DOHA (AFP) – A booming black market in African ivory linked to Asian crime syndicates may scupper efforts by Zambia and Tanzania to hold a one-off sale of tusks, experts and delegates at a UN wildlife trade meeting say.
At its last gathering in 2007, the UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) voted for a nine-year moratorium on exports of African ivory.
The ban went into effect in 2008, after South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe carried out a one-time sale to Japan and China of stockpiled ivory.
There may be acts that are more indecent than destroying a homeless person’s shelter, but shredding the tents of homeless people living under a fucking freeway and rifling through what pathetically meager belongings and comforts they rely upon is really kicking them when they are down and putting the boot to the neck of an already beleaguered humanity. Such mindlessly horrific coercion of the weak and dislocated by the powers that be, in this case, local “peace officers,” is really emblematic of what our country has become. First, alienate people and push them to the fringes of society, take away their jobs and homes, then destroy any remaining belongings and remnants of social support they have at the edge of life itself. I’m sure many more of us will be enjoying such fruits of economic apartheid in the years to come.
“One song which would really tear the house down was ‘Tutti Frutti.’ The lyrics were kind of vulgar. White people, it always cracked ’em up, but black people didn’t like it that much. They liked the blues.”
–Little Richard
“If rock and roll has to be only one thing, then you might as well say it can only be Little Richard.”
–Bono
Like many struggling rock stars, I’ve endured all kinds of cheap taunts and envious smears in the foul underbelly of the music industry. It comes with the territory–when making the quantum leap from bleating opinionated man-child to Serious Ball-Busting Artist, the attendant fallout irrevocably mutates many observers into one-note projection machines. These poor souls are called “critics,” and I know how they think, because I used to be one myself.
I picked this off of google cache, written post election, Nov 18 2008, marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives
Obama Wants Orszag At OMB
18 Nov 2008 03:05 pm
Barack Obama has tapped CBO director Peter Orszag to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, my collegues at National Journal report today.
He’s a youngish overachiever, just 40, and subscribes to the theory of what he once called “cool-headed, warm-hearted” economic policy. Judging by his blog, Orszag has smart and interesting things to say about the intersection of psychology and economics, the long-term vs. short-term effects of climate change legislation, honest budgeting and accounting, and lots more.
OMB is the executive branch’s budgetary arm and management oversight evaluator. The director serves as a key presidential adviser on the economy and is responsible for projecting the fiscal consequences of any presidential decision. OMB would figure out how much Barack Obama’s health care plan will cost, for example, as it gets introduced in Congress. It’ll score every bill that Congress sends to Obama. It’s the repository of policy, responsible for official statements. More to the point, though, is that OMB will administer Obama’s transparency agenda. Regulatory reform will originate at OMB.
HuffPo has been following Orszag’s love life, the love child with the Greek tycoon heiress, and the engagement to the drop dead gorgeous young Russian born ABC news “financial reporter.”
This is going to be an action packed weekend in DC and around the nation. On Friday, there will be protests of Yoo. On Saturday, there will be a massive antiwar demonstration (there will also be demonstrations in Philly, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and South Dakota, among other places). On Sunday, there will be a large march for immigration reform. And there will be other related events around the country, along with the small protests and events that happen all the time.
So join me below the fold to see how you can effect change this weekend.
Update: This writer hasn’t had the opportunity to listen to progressive radio consistently as of late, but have sent e-mail messages to the Thom Hartmann Show, the Norman Goldman Show, the Randi Rhodes Show and the Mike Malloy Show. These messages include a note of thanks if they have already covered this story and encouragement to provide some airtime for this bill if they have not yet done so.
The Ed Schultz Show interviewed Alan Grayson today between the 30 and 45 minute mark of the first hour. If interested, you can go to here, where you can find links to a live or tape delayed feed on various stations about the country.
Once this writer receives an e-mail response from his representative, this article will be further updated. Stay tuned!
H. R. 4789 is so simple and makes so much sense that corporate Dems will stumble all over themselves trying to sweep this pesky bill under the rug and pretend it doesn’t exist. This bill is only four pages long and within two days has gained at least 50 co-sponsors as well as more than 25,000 signatures on a mass e-mail petition.
Would you like the option of buying into Medicare at any age, at cost? This bill, if passed, would not require even one cent from taxpayers. War hawks should be reassured since this bill would not divert a single penny from funding dedicated to blowing up innocent people on the other side of the globe.
Rep. Grayson eloquently explains this bill on the video that follows…
H. R. 4789 is so simple and makes so much sense that corporate Dems will stumble all over themselves trying to sweep this pesky bill under the rug and pretend it doesn’t exist. This bill is only four pages long and within two days has gained at least 50 co-sponsors as well as more than 25,000 signatures on a mass e-mail petition.
Would you like the option of buying into Medicare at any age, at cost? This bill, if passed, would not require one iota of support from taxpayers. War hawks should be reassured since this bill would not divert a single penny that is currently being used to blow up innocent people on the other side of the globe.
Rep. Grayson eloquently explains this bill on the video that follows…
The site to sign the related petition can be found here.
Since the corporate media will bury this story, we need to notify everyone we know, even those friends, relatives and acquaintances who reside on the other end of the political spectrum. A bill such as this should be politically neutral, at least in a rational world. How could anyone not support a bill allowing any U. S. citizen to buy into Medicare at cost, that is, unless their entire retirement savings is concentrated in a portfolio of health care companies?
This writer is attempting to contact his U. S. Representative, who says he’s a Democrat, but is actually a Demopublican or a Republocrat. My representive would probably be misleadingly referred to as a “Centrist”, which raises the question, if he (and Baucus, Nelson, Lincoln, Bayh, etc.) are Centrists, then who, exactly, are the other Dems who are more further from the left than these turncoats? If truth in advertising regulations were to apply, the term “Centrist” would refer to a so-called Democrat who would philosophically reside at the center of the opposing party.
Conveniently, this Representative’s line is busy, although callers are prompted to leave a voice mail message or send an e-mail. This writer will keep trying to reach someone live on the other end and request a written response to the question as to whether he is willing to become a co-sponsor of this bill and/or whether he would be willing to vote in its favor.
Sorry, this essay is not as well written as it should be, however, it seemed that getting this message out as soon as possible was more important that turning in something an English teacher would find acceptable.
The White House has the bill it really always wanted. They have their deals with PhRMA, AHIP, and the Hospitals more or less unbroken . . . they have their real goal in sight.
The White House has their individual mandate–a law that will require those without coverage to buy from private health insurers under pain of penalty enforced by the IRS–they have their restrictions on drug reciprocation and direct drug price negotiation intact, and they have kept their word on the handshake deal that they made last spring with the medical industrial complex: no public option.
In hiring Emanuel, Obama avoided the mistakes of his Democratic predecessors, who first gave the chief of staff job to besotted loyalists. Obama’s first year fell apart in large part because he didn’t follow his chief of staff’s advice on crucial matters. Arguably, Emanuel is the only person keeping Obama from becoming Jimmy Carter. Obama’s greatest mistake was failing to listen to Emanuel on health care. He opposed the public option as a needless distraction. Had it gone Emanuel’s way, a politically popular health-care bill would have passed long ago, leaving plenty of time for other attractive priorities.
Like awarding Dana Milbank a Medal of Freedom, for example.
