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Sunday Sunset Open Thread

I’m starting a regular Sunday sunset thing at Progressive Blue and I was wondering if your interested. There is plenty of text as a sunset appetizer.

Of course the number one news item today was the greatest pass interference call I’ve ever seen in regular season football. But a few other things happened today besides the Jets Mile High win!

Below have a Sunday couch potato review and a sundown. What do you hear? What do you see?    

Organic Bytes

TiK ToK by Ke$ha has had 28,030,315 viewers on YouTube. This one that has a good beat you can dance too has only had 759 views.

Who knew how far an organic cotton tee shirt could go? Go figure.  

Remembering John Lennon

A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.

                      -John Lennon

If you live in or near New York City tomorrow would be a great day to come here. It will be around 72° and sunny in Central Park and if you go to Strawberry Fields, you would witness an amazing event, people powered music.  

I like to think of it as the greatest cover band of all time because it is a gathering of people just singing and remembering the life and times of John Lennon. I like to think of it as a day of inspiration because some of those people singing lyrics for peace and love were not even born on John Lennon’s final birthday.

I have trouble trying to capture the emotion and inspiration of these events in words but I’ve been to many and I’ve captured the event in photos several times. Below the fold are pictures from the last of these gatherings. In some ways it feels like going back in time.

If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.

                      -John Lennon

 

(Updated) One Last Bankers Gift from the Senate

Cross-posted at Progressive Blue.

Update: Obama Will Not Sign Bill Seen As Cover For Bank Foreclosures. Apparently a pocket veto.

This is almost comical. If you are a member of the “enthusiasm gap,” have watched the Democrats represent the bankers over constituents and  get the felling that Nancy Pelosi’s recent call for federal probe on mortgage lenders was nothing more than a letter to be forgotten on November third, here’s a little verification for you.  

Apparently another great letter writer, Patrick Leahy who wrote so many sternly written letters to the Bush administration but never got around to a subpoena, is capable of taking action. After claiming “constituents” called him and pressed to have the “Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act”  pushed through, he got right on it.

The Senate doesn’t seem partisan once they hear their master’s voice. Not a Democratic filibuster for a bill meant to protect bank and mortgage processors from liability, not the Democratic majority voting down “out of state electronic notarization,” but a banker’s bill that passed in the Senate by unanimous consent on the day before they all went back to their states so they can tell constituents how Democrats represent the Middle Class.  

This “debate free” bill quietly zoomed through the Senate.

The bill, passed without public debate in a way that even surprised its main sponsor, Republican Representative Robert Aderholt, requires courts to accept as valid document notarizations made out of state, making it harder to challenge the authenticity of foreclosure and other legal documents.

The timing raised eyebrows, coming during a rising furor over improper affidavits and other filings in foreclosure actions by large mortgage processors such as GMAC, JPMorgan and Bank of America.

Questions about improper notarizations have figured prominently in challenges to the validity of these court documents, and led to widespread halts of foreclosure proceedings.

The Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner had a few thoughts about timing.  

Intervention

I’ve been thinking about that insanity definition. This has not been the first time the White House has taken the left out behind the woodshed. Repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results in a common action found in many places but there is one group that most often comes to mind.

The underlying message from a president that once said “Make me do the right thing” has become “Leave me alone.” The classic case of a person calling for isolation from loved ones is a very common form of denial. “Don’t tell me what to do. I’m doing fine. Go take a look at your own shit” is what is often heard by family members of sick and suffering addicts.  

To the casual observer it would seem like this man is trying hard to get into “Presidents Anonymous” but the sad fact is that there is no 12 Step Program for president’s in a nation where all elected officials are prowling the back alleys of K Street and mainlining enormous amounts of special interest cash. Sadly there isn’t even an Al-Anon for progressives so we don’t have a clear definition on how to address this.  

Want Progress? Try Eric Schneiderman

Note: from Progressive Blue and cross-posted at DailyKos.

In the quest to maintain a Democrat majority it seems easy to overlook the race for New York State Attorney General. Considering a powerful social and economic justice policy position where the jurisdiction includes Wall Street and the traditional influence this office has had over media and talk shows it’s not about majority but justice vs. injustice.

Now Eric Schneiderman who is committed to “protecting homeowners and consumers from bad actors on Wall Street” faces a Republican who has suggested that he would “de-emphasize the high-profile securities fraud cases that defined the tenures of Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo and Eliot Spitzer.” In a nation where the banking lobbyist induced false claim that “sound economics means hands off Wall St.” is too often heard, think back the early 1990’s when nobody seemed interested in the big money crimes and Eliot Spitzer did much to change the national focus.

But Senator Schneiderman represents so much more that that. Not just a politician but a public servant with the energy and willpower to fight for the people. Looking at what this man has to offer in this high profile office with the power to steer the national debate, it seems obvious that a NY loss would be a setback for all Americans.

Photos from the Manhattan “Outstanding in the Field” Dinner

This diary is about a farm dinner on the Lower East Side of Manhattan that took place on Tuesday. This is my fourth time writing about Jim Denevan and Tuesday was my third time attending one of his local food art events.

I have photos and thoughts from this special evening to share below the fold but first the fascinating story of this man who educates people about food issues by uniting the farmers and dinner guest. Martha Teichner offered my introduction to Outstanding in the Field a couple of years ago and it’s a good start for understanding all the things Jim does.

That old video that ends in the same Manhattan garden where I had dinner on Tuesday touches most of the bases but there is so much more about Jim that makes him “Outstanding in the Field.”    

Two for Tuesday.

Because I have nostalgia issues, in other words I think time sucks, I started a series over at firefly dreaming. It is mostly a series that I want to be about the glory days of progressive rock radio. I posted the second one here that was about the morning dee jay at WNEW-FM and was planning to post the May 4th Two for Tuesday but jimstaro had that topic well covered that day.

In the the one I did post, there was an intro;

For most of my life Tuesdays were made more interesting by a tradition at what was once a great radio station, WNEW-FM. A station that introduced progressive rock to New York City, changed a generation from pop singles to album oriented and in maturity deserved the slogan “Where Rock Lives.” The tradition that people from other cities probably remember from other stations was called “Two for Tuesday.”I was wondering if anyone would be interested in participating here.

I really enjoy writing it and and want to make this a cross-posted regular series here. I hope you will enjoy it too. Some Tuesdays will be a bunch of fluff and sometimes I might have a little substance to offer. Today’s was a bunch of fluff but also a thank you note. Any ties to Rachel Corrie, a name that probably should be remembered today, are coincidental.

So I offer a couple of tunes for today as I listen to the New York radio station that took over “Two for Tuesday” from WNEW-FM. Q104.3 carries the tradition but it will never bee the same.  

No Vacation Nation

All work and no play makes America a dull country. For some today, the Fourth of July and Labor Day will have to serve as their summer vacation, three days off. Besides honoring the more than one million Americans killed in battle and the people who serve today, Memorial Day also marks the unofficial first weekend of summer. For many a season no different from the rest, one survey shows only 10% of us will take a full two weeks off.

CBS Sunday Morning opened yesterday with the facts, nine vacation days per year for the average American. It was another of those “of the thirty-three richest nations” stats that the U.S.A. comes out on the wrong side of. The U.S. is the only developed nation with no legally required vacation for its workers. Why is America the only industrialized nation that thinks of vacation as a perk, not a right?

For many Americans waiting for an unemployment extension from Congress time off is not an issue but for some who are worried a little getaway might mean the person in the next cubicle getting ahead there’s an app for that, good government. Allen Grayson made the segment talking about creating a law here and claimed “Sixty-nine percent of middle class Americans say that their number one desire in life is more free time.”

No Vacation Nation

All work and no play makes America a dull country. For some today, the Fourth of July and Labor Day will have to serve as their summer vacation, three days off. Besides honoring the more than one million Americans killed in battle and the people who serve today, Memorial Day also marks the unofficial first weekend of summer. For many a season no different from the rest, one survey shows only 10% of us will take a full two weeks off.

CBS Sunday Morning opened yesterday with the facts, nine vacation days per year for the average American. It was another of those “of the thirty-three richest nations” stats that the U.S.A. comes out on the wrong side of. The U.S. is the only developed nation with no legally required vacation for its workers. Why is America the only industrialized nation that thinks of vacation as a perk, not a right?

For many Americans waiting for an unemployment extension from Congress time off is not an issue but for some who are worried a little getaway might mean the person in the next cubicle getting ahead there’s an app for that, good government. Allen Grayson made the segment talking about creating a law here and claimed “Sixty-nine percent of middle class Americans say that their number one desire in life is more free time.”

Save the Bronx Zoo Today

Cross-posted at DailyKos.

What a difference a year makes. About a year ago in my extremely popular  The Animals are Getting the Pink Slip (A Bronx Zoo photo and action diary) this is what big sister Moxie looked like;

Yesterday I took my camera to see the three new lion cubs at the Bronx Zoo. The diary is called Friday Evening Photo Blogging: Lion Cubs Today! I can hardly tell Moxie and her mama Sukari apart but I got some great photos of Moxie playing loving sister to three 25 pound cubs. Now the stars of the zoo are  Nala, Adamma and Shani;

What hasn’t changed is that both Bloomberg and Paterson are still screwing the zoo and many cultural institutions. This year much harder than last.

See below for what actions we the people have left.  

The New Lion Cubs at the Bronx Zoo

Sort of cross-posted at DKos as Friday Evening Photo Blogging: Lion Cubs Today!

I took a little trip to the African veldt today.

Oh okay, I never made it out of the Bronx. Today I went to see the three new lion cubs that were born on January 27th and made their public début this week. So give a roaring welcome to Nala, Adamma and Shani as they get used to their new digs. Their big sister Moxie is a very good baby sitter for these 25 pound kittens.  

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