In Other New...
There's a new series of old previously web- unavailable articles, where you can stroll down the memory lane of the arts in the 1980s (Dash Brothers hint: it's still the 1980s) over at kowincidence.
23 hours ago
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Blood
So bloodthirsty are our appalling leaders in Washington that the Bushworlders have taken this entire country out of International Court agreements because groups here opposed to the death penalty are using these agreements against it, since few other civilized countries on the face of the planet still insist on legal killing.
The death penalty matters more to them than international relatons and international justice, which protects Americans abroad and the rights of foreigners here. They are scared to death of actual justice for their atrocities on foreign soil, and so willing to let the atrocities of others continue without international standards or sanctions. Another predictably shameless and shameful day for the rich thugs that run our government.
Top News Article Reuters.com
So bloodthirsty are our appalling leaders in Washington that the Bushworlders have taken this entire country out of International Court agreements because groups here opposed to the death penalty are using these agreements against it, since few other civilized countries on the face of the planet still insist on legal killing.
The death penalty matters more to them than international relatons and international justice, which protects Americans abroad and the rights of foreigners here. They are scared to death of actual justice for their atrocities on foreign soil, and so willing to let the atrocities of others continue without international standards or sanctions. Another predictably shameless and shameful day for the rich thugs that run our government.
Top News Article Reuters.com
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Progressively Lost
From "No More Mr. Nice Blog":
"We simply don't have the Right's message machine. A bit of what happens on the Right is purely grassroots -- I'm thinking of the work of Christian conservatives -- but right-wing activism packs a punch only because of big money, from self-interested corporations and scheming think-tank-funding billionaires. Big money shapes the message and gets it out there. That, in turn, keeps a much larger percentage of ordinary conservative Americans pumped up and versed on talking points than we can muster on the other side."
But it's more than this. The Reds have access to more money, but there is money on the Blue side as well---it just isn't being spent in the same way. The rabid right recruits early and keeps people on their payroll. Kids with talent get scholarships, fellowships, jobs with real influence, and access to the right's political leaders. They take care of their own.
But it's one of the unpleasant ironies that while the rightists carry on about individualism, they are better at supporting each other, while the left with all its solidarity rhetoric, has little or no consciousness about making sure its people are supported, and that means with jobs, fellowships, institutes, etc. Even the rightist bloggers are better at supporting each other.
Back when they were big enough to do so, labor unions performed this function of spotting talent and finding a place for it for the Democratic party. But it seems that left leaning think tanks etc. have remained exclusive and elitist. The left would rather discuss their minute differences and plug their narrow issues than take care of their own.
When told that a program under consideration for the New Deal would benefit people in the long term, FDR advisor Harry Hopkins retorted, "People don't eat in the long term. They eat every day." While we work for a better future for all, we had better be aware of what's needed in the present.
From "No More Mr. Nice Blog":
"We simply don't have the Right's message machine. A bit of what happens on the Right is purely grassroots -- I'm thinking of the work of Christian conservatives -- but right-wing activism packs a punch only because of big money, from self-interested corporations and scheming think-tank-funding billionaires. Big money shapes the message and gets it out there. That, in turn, keeps a much larger percentage of ordinary conservative Americans pumped up and versed on talking points than we can muster on the other side."
But it's more than this. The Reds have access to more money, but there is money on the Blue side as well---it just isn't being spent in the same way. The rabid right recruits early and keeps people on their payroll. Kids with talent get scholarships, fellowships, jobs with real influence, and access to the right's political leaders. They take care of their own.
But it's one of the unpleasant ironies that while the rightists carry on about individualism, they are better at supporting each other, while the left with all its solidarity rhetoric, has little or no consciousness about making sure its people are supported, and that means with jobs, fellowships, institutes, etc. Even the rightist bloggers are better at supporting each other.
Back when they were big enough to do so, labor unions performed this function of spotting talent and finding a place for it for the Democratic party. But it seems that left leaning think tanks etc. have remained exclusive and elitist. The left would rather discuss their minute differences and plug their narrow issues than take care of their own.
When told that a program under consideration for the New Deal would benefit people in the long term, FDR advisor Harry Hopkins retorted, "People don't eat in the long term. They eat every day." While we work for a better future for all, we had better be aware of what's needed in the present.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Faith Based Minimum Wage
More people with more money to spend creates more economic activity. But enough of that reality based nonsense. Listen to the faith-based answer:
"When you raise the minimum wage, you price workers out of the market," said Senator John E. Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican. "That's the economic reality."
You need to have faith in this economic reality because Republicans have been saying it at least since they opposed raising the minimum wage to $1.25 in 1961, and they have always been wrong.
But to believe that providing a floor of seven bucks an hour instead of five for the people who do the shit work nobody else wants to do will ruin the economy requires a lot less faith than what is needed to give huge tax cuts to the extremely wealthy, believing it will benefit the economy even as it raises the deficit beyond the stratosphere, thus already impoverishing the grandchildren some of you youngins have faith you'll have.
Read it and weep: the Dark Lord Santorum leads the sanctimonius GOPers in maintaining virtual slavery.
Boston.com / News / Nation / Washington / Minimum wage hikes die in Senate
More people with more money to spend creates more economic activity. But enough of that reality based nonsense. Listen to the faith-based answer:
"When you raise the minimum wage, you price workers out of the market," said Senator John E. Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican. "That's the economic reality."
You need to have faith in this economic reality because Republicans have been saying it at least since they opposed raising the minimum wage to $1.25 in 1961, and they have always been wrong.
But to believe that providing a floor of seven bucks an hour instead of five for the people who do the shit work nobody else wants to do will ruin the economy requires a lot less faith than what is needed to give huge tax cuts to the extremely wealthy, believing it will benefit the economy even as it raises the deficit beyond the stratosphere, thus already impoverishing the grandchildren some of you youngins have faith you'll have.
Read it and weep: the Dark Lord Santorum leads the sanctimonius GOPers in maintaining virtual slavery.
Boston.com / News / Nation / Washington / Minimum wage hikes die in Senate
Monday, March 07, 2005
In other new...
"Sell the Children" at Shopopolis. A review of Homeland , a portrait of post-9/11 America by Dale Maharidge at Books in Heat.
Photo portfolio on North Coast arts at North Coast Texts.
And today's outrage, while some want to push the definition of human life back to the pre-embryonic, there seems to be a whole lot of difficulty taking care of millions of children already born, even when it could be done at a fraction of the cost of their political action committees' budgets...
New Scientist Breaking News - Push to save three million babies every year
"Sell the Children" at Shopopolis. A review of Homeland , a portrait of post-9/11 America by Dale Maharidge at Books in Heat.
Photo portfolio on North Coast arts at North Coast Texts.
And today's outrage, while some want to push the definition of human life back to the pre-embryonic, there seems to be a whole lot of difficulty taking care of millions of children already born, even when it could be done at a fraction of the cost of their political action committees' budgets...
New Scientist Breaking News - Push to save three million babies every year
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