first elected to the Senate in 1972, shortly before his 30th birthday. His mother helped out by organizing coffee klatches — part of a family effort that also included Biden’s father, sister and brothers.

Blessed Be. May the Goddess guide her on her journey to the Summerlands. May her family and friends find Peace.

Blessed be

Jan 08 2010

Toward a method of activism pt. 1

the following is part 1 of a 2-part diary pulling together some thoughts I’ve gathered from dialoguing on DocuDharma.  I plan to publish part 2 tomorrow (Saturday).

If you wish to read it in its entirety now, it can be found on the Antemedius site.

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” — Shakespeare

The overall state of dialogue on the left is incredibly banal.  It is narrow.  It is ahistorical.

Our current condition comes at the tail-end of a long deterioration.  At its best, left politics at the beginning of the 60s was alive and dynamic and creative.  At its worst, left politics by the end of the 60s had the character of the war of all against all.  The life of organizations was nasty, brutish and short.  While the tide of the movement had been rising, everyone had new blood to proselytize, recruit, mobilize, even as they excoriated each other as sellouts, petit-bourgeois deviationists and running dog lackeys.  Advocates of more radical action were successful, an active movement validated them — or bailed them out as the case might be.

Jan 08 2010

Afternoon Edition

Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 US sheds 85,000 jobs, highlighting sluggish recovery

by Rob Lever, AFP

1 hr 33 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US economy lost 85,000 jobs in December while the unemployment rate held at 10.0 percent, the government said Friday in a report highlighting a slow and painful recovery from recession.

The Labor Department report on nonfarm payrolls was a disappointment to those hoping for job growth, which is critical to economic recovery.

The figure was far worse than the consensus expectation for no change in overall employment levels, and came amid a wide array of predictions ranging from steep losses to modest gains.

Yup.  Green Shoots.

Geithner and Summers must go.

And Geithner should be prosecuted as the THIEF he is.

Jan 08 2010

Surprise! You are no longer part of the workforce

  The deeper and longer the recession goes on, the more questionable the numbers get.

Today the headline number was a loss of 85,000 jobs in December and a steady unemployment rate of 10%.

  The market only expected to lose 3,000 jobs, so this was a negative report. However, like most unemployment reports, the Devil is in the details.

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Jan 08 2010

The Coalition of the Comfortable vs Reality

I have said many times that one of the greatest of all of the Bush legacies of destruction, is the destruction of facts.

The iconic quote, via Suskind:

The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality-judiciously, as you will-we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

The mantle of the reality Based Community was proudly taken up by the Blogosphere as the standard for all argument. Do you have FACTS to back up what you say, or are you creating your reality. This spawned another iconic quote; “You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.”

Combined with he techniques that Fox news perfected when confronted with pesky facts….Deny the fact, make up your own version of the fact, smear the messenger bearing the fact, and then claim that the fact has been debunked and wave away any further discussion of that fact….a new political reality was indeed created.

A reality where Giuliani can claim with a straight face that there were no terrorist attacks on the US under George Bush. But that sort of thing is not the real and lasting damage that I speak of. The real and lasting damage is that a new generation has grown up and become politically active knowing only this technique of ‘debate.’

And so that is the technique these relative political naifs use. To great effect, to so great an effect that then their older more experienced allies who should (or do) know better have adopted it too. It is the faith based argument, the argument of ‘the gut,’ it is the argument of those that have no real argument… except for the one overweening argument that they share with Republicans: We’re right and you’re wrong.

And NOTHING you can say will change that.

Jan 08 2010

Boogeymen

1975. Vietnam. Laos. Cambodia. (China). USA

2010. Iraq. Iran. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Yemen?. (Russia). USA

What tangled webs.

Photobucket

I want to ask / urge you dharma bums to go read this 2007 piece I came cross the other day and help me get a handle on this thing that has been lurking and teasing in my mind. This stuff is really out of my league and terribly complex, but … shudder… somebody needs to connect the dots. Are there parallels to be drawn?  This is really bugging me. I’m sorry I can’t explain better, it’s shadows and light still.

EDIT: Consider this an open invitation to venture in to comments below and help me learn and understand.

Jan 08 2010

The People on the Fringe



Opening

The other day there was a Kossack who told me that Worker’s Rights were what it (presumably the Democratic Party) all should be about:

My point is that we have taken our focus off the core purpose of the Democratic party by elevating fringe interests above the major problems.

Fringe interests?  Aren’t the people on the fringe also workers?  Although numbers about the “least of us” are often difficult to uncover, one source lists the unemployment rate for transgender people at 35% and claims that 60% of us earn less that $16K per year.  Another source “more generously” claims rather that 40% of us earn less than $20K.

Both are appalling, if you ask me.

Anyway, the truth is that I would much rather be working on issues more central to the human condition, but someone has to stand firm for the people on the fringe.

If not me, who?  If not now, when?

There is a simple way to satisfy those of us who are on the fringe.  Give us equal rights.  Then we can work wholeheartedly on those “more important issues.”

Jan 08 2010

Iceland’s president vetoes IceSave law

Original article, by Jordan Shilton, via World Socialist Web Site:

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Iceland’s president, announced Tuesday that he would not sign into law the Icesave bill, which stipulates terms for the repayment of loans to Britain and the Netherlands. Instead, a referendum will be held on the matter, with polls indicating that a substantial majority of Icelanders will reject the latest version of the measure.

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