Jane Hamsher Unfairly Criticizes Senator Edwards

Jane Hamsher Unfairly Criticizes Senator Edwards

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake has made some caustic and unfair comments about Senator John Edwards at the Huffington Post based upon his brief appearance on Meet The Press, and it pains me to see the Democratic party so disunified that there is no room for one of its leaders to say something that is fundamentally true without being publically crucified for it. We've lost many elections because we are not standing together on so many issues. Teenage pregnancy and the effect it has on Poverty is a reality that we cannot turn our heads away from. After quoting John Edwards' comments about teenage pregnancy on Meet the Press, Ms. Hamsher says:

There's really nothing quite like a panel full of white male millionaires scolding poor African American women about their reproductive irresponsibility, particularly in a conversation about the victims of Hurricane Katrina and in a week where South Dakota has passed a bill guaranteeing every rapist the right to have his fetus carried to term because women just really need to learn to keep their legs together. Who knew the bigot vote was even in play?

There is absolutely nothing bigoted about speaking publically about supporting social programs geared to curb unwanted pregnancies which produce babies that will not be raised with the love and/or caring of a planned-for and wanted child. Poverty begets poverty - it's a vicious cycle. Ms. Hamsher points unwarranted blame toward Senator Edwards for issues that he has never supported, such as the attempted killing of teh legal right to choose issue in South Dakota. Senator Edwards has had absolutely nothing to do with South Dakota's new law, and we know it. The fact is that Senator Edwards supports a woman's right to choose. This intellectually dishonest melding of issue upon issue, accompanied with unfair finger-pointing, causes me to lose trust that the Democratic party can "keep it real." Some are disappointed that Senator Edwards failed to take major swings with his public bashing-bat at the Bush administration while he had a few rare moments of NBC's time. We tend to forget that our leaders are speaking to all of America when they are on these Sunday morning talk shows, and given what we know about the right-tilt of these awful Sunday morning talk shows, the mission for any Democrat would seem to be to send out a rational and hopeful message straight to the heart of the center of America. Face it. Most people are fucking sick of all the negativity and want to hear something hopeful, positive, and progressive from their Democratic leaders.

Just One Set of Facts in a Nation of Many Communities: I recently worked for an African American woman here in my own community who has taken on a different job in our nonprofit organization. She looks at the photos on her office wall of faces that remind her of herself. She knows what it's like to grow up with limitations. A native of the same area in which she now works, she has seen her share of crime and violence. A woman who had the opportunity to go to college and graduated from Cornell University with a degree in human development and went on to get a Masters in Social Work, she is now the coordinator of an after-school program at a community center in a neighborhood where kids grow up dirt-poor and underprivileged. Her program includes a pregnancy prevention program to more than 50 inner-city students, male and female. She has said this:

"I'd say the biggest problem in the community is a lack of hope. It can lead to violence, teen pregnancy, and people dropping out of school. It's easier to have hope when you have support and people surrounding you who are positive role models."

Last year, all eight Senior high school students in her program graduated from high school and some have gone on to college. That's a major achievement for this program and for these kids. One look at this should show you what a damned hard job it is to make the slightest bit of difference in this country. To see a respected and prolific blogger like Jane Hamsher trashing Senator Edwards for pointing out certain hard truths - while neglecting the fact that he supports some very-much needed social programs and government incentives to help the poorest in our society is bitterly disappointing, to say the very least. If we political bloggers can't issue realistic, rational, intellectually honest, and fair critiques, we risk being seen as little more than reactionaries. I guarantee you that that perception about our party will serve to secure the Democrats' legacy as losers. We need to appeal to hard truth and hope in finding solutions to the toughest problems if we're ever going to be seen as serious leaders.


On a related note, Matt Stoller, who trusts in the potential of John Edwards as a serious 2008 contender, says that he would have liked for Senator Edwards' convictions to have come across more strongly on his MTP appearance.

Eason Jordan to New Organizations: You're Lost/Admit It.

Eason Jordan to New Organizations: You're Lost/Admit It.

I'm sure you remember the resignation of Eason Jordan from CNN. He's now with an organization called Iraq Safety Net and he's telling the news organizations that they've lost their own way in Iraq, citing a deficiency in the Committee to Protect Journalists for an inaccurate reporting of the number of journalists killed in Iraq.

In a USA Today article about the state of journalism in the Middle East by Souheila Al-Jadda, we are reminded of the dangers of reporting from Iraq and the greater Middle East:

Being a journalist in the Middle East can have fatal consequences, where the road to freedom is often paved with blood.

An Update on Bob Woodruff

An Update on Bob Woodruff

I think about Bob Woodruff and his family often..and pray for his return to good health - and to ABC News. Newsday has an update:

Woodruff's doctors at Bethesda Medical Center in Maryland "are slowly bringing him out of sedation and are very pleased with the progress they've seen so far, especially in the last few days."

Cathie Levine, spokeswoman for "World News Tonight," said yesterday there were no additional updates. Vogt, not as seriously injured as Woodruff, checked out of Bethesda Medical Center and returned to his home in France last week.

In his statement, Westin said of Woodruff, "We've come some distance, but we still have a long way to go," though he added that "in another sign of Bob's moving along his path to recovery, the doctors have said that in the next few weeks it is reasonable to expect that he will be able to move to facilities in the New York area, bringing him closer to his family, his home and the support structure here."

Ben Kweller and Rufus Wainwright

Ben Kweller and Rufus Wainwright

Guess where I was last night? (Read page two of this Daily Orange (Syracuse University daily) article and you'll see).

Onondaga Land Rights Series Begins

Tadadaho Sid Hill and Clanmother Audrey Shenandoah of the Onondaga Nation spoke at Syracuse Stage on Monday, February 27th
photo by Iddybud

From Onondaga Land Rights - A Collaborative Educational Series by Frieda Jacques:

Tadadaho Sid Hill began speaking to the large crowd with our Thanksgiving address.

The address is an integral aspect of Haudenosaunee life. Therefore, Tadadaho Sid Hill translated his Onondaga speech into English to aid in the understanding of such powerful words. In this address, it reminds us that we are all a part of a very large circle. The Creator of all, the people, Mother Earth, the grasses and tress, the fruits and foods, the animals, the waters, the air, the winds and rains, moon, sun, and stars and are thanked for continuing their duties that support life for the people here on Mother Earth. It is our duty as people to help and ensure that our Mother Earth is healthy so that this great gift can continue for future generations.

Tadadaho explained that it has been a long process for the Nation to get to this point of filing a land rights action. That a major factor for beginning the lawsuit is the Nation believed that its voice needed to be heard in the role of cleaning up the pollution of our homelands. Sid continued on informing the attentive audience by saying that there has been wide support of our action and especially from communities in the Land Rights Action land base. Some of these communities have sought support from Onondaga in their efforts to clean up their own pollution sites.

Clanmother Audrey Shenandoah, eloquently thanked all for coming and also thanking the organizers for making time for our Thanksgiving address. For the address not only begins our meetings, but our ceremonies as well. At Onondaga, ceremonies are an important factor in our daily life. There continues to be a dedicated group of people who have kept our sacred ceremonies alive. She explained how this hasn’t always been easy at Onondaga. That there was a time when other cultures and religions organizations pressured the people to stop the ceremonies and the people were forced to continue our culture secretly.

Audrey Shenandoah stated that today times are different. The churches and the missions on the Nation support our traditional Onondaga government. This is evident with the support of the land rights action. Audrey Shenandoah remembers when she was young that the nation almost filed a similar case in the past. But it was explained that if the suit was settled, the Nation would receive a cash settlement but would end our title to the land. This was unacceptable to the people. That the Onondagas are the caretakers of the land and this is our mandate from the Creator to continue to do so.

From Syracuse.com:

Lecture series begins with thanksgiving message by Tadadaho Sidney Hill

Tadadaho Sidney Hill, the spiritual leader of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, opened the Onondaga Nation’s yearlong educational series tonight with the traditional thanksgiving address.

“We give thanks to the creator and everything he has given us,” Hill said. “We start each of our ceremonies with this address.”

Hill and Onondaga Clan Mother Audrey Shenandoah led the program, “Nation in Our Midst: Onondaga History, Culture and Spirituality,” before a crowded audience at Syracuse Stage. The event was the first in a series of lectures designed to help people understand the nation and its land-rights action.

“This night has been long in the planning,” said Philip Arnold, a member of the planning committee. “Our goal really is to bring together the Syracuse community and the Onondaga Nation to foster a greater understanding in light of recent events.”

The nation, which filed a land-rights action last spring, is collaborating with community groups, Syracuse University and the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry to present the series.

“We are trying to educate people about our way and our way of thinking,” Shenandoah said. “Everyone here should pass on what they learn to those people who are apprehensive and have anxiety about what is going on.”

Shenandoah said the Onondaga Nation does not want to cause trouble for any of the people living in New York state.

“In our land-rights claim we have no intentions of causing any harm to the people of this land,” she said.’’It’s justice that we are seeking,” she said.

Hill and Shenandoah said the Onondaga Nation had been planning to file a claim for several decades but didn’t because the timing was never right.

“There were things going on around us that pushed us to do this now,” Hill said. “We were seeing everything that was going on in the world and the problems with the environment. There were talks about cleaning up the Onondaga Lake, and we thought that we should be a part of them.”

During tonight's address, Shenandoah spoke about the traditional history and culture of the Onondaga Nation.

“We are roughly 1,200 people, and more than half adhere to our traditional ways,” she said.

Shenandoah said the other half of the Onondaga people may worship in one of the nation’s five Christian churches or on churches off the nation’s land.

“No matter where they worship they still respect our traditional leadership and our traditional culture,” she said.

-- Sarah Moses

John Edwards Considering 2008 Run for President

John Edwards Considering 2008 Run for President

On today's Meet the Press, former Senator and 2004 VP candidate John Edwards of North Carolina stated that he was considering a run for US President in 2008.

Senator Edwards leads the list of most popular Democratic 2008 hopefuls in a poll of overall most popular US political leaders conducted by Quinnipiac University.

Four Democrats considered potential presidential candidates were also mentioned in the poll's top ten, led by Edwards.

__________

A God-Awful Column by George Will

George Will writes today:

Edwards is roaming around, with 2008 in mind. His travels to more than 30 states have been organized around his interest in poverty.

The pure pessimist, Mr. Will says that he believes most Americans only see "economic injustice" from the selfish and narrow lens of their right to cheap gasoline. I know that Americans are more caring - and far less selfish - than that. Americans would respond positively to moral leadership - if they had any. The sad fact is that we haven't had moral leadership for quite some time in the United States.

Mr. Will appears helpless when he claims that he believes "no one knows how to stop" poverty, criticizing what he calls Edwards' reliance on a tired "1930s paradigm" for poverty resolution. Obviously, Mr. Will has not been paying close enough attention to the work of Senator Edwards. Having no illusions about the problems we face here in America, Senator Edwards is looking for straight-on solutions that fit our modern society. Mr. Will gives no credit to Senator Edwards for all the hard work he has done - especially with the young people across America whom he has inspired to become engaged in finding solutions to the alleviation of poverty in their own individual communities. While Senator Edwards commits himself to shaping the future, Mr. Will unfairly accuses the Senator of looking only to the past. Knowing what I know about Senator Edwards, that makes my blood boil.

Meanwhile, Mr. Will returns to an even more tired and more quickly-failed "new" paradigm - which involves an out-and-out blaming of the poor for who they are rather than who they should be and what could have been accomplished by now had the government done what Senator Edwards is striving to do in order to alleviate poverty from a moral, modern, progressive, and common-sense manner. Like many dull and "stuck" conservatives before him, Mr. Will takes the easy and politically lazy route of blaming the poor for their deficiency in punctuality, hygiene, industriousness, deferral of gratification In reality, the stupidity, stereotyping, and ignorance that surrounds such finger-pointing is being revealed as a failure of imagination and igenuity and a better solution is being researched and formulated by the great ideas of Senator Edwards and his Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina.

Mr. Will's uncreative column ends in a blur of jet-propelled criticisms regarding Senator Edwards' political aspirations. I found it to be a politically-motivated piece with no solution to Poverty other than the employment of naked blame of those who are most in need. Lacking creativity and objectivity, Mr. Will neglects to mention that programs intended to change all those traits he sterotypically throws around about the poor in America (they're late; they're dirty; they're lazy; they're morally deficient) were effectively wiped out by Bush's immoral budget proposal.

The blame-game is old; it's useless; it's for the dull-minded. I know George Will could have done better. I imagine he couldn't resist the chance to take a cheap shot. That's indicative of a character flaw, too - right up there with laziness - isn't it?

Tar Heel Tavern #54

Tar Heel Tavern #54





Tar Heel Tavern #54 is up at gingerrivers. The topic for this week is Grace. Don't miss the varied posts that reveal Grace in diverse faces and places.

NYT's Keller: Bush Admin Declaring War on Democracy

NYT's Keller: Bush Admin Declaring War on Democracy

"There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad." - WaPo

A strong statement from Bill Keller, who obviously sees this type of intimidating White House damage control as nothing but destructive to freedom of the press and the democratic fabric of this nation.

Army to Investigate Pat Tillman's Death

Army to Investigate Pat Tillman's Death

Although there have been various investigations already, the US Army will launch the first criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the 2004 death of Pat Tillman, "the former professional football player who was shot to death by fellow soldiers in Afghanistan in what previous Army reviews had concluded was an accidental shooting." [NYT/AP] This past November, Salon.com's Peter Daou had asked this question, after we learned about Mr. Tillman's real views on the war and politics [ie: Mr. Tillman had called the Iraq invasion "so f*cking illegal" and was an avid reader and fan of leftist Noam Chomsky]:

Now that we know more about his real views on Bush, Kerry, and war, is Pat Tillman considered a “moonbat” by the right, and is he now a liberal or a conservative hero? Or both?

My reply:

Pat Tillman's image as an American athlete-turned military volunteer was used with gleeful partisan craftsmanship by the Right - until the story of the circumstances of Pat's death was widely spread and the Tillman family's reactions and opinions came to light. Then the "Sunshine patriots" of the extreme rightwing, who will hold a soldier to angelic heights only when he and his family agree to their unspoken and undemocratic vow of silence, turned on their destruction machinery. "Pat Tillman could not have been a patriot," the extremists would say. I'd love to spit in the faces of any partisan who would raise a young man to heroic heights and then sully his good name when his political opinions come to light. I see Pat Tillman as a human being - a caring and patriotic American who believed in a vision of America as an indivisible nation. He was lifted to "hero" status by Americans who place a high cultural value on athletes and soldiers. I don't think it's probable that Pat gave too much weight to the divisive political elements that exist today when he decided to join the Military. I think he was moved by all that he'd seen. I think he wanted to put an end to the power of fear that terrorism held over his country. I think he was a brave young man. In 2004, long before the truth came out about Pat's political beliefs, I had written this about him:

The cause in which his country was engaged mattered more to Pat than the dull emptiness of greed. It mattered more to Pat than life.

If Pat was a hero, then all soldiers are heroes. They all risk the same thing - their lives - for their country.

According to the Washington Post, Mary Tillman has expressed deep frustration about what she calls a succession of "lies" she has been told about her son's death. She has said that she believes evidence of a crime has existed all along, and that the family's repeated calls for a criminal investigation were ignored until now. Like Mr. Tillman's parents, I am skeptical that this investigation will bring in any new evidence or revelation. It's a terribly embarrassing situation for the Army, and I'm sure it's painful for Mr. Tillman's family. My thoughts are especially with them at such a difficult time.

David Brooks Eager to See Our Security Sold to Dubai

David Brooks Eager to See Our Security Sold to Dubai

It's amazing how enthusiastic David Brooks is to see our Ports taken over by foreign investors who may have - for all we know - been involved in financing the terrorists that brought us 9/11. It's also intellectually dishonest - and pathetically political - for Brooks to say it's simply because we 'don't trust Arabs.' This past week, Rep. Bernie Sanders confronted those responsible in the Bush administration for checking out what should be such an obvious concern - and they couldn't say with any form of certainty that the Dubai company didn't have investors who've funded terrorism in their ranks. The biggest joke of all is that Brooks points to Democrats when the majority of Republicans are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Democrats on the Ports deal issue. One of Brooks' statements reeks of omission - and what is missing speaks volumes about Brooks' sheer denial of the reality surrounding the Bush administration's strong and constant Arab-nation-related fear-mongering statements since 9/11. (statement quoted below)

The Bush administration has scared American citizens shitless since the World Trade Center fell (while hypocritically allowing Sheikdom-tyrannies to thrive in places like Saudi Arabia). Brooks was perfectly supportive of the pre-emptive war against an Arab regime. He now falls back on "Bush's brand" as if Bush had never promoted mass fear of Arabs with his foreign policy and fear-loaded rhetoric of Arab nations that fund and harbor terrorists.

George Bush's brand was based on the premise that Arabs aren't very different from anybody else, and can be brought into the family of democratic nations.

Guess what, David Brooks? The inept neoconservative experiment in Iraq has been a failure and the only thing "spreading democracy" in the region has proven in the Middle East is that the Bush foreign policy has pushed just about every regional electorate toward the extremists. Arabs aren't different from anyone else - they vote for whom they trust. Thanks to the Bush administration, we've driven them straight to those who hate us most. So much for the "Bush brand."

Bush Has Empowered Iran

Bush Has Empowered Iran
..while demonizing them at every turn..

In the NYT editorial today, it's said that Thursday's nuclear deal with India would have been a bad idea at any time, but it was an especially bad idea now because it has undermined attempts to rein in Iran, whose nuclear program is progressing fast and unnerving both its neighbors and the West. From the article:

For all of the axis-of-evil rhetoric that has come out of the White House, the reality is that the Bush administration has done more to empower Iran than its most ambitious ayatollah could have dared to imagine.

Bush's Cut and Run Plan Revealed

Bush's Cut and Run Plan Revealed

Apparently, Bush tentatively plans to have cut and run from Iraq by about this time next year.

John Edwards To Appear on Meet the Press this Sunday

John Edwards To Appear on Meet the Press this Sunday

A message from Kim Rubey of the One America Committee:

Senator John Edwards will appear on Meet the Press on Sunday, March 5th. Senator Edwards and former Secretary Jack Kemp, co-chairs of the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S.-Russia Relations, will discuss the findings of their upcoming report. Click here to find your local listings.

Senator Edwards and former Secretary Kemp will present their findings to the Council on Foreign Relations on Monday, March 6th at noon and C-SPAN will cover their presentation LIVE.

Then, on Tuesday, March 7th, Senator Edwards and former Secretary Kemp will also appear on the Charlie Rose show. Click here for your local listings.

We hope you can tune in for these appearances!

Thanks,
Kim Rubey, One America Committee

Iddybud Journal Nominated for Two Koufax Awards

Iddybud Journal Nominated for Two Koufax Awards

I have received two nominations this year for Koufax blog awards. I kindly thank those who nominated me. What I do here is something I do because of passion. I do not make any money from my blogging efforts. I work professionally as a facilitator in a school-based program for a Community Service non-profit organization and I spend a lot of time volunteering for various community service efforts, including a Crisis/Suicide hotline, a faith-based choral organization, and a local theatre. I care deeply about my community and spend most of my volunteer-time in political pursuits, taking part in a local Progressive Coalition and writing a political blog for my city's newspaper. The greater Syracuse community is filled with wonderful and caring people, and many days I wish I had three or four more heads and hands so that I could do more for the citizens here. To be honest, though, I already know I have the heart to accomodate all those extra heads and hands I wish I had!

Speaking of heart, my thanks go out to Wampum's own Mary Beth Williams for all the hard work I know she puts into the Koufax Awards.

Your support for my blog is much appreciated.

Jude

_____________

My KOUFAX Nominations:

Most Deserving of Wider Recognition
*see Billy the Blogging Poet's write-up

BEST BLOG (non-professional)

Living A Life Of Grace

Living A Life Of Grace



The story below is about Grace. It's become a favorite of mine. I received it at a time when I most needed it. It reminds us that as we go through our trials of life, Grace is always present, whether or not we are able to acknowlege her presence. When I first read it, I sent it along to many of my friends to remind them that even when we feel that we're alone, we are never alone. When we feel lost and believe there is no inspiration left to find, tapping into the moment in the deepest silence between our busy thoughts can lead us back to Grace. We are so very lucky, yet we often forget about our good fortune as we allow ourselves to sink hopelessly into our mundane, worrisome, and fearful hours. Faith, hope, and charity - - none of these would be possible in this life without Grace. With it, we can face anything and we can even find an odd beauty in the seemingly ugliest of circumstances. Some call Her a "silver lining." I prefer to call Her a river of unconditional love and eternal light.


Living A Life Of Grace
printed at Daily OM October 6, 2005


Grace exists inside of all of us and around us. It is our inner beauty that radiates outward, touching everyone we meet. It is that unseen hand that comes from the divine, raising us up when we most need it. To be able to live in a state of grace is not based on worthiness, nor is it earned through good deeds, ritual, or sacrifice. Rather it is an unearned favor, freely bestowed and available to all, that is inherent to our birthright. All we must do is open our eyes to its presence and we will find and experience grace everywhere.


Grace is in the rain bringing relief to drought-ridden farms, and the unexpected lead for the perfect job opportunity that comes from a stranger. Grace is what happens to someone when they miraculously escape injury; it is even the simple events that happen to us that we call "good luck," like when we don't get a parking ticket after our meter has expired. Grace resides in the love between two people, the gift or check that comes unexpectedly in the mail, the cozy comforts that make up a home, and in the acts of forgiveness we bestow upon others. It is grace that moves us to go out of our way to help a stranger.
In music, a grace note is the pause between notes that is so important to the pacing of a song. Grace is the state we are in when we are doing nothing but just being who we are.




When we accept that we always exist in a state of grace, we are able to live our lives more graciously.
Knowing we are graced gives us hope, makes us more generous, and allows us to trust that we are taken care of even when we are going through difficult times. Grace is our benevolence of heart, and our generosity of spirit. Grace is unconditional love and the beauty that is our humanity. When we know that we are blessed with grace, we can't help but want to live our lives in harmony.

_________




Grace
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything


What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

- from Grace, a song by U2

John and Elizabeth Edwards Podcast March 2006

John and Elizabeth Edwards Podcast March 2006
LINK to audio


Last week, Senator Edwards toured San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Boston to help organize American Hotel workers (see UNITE HERE). He's trying to help hotel union workers to make it over the poverty line - to get them higher wages and better health benefits. There were huge crowds and a great response to each rally that took place. Where Unions are in place in hotels, wages are dramatically higher. In Boston, the hotels are nearly 100% unionized and they have the support of their mayor. In Miami, the hotel rates are the same as Boston, so there is obviously a lot of room for unionizing without the threat of hotels having to raise consumer rates.

Senator Edwards has been to Democratic fundraisers in Iowa (a state he especially loves visiting), to Missouri for their Democratic caucus, and he did a Wisconsin Poverty event with Congresswoman Gwen Moore along with a fundraiser for the state's Democratic caucus. [See this great post by SerbHallCelebrator at OAC]

Jack and Emma Claire have been busy with their basketball games. Elizabeth took them to a Carolina Women's game - a sold out game in the old arena that the TarHeels used to play in and where Elizabeth once played on that court in something called the Loser's tournament while she was in Law School (if you lost every game in the season, you qualified for the 'Loser's tournament'. This when John was the coach of their really, really - unbelievably - BAD intramural team. :)

The Edwards tell a funny story about signing Jack up for baseball, which is not an easy task because you have to take a day off from work to ensure that you're going to get your child signed up. Even then, you have to get into a long, long line with all the other parents who are signing their kids up at the same time. (the line was around the block by 8:30am - and if you wait until the end of the day to sign your kid up after work, you're out of luck).

The new One America blog is up and running and he hopes you all check it out. He says "We really want to hear from you." Elizabeth has a deadline on the book that she's writing and has been wishing and looking forward to to have more time to get to the blog.

QUESTIONS

- Dan's Question: About Minimun Wage - No one should work full time in America and still live in poverty. The work is important to Senator Edwards because it lifts people out of poverty. Currently the minimum wage stands at $5.15 an hour - a wage that no one can live on - no matter how hard you work or how many hours. There must be more legislative responsibility shown regarding doing something about raising the minimum wage. Some, like Senator Kennedy, have worked hard to raise the minimum wage, but most of Congress has failed in their responsibility to work to see that a wage increase is passed. What Senator Edwards is doing is "on the ground" - in states around the nation - Ohio, Arizona, Michigan, Arkansas, Nevada, and Montana.

Elizabeth recalled a 2004 story on NPR about the Miniumum Wage. It was about a woman with two children who was working for minimum wage (and trying to live on it) with two teenage daughters. One daughter was going to college and the other daughter was considering joining the Military because her mother could not afford to put her through college. NPR had called both the former Kerry/Edwards campaign and Bush/Cheney campaign to see what they thought about this. The Kerry/Edwards camp had replied that the minimun wage should be raised and there were programs they'd planned for to help kids go to college. The Bush/Cheney team, in contrast, replied that the Minimum wage is meant for teenagers - failing to admit or recognize that adults (many with families/paying rent) are struggling with their attempt to survive on $5.15 per hour.


- JennieForJRE: What does Senator Edwards think of Bush's 2007 Budget Proposal? Senator Edwards thinks the Bush budget proposal is immoral. It will make life harder for a lot of people. Look at what Bush's budget is doing: Making tax cuts for the rich permanent and providing billions of tax dollars for giveaways to big oil companies (as if Exxon's not making enough money right now). On top of that, this budget is proposed as funding is severely cut for programs that once provided nutrition for kids and seniors; programs for kids to be able to go to college; programs that once provided necessary and important health care for poor children. Think about it: Billions of dollars go to Exxon while Bush proposes cutting health care for poor kids. Senator Edwards believes that we should be screaming about this ugly fact from the rooftops, because most people do not realize it's happening. He's going to do everything in his own power to make sure citizens know about it.

Elizabeth mentioned that oil prices keep going up - while energy assistance keeps going down. Head Start money is being cut - 800-1100 slots will be cut for needy children in Iowa alone in the coming years.

- The next question is from Pete: How to keep people engaged in rebuilding the Gulf Coast? Senator Edwards visited New Orleans recently and was amazed to see how little progress has been made in the rebuilding effort since September - especially in the Lower and Upper Ninth Wards and East New Orleans. Here's what Senator Edwards is doing, specifically: He's got students who've signed up to come to New Olreans to assist in the rebuildiong effort over their Spring Break - March 15-18. [See this story in the Yale Daily News ] Over 600 students have signed up from over 81 different schools. He'll be there. The idea is to have young people engaged in an effort that they really care about and he would love to have as many students as possible join this effort. They can visit Opportinity Rocks to sign up for the volunteer effort: www.opportunityrocks.org/

Elizabeth reminded us of the young generation of the 1960s who left college on their breaks and traveled to the same areas of the country, for different reasons, in order to make a difference in the lives of citizens in their nation. Experiences like these can be life-changing.

- The last question came from Nan (by phone): On Election Reform: With activists in Florida working so diligently to have meaningful election reform with the Automarks voting machines (which leaves a paper trail), they were stymied at the last minute by the Secretary of State with political shananigans. In her state of North Carolina, the Diebold Machines weren't supposed to be certified because they wouldn't release information about their software, but after some "politicking", they were certified anyway. Nan's question: When Senator Edwards is President (and Nan averred that she was saying this with a big smile on her face), what will he do to ensure that the HAVA (Help America Vote Act) really helps Americans to vote?

Senator Edwards says it's critically important at a time when Americans are worried about how our voting process is working - to have a uniform system where everyone knows that, when they go to the polls, they'll be able to vote - and to have no question that their vote has been counted. In order to do that, we have to be able to have an audit or paper trail. We have to know that when people vote, that their vote has been counted. It will eliminate the perception that there's manipulation going on - and it can prevent what so many people worried about in 2000 and 2004 - that the election may have been stolen. We need to have non-partisans in charge of the election process - unlike the dubious Secretary of State of Ohio in 2004, who happened to be Bush's campaign manager there. We need independent monitors and operation officials to be responsible for how the elections work.

Elizabeth commended certain legislators from North Carolina who stood strong in the political battle vs. Diebold on the Black Box voting issue in her state. Alaska is now experiencing similar problems. In iraq they used great big plastic tubs stuffed with pieces of paper on which they voted - and if they are more comfortable with the integrity of the elections there, we know we have a real problem here in this country. It's an easy problem to correct and they have to be committed to doing it.

(My own state, New York is being pushed with obvious political shenaigans occurring, having been recently been sued by the USDOJ re: HAVA/Election Reform. We are concerned that the federal lawsuit will rush our state and our communities into adopting a flawed voting system. Here's a related story: Do You Know How Your Vote Will Be Counted? by Warren Stewart)


John And Elizabeth Edwards would love to hear from you.
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John Dickerson on Incurious George

".......shouldn't he have asked something?"

John Dickerson on Incurious George

Was I surprised to learn that President Bush had absolutely no questions to ask on the eve of the Hurricane Katrina disaster? Hell, no. He's proven himself incurious one too many times.




It's precisely why I do not trust that he is an apt leader. Were you surprised to hear he'd made the noise of a Pet Rock at the Katrina briefings?

At Slate, John Dickerson says:

"....the president's question-free briefing is more than a momentary bad piece of public relations. It's a blow to a key Bush myth. The Bush management philosophy relies on him as an interrogator. He delegates, but that's OK because he knows how to question those he empowers to make sure they're focused. Question-asking is also a central public tool in the "trust me" presidency. We aren't supposed to worry that the NSA wiretapping program goes too far because the president has asked all the questions. When the president was wrong about the level of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or the strength of the insurgency, it wasn't because he didn't ask enough questions, we have been told, it was because he was given the wrong answers.."

I suspect that President Bush has depended on his chosen staff and cabinet members to do too much of his thinking for him. He "just trusts them".....and when they screw up, he asks us to "just trust him." It's no wonder he has a 34% approval rating at the present time.

We don't trust the incurious. It's not the American way. We expect fully engaged, interested, decisive, and responsible leaders.

Dan Froomkin reminds us of George W's incurious nature when caught on tape on the awful morning of 9/11/01. Our Pet Rock meets My Pet Goat.

Democrats Seek to Punish War Profiteers

Democrats Seek to Punish War Profiteers

A new bill introduced today by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats aims to punish war profiteers with tough penalties and to “force real competition'’ in bidding for lucrative federal contracts. Democrats have been critical of contracts awarded to companies like Halliburton for the reconstruction of Iraq and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

*See the rest of my post today at AMERICAN STREET

_________

Related Stories:

-Halliburton Strikes Again

UAE/US Ports Deal - Silence Says It All

UAE/US Ports Deal - Silence Says It All

Read this exchange on Capitol Hill between Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and members of the U.S. Treasury Department and other Federal agencies responsible for investigating and overseeing the UAE/American Ports deal (from a CNN/Lou Dobbs transcript March 1, 2006). It's bone-chilling to see what President Bush wants to shove down our nation's collective throat before he knows exactly who the the UAE players truly are:

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On Capitol Hill, a grilling for four agencies who approved the Dubai ports deal.

REP. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VERMONT: Here's my question. According to the 9/11 Commission, UAE top officials and royal family members associated with Osama bin Laden. Can you tell us absolutely that these very same people will not be running six major American ports in the United States? Can you tell me that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will pledge to get that information back to you, Mr. Sanders.

SANDERS: All right. Can anybody else tell me that we will know for a fact that some of these very same officials will not be running this company?

I'm not hearing it! And to my mind, it is beyond comprehension that if you cannot answer that simple question, I cannot understand why we would go through with this transaction.

CHRISTINE ROMANS (voiceover): So much for government scrutiny when foreign governments buy critical U.S. assets. Just last year...

KIMMITT (U.S. Treasury Dept): There were 65 notifications, of which 12 were government owned or controlled.

CHRISTINE ROMANS (voiceover): The Treasury Department won't disclose what governments or what assets they acquired. But many now fear an American giveaway is well under way.

These Federal employees have no idea who the foreign investors in the shadows really ARE - or what involvement they've had with terrorists or the funding of terror. They went silent as Pet Rocks when Rep. Sanders confronted them. They wouldn't "talk turkey."

If that doesn't raise an alarm for you, then you couldn't possibly care about America's National Security.

On the Blogs Today

On the Blogs Today

Carpetbagger Report - Bush sees political capital that doesn't seem to exist

Crooks and Liars - Frank Zappa debates Lieberman's pals on Crossfire '86

Wonkette - Blogs: Too Dirty Even For Karl Rove?


Anonymoses on Bill Sammons' "Strategery":

"Karl Roverer, the so-called "genius" behind the so-called "successful" Bush residency, is still with the use of the hindbrain, from which he now predicts a stunning Republican victory in 2008, according to infamous catamite to the Reich, Matt Drudge, and slick Fox-fed opportunist, Bill Sammon -- neither of whom bear the least resemblance to Nostrodamus.


Mr. Sammon is hawking his new book, which is running with the title, "Strategery", which, for all we know, is but a vain attempt to legitimate one of Bush's copious blunders, in much the same way that Bush's whipping boys keep repeating "nucular" -- a move which only moves the speaker down into the sub-cerebral bushosphere.

Drudge, Rove & Sammons. Foxes that cry wolf. On cue. Pavlov's foxes. Ring the bell and turds as words begin to flow into a sort of cloaca of consciousness, or unconsciousness, the aggregate of which we refer to collectively as simply BushWorld.

BushWorld! Where the Tao fears to tread, and Nature knows no Reason.
BushWorld! The darkening of the Light.
BushWorld! Where the world is an oyster for the Topnazis to molest with their mouths, and spit up on the poor.

It's a stratragedy. Written by a shakespoon."

Salon.com - Iraq's worst week -- and Bush's by Juan Cole


AmericaBlog - 100,000 'welcome' Bush to India

Robert Scheer (Huffington Post) - Mixed Messages in the War on Terror

Larry Johnson (Huffington Post) - The Nile In Iraq?

News Hounds - Fox Guest: 1300 Dead In Iraq In 6 Days - But, There's Some Good News

The Rejection of Most Things American

The Rejection of Most Things American
In the Middle East, An Unfortunate Result of Bush's Policy On Iraq

Paul McGeough, the Chief Sydney Herald correspondent in Amman, Jordan, reports that Tehran has gained influence. He calls it the staggering consequences of what many in the Middle East see as America's policy failure in the area - - "the firming supremacy of non-Arab Iran."

A Jordanian businesswoman told the Herald: "We'll look back at this period as a turning point in everyone's history - you can smell the change coming."

Middle Easterners are faulting the decidedly neoconservative idea that democracy could take root in societies that do not have the cultural or institutional depth for it. King Abdullah of Jordan has accused Tehran of peddling influence in Iraq to create a "Shiite crescent" that might extend from Afghanistan to Lebanon.

The fear across the region now is that a full-blown conflict in Iraq might speed the shaping of that crescent by sparking sectarian conflict in neighbouring Sunni-led countries.

An unnamed Jordanian analyst has said that,

...because the regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states were entrenched, the only identity they had projected was their Arabness. But with the increasing influence of Shiite Iran, those regimes now felt obliged to project their Sunniness, and to take sides accordingly.

It's being said that Washington DC missed some extremely telling signs in 2004:

The Americans might have read something into the refusal of the rest of the Shiite religious leaders to help their failed attempt to arrest the radical Shiite firebrand Moqtada al Sadr on charges of a brutal murder in 2004. They didn't, but some Jordanian analysts draw a line from that act of defiance to the present crisis in Iraq to conclude that the Shiites have made a choice - they are Shiite before they are Iraqi. (See my own post from April of 2004).

Because of this and other misreadings of the culture in Iraq, Iran, in effect, is holding the US a virtual hostage while mired down in the uncontrollable violence in Iraq.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Jagdish Bhagwati offers the Bush administration some advice: Take some lessons from the history of India.

..as the U.S. goes about its business of pressure-cooked democratization in Iraq, we need to appreciate that Indian democracy succeeded because her political institutions were a legacy that evolved over decades under British rule. During those years, the rule of law, elections, the judiciary, even NGOs, developed through the land. Iraq's difficulties illustrate, by contrast, how hard it is to transplant functioning democratic institutions.

There was always a better approach to sure, steady, and positive democratic development, yet for all his passion for global democratic and economic reform, President Bush had a blind spot when it came to Iraq. He risked his Presidency on acting as a radical revolutionary - unilaterally removing Saddam Hussein and transplanting democratic institutions rather than taking an organic and cooperative approach. He lied to American citizens about his confidence in (and the soundness of) the WMD intelligence. He offered 20-plus rationales for going to an elective war with Iraq. There was no plan for victory and no visible goalposts. We're in a bind in Iraq today - chaos reigns - and our President continues to deny it in public interviews.

William Buckley Jr. knows it didn't work. Christopher Hitchens rails at Francis Fukuyama for abandoning the brand of neoconservatism that brought us the Iraq War. Josh Marshall is quoting Peter Galbraith who is referring to Iraq as "The Mess." As we approach its Third Anniversary, Scott Ritter calls the Iraq War a solution to nothing.

The Sunni insurgency is stronger than ever, and Shiite death squads roam the street in the guise of government police and soldiers. Torture, rape and murder are rampant as official tools of government suppression. And American troops appear to be powerless to stop this mindless slide into the abyss, all the while being killed and maimed for a cause that has always been nebulous.

..herein lies the problem: We continue to try to solve a problem we have yet to define, meaning we are seeking a solution to nothing.


- Scott Ritter

2007 Federal Budget Drains Lifeblood of U.S. Communities

2007 Federal Budget Drains Lifeblood of U.S. Communities

CBPP -
Another Stab at the Heart of the Poor - A Look at Some of the Federal Grants That Have Been Eliminated or Severely Cut by the 2007 Federal Budget

The reductions in grant funds are spread throughout a wide range of budget categories and programs. In some cases nominal funding is slated for a cut. In others, the proposed funding fails to keep pace with the cost of the program.

Examples of grants that are being terminated include:

HOPE VI grants, which help to revitalize public housing and nearby communities and promote resident involvement

The Community Services Block Grant, which provides funding for a range of social services and other types of assistance to low-income families and elderly and disabled individuals

The Preventive Care Block Grant, which is operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and provides grants to states for preventive health services for underserved populations



The Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides nutritional food packages for less than $20 a month to more than 400,000 low-income elderly people; and

A variety of education programs, including the Safe and Drug Free Schools grant.


Grants that are being cut significantly include:

The Child Care Development Block Grant;

Community Oriented Policing Services;

The Community Development Block Grant formula grant program;

Other education programs including vocational and adult education;

CSM -
Who will feel budget's impact?
- Medicaid recipients can expect higher copayments and deductibles.
- College students may face higher interest rates on student loans, as lenders are squeezed.
- Work requirements for women on welfare are likely to be tightened.
- Federal aid to states for child-support enforcement will be curtailed.

"There's a fairness issue here," says Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow in economics at the Brookings Institution. "We're basically cutting programs that serve low-income families and the middle class in order to pay for tax cuts that go overwhelmingly to the very wealthy. Even some Republicans have been uncomfortable with that."

The Rutherford Institute -
War Machine Drains the Lifeblood of America
by John W. Whitehead

With so much allocated to fighting the war in Iraq, the Bush Administration and Congress have cut funding elsewhere. For the most part, this has meant cutting funds for the poor and elderly. In December 2005, Congress passed a budget bill (with Dick Cheney as the deciding vote) to cut $40 billion in federal spending by ending funding for foster care, child support and student loans. It also imposed new fees on Medicaid recipients and new work restrictions on state welfare programs.

In Iowa -

"I can't believe that there's a will to cut $36 billion out of Medicare," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. "I can't imagine the Republican Party . . . is going to allow this to come through this year, in an election year. We all know who votes in election years," Harkin added, referring to the high voting rate for senior citizens who rely on the health care program for the aged.

In Pennsylvania -

Pennsylvania's safety net will fray even further and vulnerable children, women and families will disproportionately bear the burden of budget choices outlined within President Bush's 2007 budget request.

In New Mexico -

The idea of handing off more responsibilities to the states is swell, theoretically. But the idea is pretty much meaningless for needy states that can't afford to take on those responsibilities. New Mexico, more than most other states, will bleed from these cuts.

In Virginia -

Most Americans assume that those who make the most pay the most -- on the contrary, the administration's budget of the 21st century is looking more like a voodoo economic program to keep the rich richer and the poor worse off.If the administration could shoot the deficit as well as it can shoot its friends, our generation would be much better off. However, it is up to the more level-headed Congress and the American people to make sure all Americans pay their fair share in the economy.

In South Dakota -

South Dakota is among nine states that would receive less federal money next year under President Bush's $2.7 trillion budget proposal, according to an independent analysis.

In Massachusetts -

Massachusetts will receive more than $5 billion in Medicaid reimbursements this year. That number would drop in 2007 to $4.3 billion -- endangering thousands of poor families who rely on the benefit for healthcare. The state is also scheduled lose an estimated $69 million in federal money from a variety of other programs, including $288,000 from child support enforcement, $8.6 million from Title 1 education grants and $6.9 million from the Environmental Protection Agency's clean water fund, the study found.

In Georgia -

His budget simply extends the fiction that spending on social services can be reduced while tax breaks cannot, leaving the coming crisis for someone else to deal with. That "someone else" is the younger generations of Americans who will have to pay the bill for the current foolhardy fiscal policies. To assure that Social Security and Medicare can deliver promised benefits three generations from now, the federal government would have to set aside $5 trillion and $30 trillion, respectively, in interest-bearing accounts today, according to U.S. Comptroller General David Walker. Deep deficits make that impossible.

For Black Americans -

Civil rights activists and congressional leaders assailed President George W. Bush’s proposed budget, saying the $2.77 trillion spending plan will dramatically reduce funding for domestic initiatives while eliminating social programs that serve millions of black Americans.

John Edwards Leads the Fight Against Poverty

John Edwards Leads the Fight Against Poverty

Jim Morrill/Charlotte Observer -
Edwards blends poverty, politics

Ed Tibbetts/Quad-City Times -
Edwards: Katrina brought poverty back to political forefront

From One America blog -
Illinois blogger writes about Senator Edwards

Scott McFarland is a young blogger from Moline, Illinois, who recently saw Senator Edwards at a Democratic fundraiser in Davenport, IA. In his blog post about the event..

Chicago Chronicle -
Edwards to share his message on lifting Americans out of poverty by Rob McManamy

The charismatic, passionate and articulate former U.S. Sen. John Edwards is speaking out about the need to lift more Americans out of poverty and into the middle class.[...] "Speakers like Sen. Edwards provoke, inspire and foster dialogue in a way that complements students’ experiences at the University and in their academic training," said [Susan Mayer, Dean of the Harris School]..."

_________________

Recent Stories on Poverty in the U.S.


Salt Lake Tribune -
When the spotlight fades: Katrina a powerful lens for seeing response to poverty: Battling poverty: For some, the hurricane just compounded problems, such as lack of job skills, that already existed

The stories of Hurricane Katrina survivors provide a powerful lens for viewing this country's response to poverty. Whether former Gulf Coast residents were impoverished before the storm, many fit the criteria now. "Katrina victims are what we've termed in social work circles the undeserving poor. The hurricane hits and they become the symbol for how we focus our resources. They were in the headlines, and we could see their poverty and their need," said Mary Jane Taylor, a University of Utah social work professor. "The question then becomes how soon are they going to become invisible, sent to the back of the line and become the deserving poor again?"

NewStandardNews.net -
Poor Pay Biggest Share of State, Local Taxes

Federal program cuts, tax breaks for the wealthy and state budget crises are not the only forces squeezing the working poor. According to a study by a progressive think tank, low-income households are getting pinched yet again by state income-tax policies that turn what little they have into even less.[...]Antipoverty groups say such tax policies add a perverse twist to an already tattered social safety net, and are demanding tax relief for the poor through redistributive fiscal policies..

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities -
The Impact Of State Income Taxes On Low-Income Families In 2005
by Jason A. Levitis and Nicholas Johnson

Some states levy income tax on working families in severe poverty. In Alabama, families with two children owe income tax when their earnings reach $4,600...Taxing the incomes of working-poor families runs counter to the efforts of policymakers across the political spectrum to help families work their way out of poverty. The federal government has exempted such families from the income tax since the mid-1980s, and a majority of states now do so as well.....States seeking to reduce or eliminate income taxes on low-income families can choose from an array of mechanisms to do so. These mechanisms include state Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs) and other low-income tax credits, no-tax floors, and personal exemptions and standard deductions that are adequate to shield poverty-level income from taxation. Some states go beyond exempting poor families from income tax by making their EITCs or other low-income credits refundable. These policies mean a lot to a family struggling to escape poverty, but they are relatively inexpensive to states, since these families have little income to tax.

PDF of Full Report

GulfLive.com (Mississippi) op-ed -
We Need To Talk

"...it is time to have a serious discussion to find serious solutions to the poverty problem in America. Katrina has opened a window. The question is: Do our elected leaders have the courage to move beyond politics and truly address a genuine problem that must be remedied if America is to live up to its promise?

David Jones/Gotham Gazette -
Taking On Poverty

Urban efforts to combat poverty are on the march. Just last month, the U.S. Conference of Mayors announced that it is forming a Taskforce on Poverty and Opportunity in America. Yet it has taken a storm of unprecedented magnitude – Hurricane Katrina - to bring the poor to the surface of the nation’s consciousness.

The Republican/MassLive.com -
Many Hispanics facing hunger

Latinos are the poorest population in the United States and the least likely to seek emergency food assistance, according to a study issued by America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest food bank network.[..]The national study also found that more than 40 percent of people who depend on charity for nourishment have to choose between eating and paying utility bills. And 35 percent choose between the rent or mortgage and food.

America's Second Harvest -
New Study: More Than 25 Million Americans Seek Food Assistance Each Year

• 42% of clients served by the A2H National Network report having to choose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel
• 35% had to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage
• 32% had to choose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care.

Ann Doss Helms/Charlotte Observer -
9 [CMS] schools join poverty aid list

Nine more Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, including three "middle ring" high schools, will get extra aid in 2006-07 because of high poverty levels this year

In These Times -
Lies, Damn Lies and Poverty Statistics: How an archaic measurement keeps millions of poor Americans from being counted
By Christopher Moraff

...the gulf between the “haves” and “have nots” is reaching crisis proportions. Compounding the crisis is an archaic method for determining America’s poverty rate, which is then used to formulate the funding of programs that alleviate poverty. When President Bush sat down with his advisors to draft his FY 2007 budget, it’s debatable whether he took the time to examine the national poverty statistics provided each year by the Census Bureaus. What’s not debatable is that the Census Bureau’s methodology is woefully inadequate..

Op-ed News -
Behind The Curtain No Longer: Six Months After Katrina by Todd Huffman, M.D.

Since January 2001 .. the ranks of the poor in America have swelled by over four million. Today, one in five children in the greatest nation on earth live in poverty. Nearly 50 million Americans are without health care. Meanwhile, astoundingly, out of spite or simply in oblivion, Republican leaders in Washington are this year set to consider further tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts for the poor.

_______________

Alleviating Poverty Around the World

GreenBiz.com -
Social Entrepreneurs' "Base of the Pyramid" Movement: Sustainable Business from the Bottom up

".."we try to create an enabling ecosystem of entrepreneurs, whom no one else is willing to fund."

- A quote from Upendra Bhatt of Bhatt's Aavishkaar, a company harnessing the poor's ingenuity and entrepreneurship to build profitable businesses serving basic needs.

..Fisher and Bhatt are part of a growing BOP (base or bottom of the economic pyramid) movement, whose common call is to alleviate poverty while generating sustainable profits for companies large and small. Poverty alleviation and profit making are rarely considered complementary activities. BOP practitioners -- social entrepreneurs such as Fisher and Bhatt -- seek a middle ground where the private sector's power is brought to bear on persistent social, economic, and environmental problems.

Robert Fripp/Charlotte/February 22, 2006

Robert Fripp Concert
Charlotte/February 22, 2006

*Robert Fripp's Live Soundscapes CD is:
Love Cannot Bear


I traveled from Syracuse, N.Y. to Charlotte, N.C. last week to see guitarist Robert Fripp perform at the Neighborhood Theatre. His soundscapes transported me from a mundane Wednesday evening existence deep into one of my inner chambers where no one is generally allowed admission - - not even me.

The audience was offered a screen with colorful images generated as impulses, hypersensitive to sound. It was easy to get completely lost in those ever-changing images - or in simply watching the graceful gentleman in the black leather jacket facing his intricate electronic equipment with guitar in capable hands. Often, as the sound reverberated, I would close my eyes and imagine spirits summoned to turn my worldworn thoughts toward the one light that we call home. It isn't just any man who can feed such inspiration into the hungry soul. Mr. Fripp is the living hymnal, dust blown off the cover and the ancient notes come to life.




When it came time to speak to his audience, he showed that he cared so much for his craft - and for passing it on - that he would go beyond the norm to tolerate the corrupt of this world in order to reach those men and women who would never otherwise have had an opportunity to experience the joy of music.

He said that playing inside an old church or cathedral is the most enriching experience for the player as well as the listener because of all the melodious strains in the building's history that have preceded that performance.

The two photos above are credited to www.dgmlive.com, where Robert Fripp's own diary about the Charlotte show can be found. I was one of the people who offered the kind words as Mr. Fripp left the venue. I recall thanking him for feeding my soul with such richness. To have failed to have thanked him would have seemed as unappreciative as failing to give thanks to Mother Earth for a precious sunny afternoon. His Soundscapes are a diamond in this coal mine of a world.

I am quite shy, but I had secretly wanted to tell Mr. Fripp about a time - more than once, actually - when I got lost in the West Virginia countryside in my search for a place I knew he was quite familiar with - a Washingtonian estate in the Shenandoah Valley called Claymont Court .



I had attended the Fripp concert with a fellow fan (a dear friend) who had gotten lost along with me while searching for the Gurdjieff/Bennett school - and the places to which the wrong roads took us were the places we will never forget for the surprising joys they'd brought our way. Life is, indeed, the lovely book of experiences that are written while you're on your journey to the places you think you're going to.

..that evening was my favorite
driving back from a day of discovery
sun setting below the mountains
sky turning a Parrish blue...

I have also posted a review to DMGLIVE.

On U.S./Russia Relations

On U.S./Russia Relations

From Democracy Arsenal:

The opportunities for our relationship with India and Bush’s visit there this week are contrasted by the challenges for our relationship with another great power, Russia, and another critical Bush trip: to St. Petersburg this summer for the Russian-hosted G-8 summit.

This promises to be one of the most difficult trips Bush will make as President. After all, he’ll have to explain why he’s at a meeting of the world’s most important economies and democracies that is being hosted by someone (Putin) who is definitely not a democrat. According to a front-page story in Sunday’s Washington Post, there’s a feisty debate brewing inside the Administration about Russia’s direction and how to handle the summit. This is part of a broader reassessment of Russia and what the U.S. can or should do about it – something that will only get more attention as the summit approaches. Soon a bipartisan Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S.-Russia relations led by former Republican Congressman Jack Kemp and former Senator John Edwards will offer its assessment and a way forward. So stay tuned.

St. Petersburg Times -

Presenting itself as a reliable energy supplier is the centrepiece of Russia’s 2006 agenda as president of the G8 club of rich countries.[...]President Vladimir Putin makes a sensitive visit to Eastern Europe this week to try to convince countries that suffered most from gas disruptions this year that Russia can be trusted as a supplier.

The G8 Ministers have endorsed Energy Security as the focus of the July summit. Energy needs seem to be compelling the Bush administration to cooperate with an increasingly autocratic Russian government. Senator John McCain has expressed serious reservations about G8 leaders attending the summit in St. Petersburg.

In a recent Podcast, Senator John Edwards mentioned that he'd written a NYT op-ed [Moscow's Empty Red Square, 12/07/05] with Jack Kemp about recent disturbing changes in the US relationship with Russia. Jack Kemp and Senator Edwards have been working together on a Task Force for the Council on Foreign relations - they recently went to Russia and visited with leaders and activists. The NYT op-ed was about legislation in DUMA keeping NGOs from having offices in Russia - suspected of political activities. President Vladmir Putin, through a surrogate in DUMA, is trying to squash political opposition undemocratically. Background: In recent years under Putin, there have been rollbacks in democracy - regulating the elimination of direct elections of governors, prosecution of oligarchs, and Russian government taking over the mass media - all to squash of political opposition. From a democratic standpoint, Senator Edwards believes that Russia is headed in the wrong direction.

Grassroots Cry: "No More D.C. Gooberheads!"

Grassroots Cry: "No More D.C. Gooberheads!"
Jim Hightower: Outside the Beltway, Progressives are Agitating, Organizing, and Mobilizing for a Little More Justice

From: All Good Politics Are Local by Jim Hightower/Alternet:

What an embarrassment our national government is. Mired in the sickening muck of corrupt corporate money and right-wing ideology, our so-called leaders continue to divert our public treasury and our nation's unlimited potential for good into war, into the pockets of the superrich, into the self-serving whims of greedheaded corporate executives, into a rising police state, into the careless desecration of nature … into waste...Then why am I laughing, why am I almost giddy with optimism about where we're heading?

[...] Washington is ignoring our country's real needs and squandering our democratic promise, but out beyond the Beltway (and below the radar of the Powers That Be) there are folks, groups, coalitions, and even elected leaders who're taking action at the state and local level to build an America based on our historic ideals of fairness, justice, and equal opportunity for all. I have great hope, because grassroots people are so much stronger, more resilient, more creative, and more American than the gooberheads at the top, and they'll not long be held down or held back.

My Thoughts on the Port Situation

My Thoughts on the Port Situation

I was away last week and did not have an opportunity to voice some of my thoughts about the Ports deal with the government of Dubai/UAE. When the Head Office controlling U.S. Ports could be suspect, in any way real or imagined, of being the proverbial Fox guarding the Henhouse, it is politically correct for an elected U.S. representative to cry at the top of the lungs for no less than 100% transparency. Consider how much fear has been placed in the heads of Americans after all of the Islamophobia sent their way courtesy of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Foxnews, Rush, RNC, and Co. over these past few years.

When one or more prominent members of President Bush's cabinet (or any political appointees such as David Sanborn) stand to benefit from the Ports deal that would concurrently enrich the government of a nation with connections to 9/11, especially since the Bush administration waged a tragic war of option against a nation with no connections to 9/11, we have solidly sane reasons to not simply "trust them" (as they would like us to do).

When we have been fed color-coded terror alerts, duct tape & plastic instructions, and assorted xenophobic lines.

As always (a tale as old as time), the rich who feed off the backs of the American worker will find a way to cooperate with one another, regardless of the fact that there is no trust between them. It's the American way. Those who imagine that the "American Dream" of opportunity will apply at any particular juncture of this story has to be certifiable. This deal will go through - mark my words. Neither Democrat nor Republican can look any of us in the eye and tell us they haven't supported an overall economic/trade system that has led us to this embarrassing situation.

Ask yourself: Is this Port deal necessary because of the politics that have been employed for too long by the Washington D.C. elite? Are rich and connected D.C. types worried about their incestual relations with the rich governing class in Dubai? Do they need to bail them out because their "bourses are weak?" Is this Ports deal some kind of U.S.welfare program for the well-connected?

So is the recent weakness of bourses in the UAE and Qatar something more than the booking of profits by investors? Is there some reason to think that the business cycle peaked in 2005, and that corporate profits from here onwards will be more difficult to achieve?

Because of all the unchecked and unregulated outsourcing of American jobs to India, China and beyond, are we forced to compete for the riches of Dubai investors (even when they may have also funded the terror that brought us 9/11?)

Because of emergence of China and India as big economic powers we are particularly interested in promoting ties between Arab and Asian businesses. We have just organised a major conference that attracted 100 CEOs and included a 40-strong contingent from China."

Arab states and D.C. Lobbyists - - what can I say other than economic incest and influence that should cause any thinking American to demand transparency on this Ports deal? According to Raw Story, Bob Dole (former Presidential candidate and husband of an incumbent North Carolina Senator) has been hired by Dubai Ports World to lobby for the approval of the deal that would give the company control of several major U.S. ports. Why is Bob Dole saying 'Yes! Yes!' while his wife is saying 'No! No!' to the Ports deal on the floor of the Senate? Is this not bizarre?

It's come to be the American Way, hasn't it? And it's totally unethical. If we don't like it, we'd best stop being silent like stones on such matters.

Since 9/11, George W. Bush has misled Americans with his rhetoric about evil people who finance terrorists while, behind the scenes, it is understood that business goes on with participation from many of the same Arab governments used as examples for the RNC's never-ending fear-mongering factory.

President Bush has not denounced the many xenophobes such as Rush Limbaugh, whose ugly-mouthed hypocrisy is astounding. I heard him accusing Democrats of "Islamophobia" regarding the Ports situation last week when the only Islamophobes I've seen over these past four years have come directly from the right wing. (The entire 2004 RNC Convention was little more than a fear-mongerer's xenophobic paradise!)

Neocon Michael Ledeen suggests a "cleaner" way - an American front for rich Dubai investors - let the rich governing class of Dubai feast on the profits and wall them off on the operations side. If the deal must take place, it's probably the only idea that will save the well-connected. The only thing missing from the whole idea is any viable line of political or moral defense for enriching those who likely funded 9/11 terrorists (while we're still struggling with the war in Iraq in which Iraq had no 9/11 connection):

There is a clean way to handle things such as the port operations, and it still astonishes me that it wasn't done properly. It's been done thusly for many years, actually many decades:

1. Create an American company to handle the matter (if foreigners wish to buy in, or even buy it, that's ok);
2. Wall off the foreign investors/owners. They are silent partners. They have no say in the actual operation;
3. Create a "classified Board" composed of people with security clearances and experience in sensitive matters;
4. Appoint a CEO and other top executives with experience and clearances.

We do this all the time with, say, foreigners who want to buy companies that manufacture parts for weapons sytems, etc. It seems the obvious solution here

Update:
Speaking of Michael Ledeen, Larisa Alexandrovna has interviewed Mr. Ledeen for Raw Story, and I highly recommend it. My impression is that Mr. Ledeen has an extremely negative and fearful view of human nature - a view he claims is proven by history. Yet, for all his distrust and negativity, when Ms. Alexandrovna asks him who, "if our political leaders align with their party and the leader of that party, will be able to hold anyone accountable for war crimes?"..Ledeen replies:

ML: Just as we always have, by speaking and writing what we believe in, challenging lies when we think we see them, and appealing to mankind's better instincts. (my emphasis) But again, one has to have a sense of history and context. For the most part, it takes a considerable passage of time before we get a full sense of what actually happened.

If, as Mr. Ledeen suggests, mankind has such tiny capacity for the "better instincts", then how can he be intellectually honest in saying that he thinks accountability will occur by appealing to those "better instincts?" If we follow Ledeen's logic throughout his interview, I'd say if we're relying on writing and appealing to the "better nature" of our partisan political leaders as the only route to gaining accountability from them, we're totally screwed. Mr. Ledeen's logic has left me unconvinced regarding the rationality and cohesiveness of his overall argument. His denial of his Likud-ness and closeness to the Right in his view of foreign policy is not at all credible. Ms. Alexandrovna has presented some great questions and counterpoints, posing a real challenge to the balance of Mr. Ledeen's storyline. I can't wait to read the rest of the interview which will soon be forthcoming.

Clooney- The Cooler George

Clooney- The Cooler George

"A good-looking, independently minded, lapsed-Catholic, clean-and-sober actor versus a bought-and-paid-for, dry-drunk fundamentalist and four-decade failure of a human glove-puppet? Voters, the choice is clear!"

The Guardian wants to know:
If Ronald Reagan could do it, why not George Clooney?