Usually, Thursdays are one of my days off, but today I have to go and give a presentation on honeypots. I think. It’s something I (like an idiot) volunteered to do for a meeting that was supposed to be today, but nobody ever sent any confirmation that there was actually gonna be a meeting today (let alone exactly when and where), so I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do. My dog says I should blow it off, and go and enjoy the nice weather by taking him to the park again. He’s a very smart dog.
When Riley gets into describing his politics I think we have a left leaning rethug talking. After this admin nothing will be considered to far to the left.
Corporations need to be broken up
The rich need their taxes increased
We need job programs
We need federal support for strong unions
We need to get out of NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO
If the Dems are not willing to do that then they too will be hanging from lamp poles.
If the Dems are not willing to do that then they too will be hanging from lamp poles.
Comment by fred — March 30, 2006 @ 5:51 am
Upside down, like Mussolini?
Good morning :sheep:le!
JILL CARROLL IS FREE! (Or so we’re told. But good news is good news. I’ll take it!)
TELL THEM ABOUT THE DISCOUNT, HARRY!
It’s the new MORE OVALTINE, PLEASE!!! :omg:
KILL UGLY COMMERCIALS!!!
WHERE IS DRUID_666???
HI GAIJINDA!!!
IMPEACHMENT!!!
VIGILANCE!!!
:fire::fire::fire:
So what happens when we get the dems back in power and nothing at all changes except the color of the pigs slurping at the trough.?? The more you watch C-span the more you get the impression that these people inside the beltway are running someone else’s country.
Someone suggested yesterday that the eclipse of the Sun was a NASA sponsored event.. I thought that was taking commercialism a bit too far.
I hope Jill doesn’t suffer permanent mental problems from being on the verge of death for so long.. Maybe she will become a credible source as to who the insurgents really are..
‘Morning, Seditionists!
Anybody know how to get candle wax off a less-than-a-year-old painted wall? :cake: :omg:
Taking my son for his Rotator Cuff surgery this morning. Poor guy! Better take something to do in the waiting room. :knit:
How’s Farmerkat? Didn’t she have a procedure yesterday or Tuesday?
uploaded last nights show to my podcast page, click my name and look for the link to “Podcast” dah to hear the show. “iRecordMusic” did not function properly last night so I missed the first few minutes of Marc’s show. F***! I’ll try to paste it in later when the torrent is posted. I still say this immigrant debate is an effort by the Bush Administration to change the debate from Bush and the Republican party’s criminal behavor. Something hatched by Bush and Rove to change the subject. Their such asses. I hate Bush.
Phoener–
Hope your son’s surgery goes well.
As to your crayon dilemma . . . I’m not 100% sure about this, but I seem to remember the key to getting crayon off is heat. Something like, putting a piece of cloth or paper over the crayon and then ironing it. But, like I said, I’m not sure. I’ll wrack my brain a little more after I’ve had some coffee.:yawn:
Mornin’, :sheep:le.
Farmerkat’s surgery is on 4/3, Phoener.
Oops. I said crayon but I meant candle!:cake::menorah:
cnick–
I think you’re probably right about the immigration debate being used to change the subject. Seems like we all have thoughts about it, though.
Regarding the ending to last night’s show…
CK, I’ve done the iron and brown paper trick on cloth and rugs, but I don’t want to do that with the wall. I’m afraid I’d melt the paint or something, and I really love the wall color. It took me too long to find the perfect color, and too long to get hubby to help me paint it. [Note to self: find a smallish standing mirror for behind candles near a wall or use candle snuffer-thingy.]
Maybe not permanent, but she’s got a long road ahead of her. Having wrestled with diagnosed post-traumatic stress myself, my heart goes out to her. The incident that triggered mine (a mugging) was far briefer than her ordeal but it made my life very small for a very long time.:cry:
Phoener, Don’t know if this will help
http://www.marthastewart.com
has anyone read this? http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/views06/0329-21.htm
Will Rachel also touch upon the Bush family’s ties to Hinckley & his family in the next segment?
egotils, thanks for the article at common dreams.
I will read it.
Good Morning
No, of course not!
I still don’t think that Cheney’s the power behind the throne; I think that the “divide” between 41 and 43 is all a show. I especially don’t like the coziness between Clinton and 41. I’m getting distrustful of *anybody* who’s spent time at Yale.
But then, I’m paranoid. 😮
egotils, that is a terrific article! It’s all about the money.
Egotils, thanks, this is the most comprehensive analysis I have read so far on immigration.
yep, all about the money, doesn’t seem right, but there it is!
:cake: I’m going to try to remove some of the wax spatters with a butter knife, and then (after son’s surgery is done and I can relax) I’ll attempt the iron trick. I think I’ll try it with not too intense heat so as not to end up with paint-melt. I think I’m being over-cautious, but that’s okay. For a change. 😆
I think the operative phrase here is “wants to have a stable democracy.” I don’t think that’s what Bush & Co want at all; this fits rather nicely with their plan.
Great link, egotils. Thanks.
Phoener, what about using ice on the wax spatter?
I think the trick to making a socially-conscious lifestyle universal, is to make it profitable. Planned Parenthood here had a great idea for a fund-raiser: you’d pledge a certain amount of money per protester over a month’s period. The more protesters, the more money PP made. Cut down on the protesters immediately.
We just need politicians with large enough cajones to take on credit card companies, oil, pharma, insurance, …. :bong: Pipedreams?
Hey, Phoener.
When you’re ready:
1. A hot blow dryer works excellent. Hold blow dryer on high next to wax and wipe with paper towel. Comes right off.
2. Try holding a steam iron a few inches from the wall with wax and shoot the steam on the wall (don’t touch the iron to the wall). As the was starts to melt, wipe it with a towel; continue the process until all the wax is removed
(From: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf785414.tip.html)
Oh, one more trick, from the Beeswax Candle Company:
Tip #5
Painted Walls: To remove wax from a painted wall or similar surface. First melt the wax with a hairdryer and wipe away the excess.
There may be a greasy mark left. You can remove this by wiping with a weak vinegar solution.
I think I killed the blog with all that Suzie Homemaker stuff.:knit:
Ooh! 28 and 29 are great! I’ll try them this evening. Now, to go get ready so Son and D-i-l aren’t waiting on my doorstep as the anesthesiologist (sp?) is readying his knock-out punch.
Thanks soooooo much, CK! I ‘ll actually be able to get the wax off, and save my paint job!
Damn, I have to go and do this presentation today after all.
Anyhow, in an effort to spend money and procrastinate, I’ve grabbed the Replay, um, whatever the hell it is – AV Record Suite or something. It includes something called Replay Music, which you can use to record (as you might suspect) music. So, I tried it with Rhapsody, and here’s what it does:
You start replay Music, then fire up your favorite streaming music player. Replay analyzes the track, recognizes it, gets track, artist, and album info, tags and names the song, and saves it. I left it going last night, and it nabbed about eight hours worth of music (some 132 tracks) and only couldn’t reconize two of them (I then went into the program and changed edited the info, and it dynamically changed the file name and info).
This was my first attempt, but I must say I’m very impressed with it. I’ll be playing around with it more as I get a chance, but at first blush, me likey. It was a $40 upgrade from ReplayAV, and also includes a several other programs, which I’ll be checking out when I can.
The wax on the wall removal will be helpful. I’ve just scraped with a putty knife and repainted.
:yinyang:
Edward S. Herman is an economist and media analyst with a specialty in corporate and regulatory issues as well as political economy and the media. He is Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
One of his most famous books is Manufacturing Consent, written with Noam Chomsky, also a Penn Alumnus.
:nixon:
Stop posting all of that Tyger Thom garbage. He is a fucking mainstream dem. Rachel had a godd guest on the subject. SEIU’s Eliseo Medina. You cannot stop the flow of workers from Mexice.
Unionize them. Legalize them.
malloy said 12$ an hour minimum wage! ha ha yes i’m with mike!
i say lock up all the heads of all the companies using illegal labor!
I woudn’t call Hartmann a mainstream dem on this issue. MS dems are pro-NAFTA and CAFTA and (so-called) “free trade.” Hartmann is very much opposed to all of that.
US reparations to Mexico! Viva!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hartmann is a fucking jackass!:omg:
if you want to stop illegal immigration stop corporations from illegally hiring workers! and like malloy said 12$ an hour!
True. But he is very MS on a lot of issues. Immigration, for one. No revolutionary he.
I say make all these rich bastards that exploit slave and near-slave labor go out and slave away at these jobs for a few years. Not that they’d ever really get it, I suppose, but it would be nice to see them treated like shit and afraid to complain, lest they be thrown out of the country.
Revolutionaries on AAR? Perish the thought. Not everybody can be as radical as Jerry Springer and the Sat Sisters.
US reparations to the Haudenosaunee!
Spanish reparations to the Aztecs!
yep yep ha even better than throwing them in prison PJ make them work the fields and the meatpacking plants themselves! so has anyone read fast food nation?
I advocate the western nations pay reparations to the poor nations. It is no absurd.
AAAR Revolutionaries
. Peter Werbe (Old 5th Estate Anarchist)
Laura Flanders (Although she probably won’t admit it to the public)
More? Steve Earle. Lots of radical social democrat types, too.
yay free money for everyone! i think white americans should get reparations from england!
I’m afraid to!:paranoid:
:nod:yep yep we will keep passing money around until every historical wrong has been righted!
as well you should be! i need to read it again to get me back off the meat! it WILL make a vegetarian out of you!
Reparation to the Haudenosaunee (among others) are not obsurd either.
Give Texas back to Mexico, too.
lol yeah give em texas!
Read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, too. And then read all of his other books.
fortunately, i read fast food nation about 23 years after i stopped eating meat.
:priest:former white castle patron.
dude i read the jungle when i was in grade school! and uh not such a good book imho
Here is a good article on the political economy of the immigration debate. It is not as clear cut as many believe.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32676
“Spanish reparations to the Aztecs” is the sort of thing one says to blow off an argument.
damn it i am a last night white castle patron and i hate myself for it! oh and i read the jungle for fun because i was a voracious reader as a child! i read like 200 hardy boys books a ton of stupid video game books TOTAL TRASH! and uh what else lots of king uhhh hmmm lots of autobiographies yep lots of “choose your adventure” books those were pretty cool made me good at math! they had battles and i would do the math in my head and store all my inventory in my head and whatnot yep i was a child genius! well thats what i tell myself anyway shoot i still tell myself that i am a genius every so often i think i might have done it last night while i was driving! yep yep i think i did! i do lots of thinking while i am driving and uh yep i end up telling myself absurd things like i am a genius even though i know i am not because the last time i got my iq tested where the results were supposed to be a real actualization of my iq i was one right answer short of genius so that leaves me with the conundrum of telling myself i am a genius when i know for a FACT that i am one right answer short! anyway yep i am rambling like a motherfucker right now i will stop and let you all criticize my spelling because uh i think i spelt some of the bigger words back there wrong and i dont feel like cutting and pasting and spell checking right now!
Who was arguing? I think the Spanish (and the US, and many others) owe the indigenous peoples reparations. I think Europe (and the US) owe Africa reparations. What kind? How? To who? I don’t know.
Frankly, US annexation of the current US Southwest is so far down on the list of criminal things this country, the British, the French, the Spanish, and the other colonial powers have done over the years that it’s barely noticeable in comparison.
The best thing we can do is stop trying to exert hegemonic (or outright imperial) control over the rest of the world, and leave them the fuck alone.
Unfortunately, that’s about aas likely as seeing reparations paid to the poor people in Mexico – or the Aztecs.
Hell, the Mexicans that worked in the US during WWII can’t even get the money that was withheld from them by their own government (as an inducement to return). Shit, Mexico owes reparations to the Mexicans.
I must have been in a shitty mood this morning while listening to last nights show cause it was not funny! Sarah Silverman was excuciating! Who’s idea was it to talk about POT? We’re fighting for our lives Marc, damn! And that new-age poet . . . Oh God how awful. Sorry to be so down on this show, but I’m getting tied of funny that’s not funny.
People at the time were shocked by the meat packing industry practices, but they missed the real point of the book, which was the plight and working/living conditions of the workers.
What I appreciated about Hartmann’s article was it’s historical perspective. The fact that Caesar Chavez’ United Farm Workers Union fought against illegal immigration and that the UFW turned in illegals during his tenure as president. Also, his discussion of the Robber Barons and how progressives fought to limit the pool of “labor hours” available to them, the dysfunctional oligarchy in Mexico, how illegal immigration drives down the wages of the middle class and our obligation as a nation to limit immigration.
It addresses some questions I had about whether we should be an open immigration country and the reasons for limiting immigration.
hey has anyone read hegemony or survival by noam chomsky? its the only thing i have ever read well i listened to it but whatever that makes the same argument i was making before the iraq war that iraq had a more plausible reason to attack the united states for the same reasons we were using to attack iraq
noam chomsky/seanms
great minds think alike :peace:
we were definitely more of an “imminent threat” to iraq than they were to us!
Sheeez… A radio host would last about 10 seconds if he was to preach sedition on the air… advocate it on a blog…well.. maybe..Most politicians much less radio talkers know about as much about economic systems as the average Best Buy employee.. although with this economy.. Oh well…
Buzz Flash just refuses to publish the “good news”
Iran Gets 30 Days to Clear Nuke Suspicions. Then Get Ready for the Pre Mid-Term Election Bombing Raid — And WW III as the Iranian and Iraqi Shiites Rise Up As One. Bush is Delivering Armageddon to His Base, But There Isn’t Going to be a Resurrection, Just Reality-Based Death, Massacres and Destruction. Our Soldiers Will be Sitting Ducks.
http://tinyurl.com/kaqza
Yep, Iraq had the reasons, but not the means. US had the means, but not the reasons. Funny how that works, huh?
:doh:he he we can let the stupid best buy employees you know the 17 year old non geek squad people that are huge fans of ummmmm britney spears and other such pop culture crap take control of the economy at this point and they would have good odds at doing better than the rethugs are doing now!
immigration? Okay so I don’t think its right for any illegal to get a pass for not entering the country legally. I don’t care why they do it. It is not fair to those who follow the rules. So how can anyone of us complain about Bush taking an end run around FISA, but say its okay if people enter our country illegally? Theres something called the “law” here. If the law isn’t working then there are two options: (1) change the law or (2) enforce it. If Mexico won’t pay their workers a decent wage I don’t see what we can do about that. Our own assholes in Washington refuse to raise the living wage in our own counrty. That wage . . . all wages paid in this country are supposed to go to legals. I cannot believe that Mexicans or other illegals are performing jobs legals refuse to do. Perhaps I’m being simplistic and naive here. I know there are some things I would not wish to do. But if I had to . . . I would. Perhaps I’m not being to progressive in regard to this issue. I still maintain that Bush brought all this up to change the topic in the country. I’d much prefer to press the issue of lobbists buying off our elective officals, of Bush breaking the law, of the corruption in the Republican Party. We’ve let Bill Frist off the hook and now he’s taking the winning line in this immigration debate to repair his image. He wants to be our next President. I don’t think he stands a chance. But stranger things have happened . . . like Bush slidding into a second term. That bastard. So here’s one for you all out there. I just don’t think Hillary Clinton stands a chance in hell of ever being elected President. And I think if we nominate her we are going down to defeat once again. Yes, I’ll vote for her. I loved Clinton. But I don’t think the country at large would vote Hillary for President. Again . . . strange things happen sometimes. Perhaps the Republican Party will self destruct. In my mind they already have and this should be oh so easy. But we, the Democrat Party has a way of fucking things up. So where are those within our party speaking to the mindset of most ppl out in America today who are mad as hell? Are we gonna continue to take this crap or are we gonna do something about it? Sorry to bitch.
well it would be funny………. anyway time for sleep:yawn:
Diet For A New America by John Robbins was the book that raised my consiousness about our diet and its affect on the planet. I highly recommend it.
From what I have read about Mexico and Central America and some of South America its not just better wages but total desperation in finding any work to support their families that brings these people here. The WTO and NAFTA has so destroyed their local economies that they have no choice..
“. . . its not just better wages but total desperation in finding any work to support their families.” So I ask you . . . should we offer jobs to every desperate illegal? If they want to escape their plight then make the move to America legally. Like so many others have done in the past. We are a nation of immigrants. But they did it the legal way. I’m not for offering a blanket pardon for those who’ve made an end run around the law because they are desperate people.
See I’m talking about immigration here and not talking about that evil crime family called Republicans . . . we’re like a dog on a leash
DO YOU SUFFER FROM B.I.T.S.?
(Bush-Induced Tourrette’s Syndrome)
New liberal ailment
? Do you yell and scream at the television whenever President Bush gives a speech?
? Has your use of profanity increased dramatically over the past five years?
? Have you made up new curse words because the old ones just don’t cut it anymore?
? Have you nursed a hangover because you used a republican speech to play a drinking game and the “trigger” word (WMDs, 9/11, terrorists) was repeated more than a dozen times in less than 15 minutes?
Perhaps Bush was desperate and thats why he made an end run around FISA? I’m not letting him get away with it so easily.
man i am so going to see slither tomorrow!
These trade agreements are hurting the US worker but are destroying the economies of these third world.. err.. other third world countries. NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO need to be abolished and the US foreign policy needs to encourage these repressive governments to provide for their citizens. The dorpshits in DC either have no clue about whats going on or they need to be taken out and shot
i say shoot em!
Primarily, this is a supply and demand issue It’s a lot like the “drug war” in that respect. As long as there’s money in drugs, people will keep bringing them into the country and selling them. Fill up the jails, toss ’em back over the river, whatever.
As long as there is a demand for the cheapest possible labor, where labor laws can be ignored and workers treated as a cheap, replaceable commodity, there will be people coming into the country, trying to support themselves and their families.
They aren’t coming here because there aren’t any jobs for them when they get here.
So, find a way to force employers to keep everybody on the books and paying a living wage (and universal healthcare, while we’re at it), and all you’ll take away a huge incentive to hire undocumented workers. Then we can just go back to hating them because they work harder and are smarter than we are.
I wonder if maybe it would be worthwhile to have a teleconference series on economics for the liberal talkers and anyone else who would like to join in on what the rethugs are doing here.. I find some of the more centrist talkers are willing to accept the idea that we are going to a service economy where we have to compete with India and China and Chili and and and.. The bottom line is that isn’t going to work if we are to maintain our current standard of living.
” . . . find a way to force employers to keep everybody on the books and pay a living wage.” I’m with you there PJ
“. . . the bottom line is that isn’t going to work if we are to maintain our current standard of living.” Yeah . . . I cannot afford any more credit card debt! My house of cards is about to implode!
I think that a lot of these people are coming here because their uncle or brother or cousin is already here and indicates to them that they can find them a job if they come here or can house and feed them in their homes until they find work. Forged documents are apparently easy to come by so they don’t necessarily come here knowing they will have a job..they just see a much larger chance of finding a job than they have at home.
I really should be working . . . I feel so guilty now!
The financial services industry has arranged a very convenient way for you to keep your 1980’s standard of living. If it wasn’t for our economic policies we would all be making enough to pay all our credit card bills off each month. A ten dollar toaster at WalMart would also probably cost 150 bucks and a 100 dollar TV 1,200 bucks.. but Americans would be both making profits from the sale of that item and earning wages from the sale of that item not the Chinese.
Fred you’re giving me something to think about fellow. 💡
I go rest my brain . . . being fed to much too think about right now. I be tired.
blog is great today oh well must get sleep make more goodness for me to read when i get up!
I just came from the Thursday manufacturing meeting. The last Thursday of the month is especially fun because the GM comes and yells at us because we didn’t meet the numbers he told his manager we were going to make this month. I see a lot of similarities between this meeting and the hearing before the judge in Alice’s restaurant. I wish I could understand where the GM gets the numbers he conveyed to his boss. You can see why Bush thinks everything is just great when its not.
Was the meeting kind of like the one at the beginning of the play/movie glengarry glen ross? :billcat:
I wonder what is behind the sudden release of hostages in Iraq? Is it possible our government had something to do with their detention in the first place? 😯
via http://www.majorityreportradio.com
Scalia Pic
‘You’re not going to print that, are you?’
Oh, no, of course not. 🙄
Hey, Scalia: Vaffanculo a Lei, la sua moglie, e’ la sua madre. Lei e’ un cafone stronzo.
Vaffanculo a Lei, la sua moglie, e’ la sua madre. Lei e’ un cafone stronzo.
Parli molto bene, PJ!
(Ma perche’ usi “Lei”? Non devi essere tanto formale!)
March 30, 2006
Immigration and White Racism
The Ghost of George Wallace
By JUAN SANTOS
When the late Alabama Governor George Wallace–surrounded by armed guards–stood on the steps of the University of Alabama to prevent a young Black woman from entering the University of Alabama, he declared, “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”
He also inspired a man who would later stand at the US / Mexican border, armed to the teeth, to prevent other brown skinned people from entering someplace he didn’t want to them to enter–the United States.
A year ago Jim Gilchrist brought the mainstream media to a frenzy as they reported on his Minuteman Project, a group of racist vigilantes who’d traveled to the border–guns in hand–to stop the immigrant “invasion” and the “re-conquest,” they said, of the US Southwest by Mexicans.
Later, Gilchrist ran for the US House of Representatives as a member of American Independent Party–the party founded by Wallace, the arch-segregationist.
Like Wallace with the Dixiecrats of his day, Gilchrist has plenty of allies in Congress–chief among them Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, best known for advocating that the US “take out” the Muslim holy city of Mecca with a nuclear weapon. Tancredo is also known as the head of the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, where, chillingly, he leads 91 members of Congress. . .
http://www.counterpunch.org/santos03302006.html
More than any other Latin American country, Mexico is considered the backyard of the US. Through the vehicle of NAFTA, the US has been able to strengthen its stranglehold over Mexico. Smaller and weaker Mexican centres of production have been bought up and replaced with powerful US multinationals and conglomerates, and the Mexican masses face deteriorating social conditions, attacks on wages, and an increase in prices. The Mexican workers and farmers are now looking for a way out of the miseries of capitalism, but imperialism cannot afford or allow even the minor reforms that have been initiated by Obrador.
US imperialism cannot afford to lose control of the situation in Mexico as it has in Venezuela and Bolivia. The US administration has learned from the past, but this will not help them. When Hugo Chavez was elected President of Venezuela in 1998, US imperialism and the Venezuelan oligarchy thought that he would be like any other politician – he could use his populist phraseology and rhetoric, but in the end he would succumb to the pressures of capitalism and imperialism and toe the line. One section believes that this will be the case with Obrador. But the US administration seems determined not to risk this happening again, and they are trying at all costs to stop the revolutionary tide from sweeping Mexico – hence they are hell bent on stopping Obrador from running for the presidency.
In your view, what is the most fundamental misunderstanding that people in this country have about what they call illegal immigration to this country? We often think that migration results from conditions in Mexico that are independent of the United States, and [of] a demand for labor—the old “push-pull” model. The fact of the matter is that for over 100 years migration has been a social consequence of the actions of American capital in Mexico. The most obvious example now is the North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is uprooting on a massive scale throughout Mexico.
How does that start? Mexican immigration starts at about 1905 and continues on to the present. Early analysis claimed that the Mexican Revolution was the push factor. But the Mexican Revolution ends and the migration [to America] continues…By 1900 the United States virtually controlled the modern sectors of the Mexican economy…American capital took over the railroad [and] virtually all mining in Mexico. The consequence of this invasion was the displacement of people in Mexico from the traditional farmlands—where the railroads were being constructed—to larger cities.
Were they working on the railroad as well? They become surplus labor and were employed by the very same corporations, Atchison Topeka, Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and others, who were building these railroads. There are about 300,000 people sent on the migratory trail within Mexico. The railroads needed labor for construction northward along the rail lines. So they begin to recruit people northward and a resettlement pattern occurs in Mexico. Next, these same railroads bring [Mexican workers] into the United States to work on the railroads. By 1909 Mexicans become one of the major sources of railroad maintenance work on the nine major western railroads in the United States.
Recruiters would go into Mexico City or the villages where people were settling, bringing them northward. That same northward migration continued into the United States. To get that [Mexican] labor to the mining sites, the vast majority of which were in the north, they had to recruit workers from the south. This is the second internal migration in Mexico. They employed something like 130,000 miners at the peak and they didn’t use miners from the United States. That same group of people who worked in the mines in northern Mexico end up employed by the same corporations operating in Arizona and New Mexico. This is the second wave of northward migration to occur. . .
http://spaces.msn.com/ocorganizer/blog/cns!CF609DB270D4658B!237.entry
I am listening to last night’s Malloy show. Cynthia McKinney had a tussle with Capitol Police. According to reports, she did not stop when ordered by police. When accosted, she struck a police officer. Sound familiar? Anyone?
I have a similar story concerning myself and college campus security. Several years ago, I was charged with felonious assault on a campus cop. For some time prior to the charge, I had been targetted by the administration because of political activities on campus. One result was being stalked and surveilled by the campus security gestapo.
On the night in question, two thugs trapped me in the stairway of a campus dorm. They wanted to know why I was laughing at some of the slogans people had written on the walls–seriously. As I tried to walk past them, one put his hands on me. Boxing and wrestling ensued. The county sheriff dept. was called in. A night in jail for me; cracked jaw for one of the cops.
The case was so ludicrous–and I had some political backing–that it did not even get to the arraignment stage. (They had no reason to stop me.) I was told to stay away from this nazi security guard for about three days. That was it. Oh. And the campus administration gave me a reprimand for not stopping and licking the boots of campus security.
Thanks for letting me get that off of my chest!:omg::rofl2::nixon:
Impeach Bush!:omg: (Malloy said that!)
Lou Dobbs has gotten a lot of criticism for his strong beliefs on how to reform immigration. I found this article interesting. Randi has also been talking about the guest worker program. And, her take on it is that it will create slave laborers in addition to hurting the middle class.
March 30, 2006
The Israeli Elections
What the Hell has Happened?
By URI AVNERY
The most dramatic and the most boring election campaign in our history has mercifully come to an end. Israel looks in the mirror and asks itself: What the hell has happened?
On the way to the ballot box, in the center of Tel-Aviv, I could not detect the slightest sign that this was election day. Generally, elections in Israel are a passionate affair. Posters everywhere, thousands of slogan-covered cars rushing around ferrying voters to the ballot stations, a lot of noise.
This time – nothing. An eerie silence. Less than two thirds of the registered citizens did actually take the trouble to vote. Politicians of all stripes are detested, democracy despised among the young, whole sectors estranged. Those who decided not to vote, but at the last moment relented, voted for the Pensioners’ List, which jumped from nothing to an astonishing seven seats.
This was a real protest vote. Even young people told themselves: Instead of throwing our vote away, let’s do them a favor. Old people, sick people (including the terminally ill), handicapped people and the entire health and education systems were the victims of the Thatcherite economic policies of Netanyahu, backed by Sharon, which Shimon Peres (of all people) called “swinish”. […]
http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery03302006.html
Randi played a recording of Bush in Cancun praising Vincente Fox!:shock:
Read this:
March 30, 2006
The Irony of the Israeli Elections
Does Kadima’s Victory Put the Peace Process in Reverse?
By NEVE GORDON
Tel Aviv, Israel.
Israelis went to the polls this week with the hope of resolving the Israeli Palestinian conflict once and for all. The new political party Kadima, which means ìforwardî in Hebrew, promised as much and therefore won the day, while the country’s long-established ruling parties, Labor and Likud, lost their traditional place at the helm.
Although the refreshing social justice discourse introduced by Labor’s new leader, the Moroccan born union advocate Amir Peretz, did inject energy into the shattered party, he failed to reap the support many had hoped for. His position regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been rightly criticized as incoherent, and it also appears that many of Labor’s longtime Ashkenazi voters have deserted the party ranks because they are unwilling to be led by a Mizrahi Jew.
Likud’s situation is much worse. Following the creation of Kadima it lost almost 75 percent of its cohorts not least because it has been increasingly characterized as an extremist party that represents the settler’s uncompromising ideology. Perhaps more importantly, during his tenure as Minister of Finance, Binyamin Netanyahu introduced unpopular Thatcherite policies that pushed hundreds of thousands of Israelis under the poverty line. After the election’s humiliating results — in which Likud won less than 10% of the Knesset seats and has been relegated to the fifth largest party — many believe that Netanyahu should resign.
Even though the extreme right lost many seats, Avigdor Liberman’s party Israel Beiteinu (Israel is our Home), garnered 12 seats, four times more than it won in the previous elections. This is a worrisome development since Liberman is Israel’s version of France’s Jean Marie Le Pen, a shrewd politician who captivates right wing voters by appealing to atavistic sentiments of Jewish blood and soil…
http://www.counterpunch.org/gordon03302006.html
I had somewhat the opposite experience during my Sophomore year in college when some frat plebes attempted to abduct me with the intent of dropping me off nude in front a girls dorm. A friend of mine came to the rescue but got hit on the head and was knocked unconscious. That caused the frat holes to run for it but Steve and I wondered over to the Sheriff’s office and filed an assault report. Being a state school the state police showed up and arrested the whole frat plebe group and locked them up for the night. The next morning the Dean of students had the frat post a half million dollar bond. Steve’s father filed charges against them and that put the frat in such bad shape they had to rent the frat house for off campus housing. That whole semester we kept getting some nasty glares from the poor frat jerks.
I wasn’t making a general indictment of campus police–or police in general. This was a specific situation. It was the administration of the “liberal” college that enabled the campus security to act that way, although the security did go far beyond the bounds of propriety. Actually, it was one rogue cop and a few of his followers who orchestrated the environment.
Student protest against the rogue eventually led to his being fired–twice! (Long story.) As for myself, I have not had major problems with police since. And I consider myself nonviolent, too.
…Air America CEO Danny Goldberg :rant1:recently said he’s optimistic.
Affiliates, ratings and revenue are rising, he said, challenging critics, like Bill O’Reilly, who have regularly declared the network close to dead.
http://www.nydailynews.com/03-30-2006/entertainment/story/404083p-342237c.html
Parecon and Economics
by Michael Albert
…By journalism, in other words, we refer to information transferred from people who investigate and accumulate data and who also have time to think about it and make predictions, evaluations, and judgments about it, to other folks.
Capitalist Media
In a capitalist economy, information-conveying media such as newspapers, periodicals, TV, and radio, are, like other corporations, profit-seeking firms with corporate divisions of labor and products to sell to consumers. Oddly, however, in many cases, what media institutions sell isn’t always precisely what it seems.
Information firms sell information to their consumers, yes, but more so they sell their consumers to advertisers. And the information that flows is often highly contoured to purposes other than meeting consumers’ needs. In examining capitalism’s journalistic institutions Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky developed what they called the Propaganda Model to explain its main features and operations.
“What is the propaganda model and how does it work?” Herman answers his own question by telling us that the model’s “crucial structural factors” arise from the fact that “the dominant media are firmly imbedded in the market system.” Newspapers, periodicals, TV news, radio, and the rest are all profit-seeking businesses, “owned by rich people (or companies)” and “funded largely by advertisers who are also profit-seeking entities, and who want their ads to appear in a supportive selling environment.” […]
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=9944§ionID=4
The worst experience I have ever had with the police was when we first invaded IRAQ .. We had a large demonstration that kept growing and the police called in mounted units, then the SWAT team. The protesters got out into the street and stopped traffic. The police then started riding their horses into the crowd and then the SWAT team opened fire ( with rubber bullets but we didn’t know that) on us and threw tear gas canisters. We had some Vietnam era special forces people among the demonstrators who threw the tear gas back at the police.. Things came close to getting out of hand.. Colorado has an open carry law so the next time we had a demonstration some of the special forces guys brought their AR15’s but kept them in the trunks of their cars. The police have behaved well since then though. Almost no one came to the third anniversary protest.
The United States has its own trade policies to thank for the rising number of farmers migrating here from Mexico. As heavy U.S. farm subsidies flood Mexican markets with cheap corn, farmers there earn less on the corn they grow. Many of them have no choice but to go looking for another job. In that search, many learn the hard way that “free trade” agreements open borders only to wealth — freeing it to go wherever it can multiply the quickest — but not to the people impoverished by that process.
Combining an agricultural policy that ruins Mexico’s farmers with immigration laws that keep them from rescuing the United States’ own rural economies makes little sense and less justice. That lack is plain in the modern-day Minutemen’s un-neighborly attitudes, and in the draconian immigration bill currently before the Senate. The bill would put up a new fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, use police and military troops to patrol it and make illegal immigration a felony.
March 9, 2006
Immigration and Jeffersonian Democracy
Free Borders Make Good Neighbors
By WYLIE HARRIS
Not long ago, half a dozen people calling themselves the “Lone Star Minutemen” descended on a corner in the college town near our farm to protest illegal immigration. Every day at this corner, undocumented Latino men gather in hope of landing a day’s work with passing contractors.
These Minutemen appropriated their name from the militia of the American Revolution, who had to be ready to swap plows for muskets in a minute to defend their new country. Those independent small farmers became a cornerstone of the United States’ civic mythology. Indeed, Thomas Jefferson believed them to be both source and guardian of democracy itself.
Today’s Minutemen want stricter limits on immigration. But that approach would shut out people who come as close as anyone to making reality of Jefferson’s vision. That’s certainly true of some Mexican neighbors of mine — hardworking folks who farm other people’s land, scraping and saving until they can afford a few acres of their own. Against all odds, some are making that dream come true.
My Mexican neighbors, and others like them all over the United States, are also one of the first rays of hope that farm country has seen in many a moon. Ever since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, many rural counties have been losing people. Between 1990 and 2000, Latino immigrants have kept more than 100 rural counties from suffering that fate, according to the Agriculture Department.
[…]
The border with Mexico is much to long and much to remote in many places to either build a fence/wall along, or patrol with any military or para military and/or police force.
First Mr. FK, now Jill Carroll. US out of Iraq one by one! (Hopefully the withdrawl will speed up as it picks up steam, but we’re happy to at least get those two back.)
And now, for FK…
CRUELLA WATCH!! :omg:
From Thursday morning’s St. Petersburg Times:
Rooney’s Flirtation Ends
Tom Rooney, the Palm Beach county lawyer and member of the Steelers football family, is closing the door he opened to running for U.S. Senate: “I will not seek my party’s nomination for the U.S. Senate in Florida. … Although I would love to bring a different option to the political process this year, public service for me and my family will have to wait until another day. There simply is not enough time for me to wage a winning campaign in this race. I encourage all Republicans to vote this fall and help the party maintain its majority in Congress. In doing so, our leadership will be well positioned to fulfill its obligations promised at the Republican Revolution in 1994.”
:rofl2::rofl2::rofl2:
(The animated editorializing is my own and not that of the Times. Back to the article.)
Curiously enough, his statement comes as the on-again, off-again Buzz about Katherine Harris dropping out is on again, big time, with new staff departures announced or looming. Republican operatives seem more keen than ever to prod her out, and are questioning whether Harris’ next campaign finance report will show any significant personal contribution. As of a few days ago, we heard Harris had just a few hundred thousand dollars left.
:banana::banana::banana:
Why are conservatives so hostile toward Jill Carroll 😯
Judiciary Committee Hearing tomorrow should be good. I assume it will be on c-span.
Son’s now home after surgery; his shoulder was worse than expected, but at least now that’s done. I hope he can stay away from work long enough for it to heal right.
I’m now off to the office to try the hair dryer and paper towel trick on the wax spatters.
BTW, isi, the ice will solidify the wax when it’s on something like a carpet, making it easier to scrape, but then you still have to apply heat over brown paper to get it out of the fibers.
hey everyone…long day of computer problems on the laptop….I am so frustrated!
Pj- if the thing is not recognizing a bootable device and has lost all sorts of system files and wont take the XP disc (keeps failing during loading) should I assume that its the hard drive and continue on this road or think that maybe its the motherboard and its all over?
Its a very, very old machine, that Dell gave me refurbished to replace another old malfunctioning machine that was still under extended warranty…so, its probably time…but, I dont want to ditch it unless its really finished.
I can always give it to the guy aorund here who is fixing machines for inner city families and he will fix it and give it away. I think I can replace the HD, but probably not the motherboard.
I would call Dell INdia, but my support has expired and I probably have to pay….is it worth it?
I cant seem to get anything to run …f8 wont boot up in safe mode or anything else form that page…keeps shutting down with major corruption error…f2 doesnt tell much but when I try to get it to reboot into the full boot scan, it wont…
Sorry, youre probably sick of this stuff…but if you get any ideas from the info above, let me know…;-)
Short show tonight? Snippers?
I thihnk UConn is out…oh well…Huskies…
Melina, I’m not PJ . . . but I’d toss that old Dell and buy a new one. Dell has great prices . . . even on laptops. If you really wanna try something new and exciting . . . go for a Mac.
Does anyone know if tonights show will start on time?
friggin fracking im hungry im going to get uh food!
Run, Katherine. Run.:rofl2:
:nixon:
Morning!
Great reading the blog content today. Logged on a couple times and started to post only to have to leave. so I’ve been here in :gate:
Son’s now home after surgery; phoener, trust it went well and your son is a-ok…sounds painful. ouch.
mr fk is on U.S. turf as of 4 pm today. kidnapping is a huge problem for them over there. (for their local staff). so glad he’s here, you guys, thanks for all your blog :love:
this blog helped me catch up on the news today. isi thanks for the post on aar. I’d hate to lose their content. springer is better than boortz!
:fire:
melina, my dell crapped out on me, too..don’t throw good money after bad.
I agree with cnick, get a mac ( i know you don’t like them, so ok, get something else). Michael Dell gave mega bucks to the Bush Crime Family I just couldn’t buy another dell product. :yuck:
:gate:
Hope Mr FK has an extended stay in US. If things get much worse, won’t the networks pull the reporters??
isi, i was wondering that myself but haven’t asked yet…can’t imagine it, but when I hear of the kidnappings that are taking place, you begin to wonder. (“We” don’t hear about these kidnappings.)
he should be home at least through the month (I can’t drive for 4 weeks they’re telling me).
give marc a hug for me, guys,
1st and 10. Go, Katherine. Go. :rofl2:
FK, have a good evening. Good luck on your tests tomorrow. :peace:
:jason:Fascism!
:jason:communism
:banana:happy medium!
Hey Melina, if you have access to another computer with a CD burner, you can make an ultimate boot CD (UBCD), which has MHDD and Maxtor’s HDD diagnostic utilities (among others) on it. Or try making a Barts PE CD or Knoppix CD. Sometimes a bad HDD will do funny things, so you can try pulling the drive before booting to the Knoppix or Barts disc (if all runs well that way, you can assume it’s the HDD). You can also run memtest to rule out memory issues (also on the UBCD).
Oh, and Gateway’s blue. So is Apple, for that matter (not a big fan of the Macs either, really; if you want to play, set it up to boot Linux, or dual boot Linux/Winders). Hard drive’s are relatively cheap, if you want to get more miles out of it; if it’s really that old (what’s it got in it?), and you have the $, I’d probably get something new.
Kat-I’ll be thinking of you tomorrow and we will all be here to keep you company as soon as you feel like it during the 4 weeks…though I have a feeling that you will be surrounded by friends, family and pets;-)
(my baby parrot Tweet is on my shoulder as I type this…so fantastic, smart, loving, and tiny…)
I hate Michael Dell, but he has done some insane thing about promising 2 jobs here for every job he outsources…Im not sure if he has done it, and Im not sure if they are “manufacturing jobs” but I do talk to the techs alot in person and on the phone (when I can get a non-India one) and Dell is not the worst deal in the world.
They do still have the best customer service, and Ive found their machines to be excellent.
For desktops I suggest MOnarch, which is a fully American company that has great machines at reasonable prices and great tech help….I actually have only needed help once and it came really fast with no runaround…unfortunately they dont do laptops…not really anyway.
Right now theyve got a limited $750 rebate on the Inspirons if they cost more than 2 grand…so you can get a smoking machine for pretty cheap…(and for my configuration that includes the media center, built in wireless, bluetooth and everything. Im just worried about the credit because they give you 0% till Jan. ’07…and then its something like 17%, so there is pressure to get the thing paid off or to transfer it and Im juggling debt….
If I can sell the big wood swing set thats taking up half my yard I can get that paid down quickly, but I dont like to base one thing on something that hasnt happened yet.
I cant do a Mac…sorry Macsters…its not that I doubt then, but I just work better in XP.
Seems like my baby is dead here…I could order a hard drive and maybe a motherboard on ebay and replace them…but if its not that then I wont know where to go from there.
I know a guy who will fix it for free to give to an inner city family, and I would so love to give it to my son’s little Haitian friend, who has absolutely stolen my heart over the years…I would let that kid live here if he needed or wanted to!
Oh well….sorry to ramble…heh…
yeah, like I dont ever do that, right?
Have a great show tonight. I have been feeling really happy that Jill Carroll got released OK today…and thinking alot about everything thats going on.
Thanks to ….?…was it Phoener?…who posted the great immigration articel. I printed it out and sent it along to Mom…(MOm wants them to build the great wall of china…halliburton could build it, right?…and then see what happens)…this whole thing is so comical…
But I love to see uprisings! I love to see it all come apart! Just dont want to wait 3 more years to get these criminals out.
OK…off to bed with my parrot book…try to forget all this computer stuff.
I swore Id never give Michael dell another penny….but then Im giving Gates money all the time…
I need the liberal confessional.
I wish Marc would start early tonight…but since Ive hardly slept this week…well…
PJ, if you have any input on this at all please post and I will look tomorrow.
nite sheeple:love:
Its got 512 RAM and a 30 HD…its probably around 3 years or so old…its nothing special and the screen is not the greatest…its fine for what it is but I have been waiting for it to die…just dont know if this month is the month…
Its my birthday in 3 weeks but I really got the bird for that.
My Dad is sending the scooba robot…
and I just bought a bed.
But the easy payments and 0% call to me because Im an American Girl, raised on promises….
I will try to boot from the discs you mentioned…will burn ’em from here.
The other machine is just dead as a doornail.
I may also have a boot disc that I made at some point…
Ill try a bit longer and then dive into debt!
Thanks so much PJ…you always know the right thing!
Oh, and Phoener…Im so glad your son is OK. Thats gonna be me as soon as school ends…My Will is having surgery on both legs, if I can get the insurance company and doctors in a row. They are lengthening his leg tendons and he will have to wear casts for most of the summer and then have serious PT. He has a joint disorder and toe walks to the point that his hells are half the size they should be!…you wouldnt know it as hes started lacrosse this week and LOVES it!…he is a black belt in karate too, but all sorta with his heels up.
Anyway, Im so glad that your boy made it OK and I hope hes not a complainer (like my Will is!) These things end up being harder for us really….I am expecting the worst mood wise from our upcoming fiasco!
well im off to newport news virginia later sheeple!:fire:
:knit:ha yep very feminine! ok well onward!
Oooh. Republicans starting to eat their own.