The Corporatization of Our Media

This diary on Daily Kos about the firing of a Vermont AP Bureau Chief Chris Graff.

But when you dig into the story you see a much larger issue that is very scary.

Basically Mr. Graff was fired after 27 years for putting on the wire a column written by VERMONT SENATOR Patrick Leahy about open government. Not only was it not meant to be partisan, but there are no federal Republican officials of Vermont. And yet he was fired.

But this gets to the larger issue of what is going on.

via Peter Freyne's entry, a local journalist here:

First, since former USA Today president and publisher Tom Curley took over the reins at AP in 2003, things have taken a turn for the worse. Graff isn't the first veteran AP bureau chief to get axed recently. Curley's new Gannett-style policies and guidelines are being imposed with an iron fist by his new team of managers. There are complaints the news is being dumbed down by corporate, and the AP gold standard is being turned into cow flop.

This is happening all over the traditional media sources and it is sad. I just hope that as these medias beomce worse people stop looking at them, reading them, or respecting them and finding other medians to find out what is going on.

Jack Carter - Reminding us of a Great President

Jack Carter wrote this on Daily Kos.com

It speaks for itself.

Go to his website,

JACK CARTER FOR NEVADA

give some money

Kossacks,

My father dropped in on y'all last week with a post in support of my Senate campaign in Nevada (and again yesterday with a follow-up). I expected the magnitude of the response - after all, this is the first President of the United States to honor the blogosphere with his presence, but I was overwhelmed at the sheer love and respect you guys displayed for him.

I currently spend much of my day in a windowless room using a telephone to reach willing contributors to my campaign. Last week, in the course of my calling I was talking to one of my contemporaries (late 50's) when the conversation turned to Bobby Kennedy. I have a bust of him on my TV cabinet wearing a 1976 New Hampshire Carter for President ski hat. Bobby Kennedy was assassinated while I was in boot camp, 1968, and something died in me. He was my last hero.

I was relating that story when the thought struck me that my father had rekindled the flame. He has become my new hero - one with much more gravitas than Bobby ever had in his short life. Bobby was a meteor, an orator with charismatic appeal, geared to the boomer generation. My father is a bricklayer, one who goes to work every day, trowel in hand, and lays his line honestly with respect for a hard days work by his fellows and a sincere wish to do the best he can. As a member of the family, I am so close to these incremental changes that sometimes I don't recognize their impact until something happens to make me turn around and look back.

I turned around last week. What I discovered was that my father has, brick by brick, day by day, built a magnificent edifice, a towering monument to the best that humankind has to offer - peace, love, alleviation of suffering, compassion, joy, freedom and democracy. Wow! I'm impressed, too.

Thanks for your thoughts. Y'all inspire me.

Jack Carter

Israeli Elections

I am not sure what to say about the Israeli Elections. I am happy with Labor's result although of course I had hoped they would win.

While I am happy that Israeli Right is leading a withdrawal of the West Bank, I am worried that it will be without the consulation of the Palestinian democratical elected government. Following closely to the new security wall.

The security wall was chosen to not go along the 1967 borders, but rather intersecting large portions of Palestinian Land and cutting their state into a patchwork of land.

A one sided withdrawal will surely result not in a full leaving of foreign territory, but rather a small withdrawal with settlers keeping many establish illegal settlements and a patchwork of Palestinian Control.

A reality exaserbated by the Hamas win. Which I discussed here.

In short, a one-sided withdrawl seems bad. Although Israel withdrawling from the Occupied Territories is such an important step in the right direction it cannot be minimized.

I guess we must just hope and pray, a just and true peace will result.

For the Political wanks, more below on the election.

Haaretz has this:

With 99.5 percent of the vote counted, Kadima had a less than expected 28 seats. Labor held at 20 seats, and Shas rose to 13, making the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party the third largest faction in the Knesset.

...The Likud had hoped to block a center-left coalition, but with almost all of the votes in weakened to 11 seats, far below the figures the party had hoped and a far cry from the 38 seats it won under Ariel Sharon in 2003.

Haaretz has this analysis:

Israel's next government will look as follows: Its nucleus will constitute Kadima and the Labor Party, who amassed between 50 to 52 Knesset seats. This government will be an Olmert-Peretz government in which Peretz will be the strongman.

Peretz will demand a senior portfolio - apparently the finance ministry - but may also be ready to settle for the defense portfolio on condition that he is guaranteed passage of his economic policies as well as veto rights for the state's next budget.

United Torah Judaism and the Pensioners will almost certainly join Kadima and Labor, thus ensuring a stable government with the backing of 66-67 Knesset members.

Waiting in the wings are Meretz - which is just itching to be part of the government although it is doubtful Olmert will invite Yossi Beilin's faction since it will likely support the government from without - and Shas.

On the orders of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Shas must - simply must! - join the government.

AP: N. Korea "U.S. does not have 'monopoly' on pre-emptive strike"

I have always felt that the Pre-emptive war that Bush was pushing was a stupid idea. I have to admit, I never thought of this obvious result.

From the AP

N. Korea: U.S. does not have 'monopoly' on pre-emptive strike

From staff and wire reports

SEOUL — North Korea said Tuesday that it had the ability to launch a pre-emptive attack on the United States in its latest threat since being told it must stop its illegal trade activities.

"Our strong revolutionary might put in place all measures to counter (a) possible U.S. pre-emptive strike," the North Korea Foreign Ministry said, according to the Korean Central News Agency. "Pre-emptive strike is not the monopoly of the United States."

The ministry also said the North had built atomic weapons to counter the U.S. nuclear threat.

"We made nuclear weapons because of a nuclear threat from the United States," the ministry said.

The CIA has said the North may have enough plutonium from its nuclear program for at least a half-dozen weapons.

The United States urged the North to stop its threats and return to talks begun last year in which the North agreed to suspend its nuclear weapons program. The United States has also been pressuring the North to cease illegal activities used to bankroll its nuclear program such as money laundering, passing counterfeit money and trafficking in fake drugs and endangered species.

"They would do well to spend less time on propaganda and more time doing what the world would like them to do, which is preparing to come to the six-party talks and implement their part of the September agreement to denuclearize," Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of State, said Tuesday.

Five nations — the United States, South Korea, Japan, Russia and China — reached an agreement with the North in September to provide the dictatorship with financial aid in return for a suspension of its nuclear program. The last round of the nuclear talks was held in November.

But North Korea has said it will not finalize the deal until the United States drops its demands regarding the North's alleged improper trade activities.

The United States says the nuclear talks and the demands are separate issues and that it will not merge the two.

North Korea has also expressed anger at annual joint U.S.-South Korean military drills. The drills will start next week and are designed to coordinate U.S. and South Korean forces in a joint defense of South Korea.

Contributing: Barbara Slavin in Washington

NY Times: Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn

When I read this, my heart was honestly weeping. We have so much more work todo.

Because the NY Times, makes you pay for the article once it has been up a few days, I posted the whole article below. [emphasis below mine]

March 20, 2006

Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn

By ERIK ECKHOLM

BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups.

Focusing more closely than ever on the life patterns of young black men, the new studies, by experts at Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and other institutions, show that the huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men.

Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined.

Although the problems afflicting poor black men have been known for decades, the new data paint a more extensive and sobering picture of the challenges they face.

"There's something very different happening with young black men, and it's something we can no longer ignore," said Ronald B. Mincy, professor of social work at Columbia University and editor of "Black Males Left Behind" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).

"Over the last two decades, the economy did great," Mr. Mincy said, "and low-skilled women, helped by public policy, latched onto it. But young black men were falling farther back."

Many of the new studies go beyond the traditional approaches to looking at the plight of black men, especially when it comes to determining the scope of joblessness. For example, official unemployment rates can be misleading because they do not include those not seeking work or incarcerated.

"If you look at the numbers, the 1990's was a bad decade for young black men, even though it had the best labor market in 30 years," said Harry J. Holzer, an economist at Georgetown University and co-author, with Peter Edelman and Paul Offner, of "Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men" (Urban Institute Press, 2006).

In response to the worsening situation for young black men, a growing number of programs are placing as much importance on teaching life skills — like parenting, conflict resolution and character building — as they are on teaching job skills.

These were among the recent findings:

• The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990's. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless — that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20's were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000.



• Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990's and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20's who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30's, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison.



• In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.

None of the litany of problems that young black men face was news to a group of men from the airless neighborhoods of Baltimore who recently described their experiences.

One of them, Curtis E. Brannon, told a story so commonplace it hardly bears notice here. He quit school in 10th grade to sell drugs, fathered four children with three mothers, and spent several stretches in jail for drug possession, parole violations and other crimes.

"I was with the street life, but now I feel like I've got to get myself together," Mr. Brannon said recently in the row-house flat he shares with his girlfriend and four children. "You get tired of incarceration."

Mr. Brannon, 28, said he planned to look for work, perhaps as a mover, and he noted optimistically that he had not been locked up in six months.

A group of men, including Mr. Brannon, gathered at the Center for Fathers, Families and Workforce Development, one of several private agencies trying to help men build character along with workplace skills.

The clients readily admit to their own bad choices but say they also fight a pervasive sense of hopelessness.

"It hurts to get that boot in the face all the time," said Steve Diggs, 34. "I've had a lot of charges but only a few convictions," he said of his criminal record.

Mr. Diggs is now trying to strike out on his own, developing a party space for rentals, but he needs help with business skills.

"I don't understand," said William Baker, 47. "If a man wants to change, why won't society give him a chance to prove he's a changed person?" Mr. Baker has a lot of record to overcome, he admits, not least his recent 15-year stay in the state penitentiary for armed robbery.

Mr. Baker led a visitor down the Pennsylvania Avenue strip he wants to escape — past idlers, addicts and hustlers, storefront churches and fortresslike liquor stores — and described a life that seemed inevitable.

He sold marijuana for his parents, he said, left school in the sixth grade and later dealt heroin and cocaine. He was for decades addicted to heroin, he said, easily keeping the habit during three terms in prison. But during his last long stay, he also studied hard to get a G.E.D. and an associate's degree.

Now out for 18 months, Mr. Baker is living in a home for recovering drug addicts. He is working a $10-an-hour warehouse job while he ponders how to make a living from his real passion, drawing and graphic arts.

"I don't want to be a criminal at 50," Mr. Baker said.

According to census data, there are about five million black men ages 20 to 39 in the United States.

Terrible schools, absent parents, racism, the decline in blue collar jobs and a subculture that glorifies swagger over work have all been cited as causes of the deepening ruin of black youths. Scholars — and the young men themselves — agree that all of these issues must be addressed.

Joseph T. Jones, director of the fatherhood and work skills center here, puts the breakdown of families at the core.

"Many of these men grew up fatherless, and they never had good role models," said Mr. Jones, who overcame addiction and prison time. "No one around them knows how to navigate the mainstream society."

All the negative trends are associated with poor schooling, studies have shown, and progress has been slight in recent years. Federal data tend to understate dropout rates among the poor, in part because imprisoned youths are not counted.

Closer studies reveal that in inner cities across the country, more than half of all black men still do not finish high school, said Gary Orfield, an education expert at Harvard and editor of "Dropouts in America" (Harvard Education Press, 2004).

"We're pumping out boys with no honest alternative," Mr. Orfield said in an interview, "and of course their neighborhoods offer many other alternatives."

Dropout rates for Hispanic youths are as bad or worse but are not associated with nearly as much unemployment or crime, the data show.

With the shift from factory jobs, unskilled workers of all races have lost ground, but none more so than blacks. By 2004, 50 percent of black men in their 20's who lacked a college education were jobless, as were 72 percent of high school dropouts, according to data compiled by Bruce Western, a sociologist at Princeton and author of the forthcoming book "Punishment and Inequality in America" (Russell Sage Press). These are more than double the rates for white and Hispanic men.

Mr. Holzer of Georgetown and his co-authors cite two factors that have curbed black employment in particular.

First, the high rate of incarceration and attendant flood of former offenders into neighborhoods have become major impediments. Men with criminal records tend to be shunned by employers, and young blacks with clean records suffer by association, studies have found.

Arrests of black men climbed steeply during the crack epidemic of the 1980's, but since then the political shift toward harsher punishments, more than any trends in crime, has accounted for the continued growth in the prison population, Mr. Western said.

By their mid-30's, 30 percent of black men with no more than a high school education have served time in prison, and 60 percent of dropouts have, Mr. Western said.

Among black dropouts in their late 20's, more are in prison on a given day — 34 percent — than are working — 30 percent — according to an analysis of 2000 census data by Steven Raphael of the University of California, Berkeley.

The second special factor is related to an otherwise successful policy: the stricter enforcement of child support. Improved collection of money from absent fathers has been a pillar of welfare overhaul. But the system can leave young men feeling overwhelmed with debt and deter them from seeking legal work, since a large share of any earnings could be seized.

About half of all black men in their late 20's and early 30's who did not go to college are noncustodial fathers, according to Mr. Holzer. From the fathers' viewpoint, support obligations "amount to a tax on earnings," he said.

Some fathers give up, while others find casual work. "The work is sporadic, not the kind that leads to advancement or provides unemployment insurance," Mr. Holzer said. "It's nothing like having a real job."

The recent studies identified a range of government programs and experiments, especially education and training efforts like the Job Corps, that had shown success and could be scaled up.
Scholars call for intensive new efforts to give children a better start, including support for parents and extra schooling for children.

They call for teaching skills to prisoners and helping them re-enter society more productively, and for less automatic incarceration of minor offenders.

In a society where higher education is vital to economic success, Mr. Mincy of Columbia said, programs to help more men enter and succeed in college may hold promise. But he lamented the dearth of policies and resources to aid single men.

"We spent $50 billion in efforts that produced the turnaround for poor women," Mr. Mincy said. "We are not even beginning to think about the men's problem on similar orders of magnitude."

Illustration of Conservatism at its Heart

Not really news, but big on the liberal and conservative blogsphere was the recent hiring and resignation of Ben Domenech from the Washingtonpost.com

To sum up, the conservative blogs were critical of the Washingtonpost.com because they had a journalist WHO COVERED THE WHITE HOUSE write a column that often critized the President. Seems resonable enough, but not for conservatives.

Because the Washington Post is a farce of itself it capitulated and created the blog Redstate America. There is no liberal counterpart. Just a journalist and a talking points conservative.

Enter 24 year old Ben Domenech. Who through some quick searches was found to have plagarized just about everything he wrote. EVEN FROM THE WASHINGTON POST itself. He quickly resigned lasting 5 days at the job.

But Daily Kos does a good job of putting this into perspective. See for Conservatives they live in this myth, that they "earn" their way through the world, and so anything they get is theres and that is that. Also, they have little regard for facts when faced with this reality.

DHinMI on Daily Kos [Emphasis Mine]

....because Ben Domenech didn't just parrot conservative arguments about class opportunity and merit, his story exemplifies the dishonesty of the conservative view of America.

Ben Domenech did not get his position at the Washington Post based on merit. He got his position because of connections. He was home-schooled in part because his family--unlike most American families--could maintain a comfortable living with only one parent working outside the home. He got in to William and Mary, but he did not come close to graduating. (And given his penchant for plagiarism, one would have to wonder if intellectual thievery prompted a forced departure from William and Mary.) Nevertheless, despite no degree or significant life accomplishments, he got some patronage jobs in the Bush administration, no doubt because his father is an upper level GOP apparatchik. He has gotten bylines over at that bastion of heartless blue bloods, the National Review Online. He was a founder of Redstate.com. (And can you believe those clowns have shut down comments from new members, banned anyone who criticizes Domenech, and are actively defending this thief?) And he parlayed all those connections in to getting the Washington Post gig while still in his mid-20's.

Would anyone recognize a similar career trajectory of some schmoe from a working class community outside the DC/NYC/Boston/LA/Bay Area metro areas, who went to a state university, got great grades, but whose blue collar parents didn't have the connections of a Ben Domenech? Especially within the context of the current GOP, somebody with that background (and whose family wasn't tightly connected with politically powerful religious leaders) might as well be a feral child. Even with a college degree, intelligence, industry, drive and maybe some experience, somebody without the connections of a Ben Domenech almost certainly would not get the opportunity to work in a presidential administration, write for a major opinion magazine, and be awarded an opinion gig at one of the country's major national newspapers before the ten year anniversary of his graduating class.

After Ben Domenech's dismissal/resignation from the Washington Post--and his employment with the Post will be ended, very soon--you'll probably see some conservatives complaining that Ben Domenech screwed up an opportunity that would have been better given to someone more deserving. But that's a joke, because it accepts the conservative belief that opportunities like those squandered by Ben Domenech are typically earned. Too many of such opportunities awarded to twenty-somethings aren't dispensed on the basis of merit and equal opportunity for all people regardless of class or social, political and business connections. We live in an age of increasing crony capitalism, and the Bush administration exemplifies crony government, and too often connections determine who gets the good opportunities in business and politics. The conservatives will argue otherwise, but what the Domenech fiasco shows is that conservative cronyism has simply spread in to American journalism.

Why I Hate Crash

I hated the movie Crash. When I saw it in the movie theaters, the movie didn’t sit right with me. I found it reinforced negative stereotypes, in no way reflected the issues with race facing America and just generally contrite. I found it so ridiculous, that it was hard for me to watch.

To show how obnoxiously pompous this movie thinks it is, its tagline is actually: “You think you know who you are. You have no idea.”

This review on IMDB.com is great:

Another rich, sheltered person lectures us about race!,

Pretentious, maudlin, and tedious.

Be careful, critics will always shower praise on a movie that "tackles the tough issues." If I hear another critic call this movie "brave," I'm going to claw my eyes out. It's not brave to sit in your mansion in Santa Monica and write about what a racist hellhole the rest of Los Angeles is. This movie is utterly phony, and its story is ridiculously contrived. Sure, good actors get to yell, and cry, and gnash their teeth, but their agents should really protect them from this kind of shrill, pedantic junk. Crash makes Magnolia look like a masterpiece.And we, the people of Los Angeles, should sue the filmmakers for their facile portrayal of the city.

So imagine my surprise when this shitty movie beat out the great movie of Brokeback Mountain, (which should have won), Munich, Good Night, and Good Luck, Capote all should have won before Crash.

I know why Crash won, it no only allows Hollywood to avoid the controversial pick of Brokeback Mountain, but it also REINFORCES WHITE HOLLYWOODS PUESDO LIBERAL FEELINGS about race.

A white cop who makes the most racist comments and sexual abuses a black woman, turns out to be “not so bad.” I won’t even get into how offensive it is that A) the black woman does not fight the cop who goes after her B) BLAMES HER MAN for not standing up for her, clearly Paul Haggis has never met a Black woman C) is then rescued in the end by the white man.

The Good cop who colludes with black people and tries to help us ends up being killed by an “innocent” young black youth. Because Black people’s plight is not the result of systematic repression that they actively do nothing to overturn, it is sort of accidental. We just get into bad situations because life sucks for us and shit happens.

The intelligent Black youths and only good dialogue in the movie rob White people.

And Maria the Latina Maid really loves her White “owners,” and is the only true friend Sandra Bullock’s character has.

It’s the type of movie that allows Western White Liberal Elite sleep well at night. And by awarding Crash Best movie, they have “done something” to further the debate on race.

Admittedly some of these complaints are simplifies Crash’s themes, but so does the movie simplify the REAL problems with race. As a Black American I found this movie so offensive it still bothers me to thing it actually WON Oscar for best movie. I stopped watching the Oscar’s because I found them so racist it was just sad. The fact that Black movies, got no mention, Black actors could never win, and minorities, Latinos, Native Americans, pretty much anyone that wasn’t White America need not show up. The Oscars once again confirmed why Minorities should not bother EVER respecting the institution.

This Article by Derik Smith a professor of African-American literature is good explanation of why it is bad.

Pension Reform: A Gift to Business

Seriously these people are ridiculous. They say there are going to tackle the imminent problem of Pension Reform.

Big Business more concerned with the bottom line then their own employees, the government said it would step in to make sure they are meeting the obligations THE BUSINESSES THEMSELVES SAID THEY WOULD DO.

But instead, the Republicans actually made the laws WORSE for employees and a gift to businesses..

Seriously this made me so mad, this is @*#$ing ridiculous.

From NY Times

With a strong directive from the Bush administration, Congress set out more than a year ago to fashion legislation that would protect America's private pension system, tightening the rules to make sure companies set aside enough money to make good on their promises to employees.

Then the political horse-trading began, with lawmakers, companies and lobbyists, representing everything from big Wall Street firms to tiny rural electric cooperatives, weighing in on the particulars of the Bush administration's blueprint.

In the end, lawmakers modified many of the proposed rules, allowing companies more time to cover pension shortfalls, to make more forgiving estimates about how much they will owe workers in the future, and even sometimes to assume that their workers will die younger than the rest of the population.

On top of those changes, companies also persuaded lawmakers to add dozens of specific measures, including a multibillion-dollar escape clause for the nation's airlines and a special exemption for the makers of Smithfield Farms hams.

As a result, the bill now being completed in a House-Senate conference committee, rather than strengthening the pension system, would actually weaken it, according to a little-noticed analysis by the government's pension agency. The agency's report projects that the House and Senate bills would lower corporate contributions to the already underfinanced pension system by $140 billion to $160 billion in the next three years.

Star Wars: the TV series

I have to have a nerd moment and admit something devastatingly embaressing.

I LOVE STAR WARS and this news is so exciting I don't know what to do with myself.

Lucas Agrees to Write ‘Star Wars’ TV Series

According to Hollywood.com

HOLLYWOOD - Star Wars creator George Lucas has agreed to write a 100-episode TV series of the classic sci-fi epic.

The series will focus on the missing years between Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars movie, released in 1977.

Producer Rick McCullum said at Monday night's Empire Awards, "We're very excited--we just got confirmation George Lucas has committed to writing the Star Wars TV series.

"I guess this is the news all fans have been waiting to hear."

Filming on the TV series is expected to commence next year.

Republicans are Whiny Cry Babies: Literarily

This according to a Diary on Daily Kos

And not at all surpriasing. The whiny insecure kids become conservatives.

Somehow I doubt the American press would ever report this. But the Toronto Star did:

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one whgho always thout everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints?

Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

If you've ever thought that there's just something FUNDAMENTALLY wrong with Conservatives, well here's a study that backs it up.

And get this -- the last time someone published the same findings:

Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding.

So it's scientific fact: Conservatives are COWARDS. They are whiny little fraidy cats.

In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings -- the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.

A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.

The confident kids turned out liberal and were still hanging loose, turning into bright, non-conforming adults with wide interests. The girls were still outgoing, but the young men tended to turn a little introspective.

...He reasons that insecure kids look for the reassurance provided by tradition and authority, and find it in conservative politics. The more confident kids are eager to explore alternatives to the way things are, and find liberal politics more congenial.

In a society that values self-confidence and out-goingness, it's a mostly flattering picture for liberals. It also runs contrary to the American stereotype of wimpy liberals and strong conservatives.

Yeah, well who spread that stereotype around? It sure wasn't the liberals? That's right, it's the conservatives who have spread that mistruth. Because not only are they cowardly scairdy-cats, they're LIARS as well.

Of course, if you're studying the psychology of politics, you shouldn't be surprised to get a political reaction. Similar work by John T. Jost of Stanford and colleagues in 2003 drew a political backlash. The researchers reviewed 44 years worth of studies into the psychology of conservatism, and concluded that people who are dogmatic, fearful, intolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty, and who crave order and structure are more likely to gravitate to conservatism. Critics branded it the "conservatives are crazy" study and accused the authors of a political bias.

And some people wonder why conservatives hate science.
It's because science reveals them to be scared little whiny bastards.

Police State America

I really am not an alarmist. I have always considered myself a rational pragmatist. But having peaceful protested a few times in support of the troops and my mother and against the war, I have been suspicious of the police who seem to want to rile protestors up to warrent premature arresting them.

What sort of country tries to silence people marching in support of PEACE. Is there anything crazier then trying to silence the message of every major religion and every moral leader in the world past present and future? Sure life is often more nuanced and so absolute PEACE sometimes seems impossible, but still, who tries to silence that message.

After yesterdays protest, I read this in the NY Times Article

Its just sad.

In five internal reports made public yesterday as part of a lawsuit, New York City police commanders candidly discuss how they had successfully used "proactive arrests," covert surveillance and psychological tactics at political demonstrations in 2002, and recommend that those approaches be employed at future gatherings.

Among the most effective strategies, one police captain wrote, was the seizure of demonstrators on Fifth Avenue who were described as "obviously potential rioters."

This part is just scary and wrong

The reports also made clear what the police have yet to discuss publicly: that the department uses undercover officers to infiltrate political gatherings and monitor behavior.

Indeed, one of the documents — a draft report from the department's Disorder Control Unit — proposed in blunt terms the resumption of a covert tactic that had been disavowed by the city and the federal government 30 years earlier. Under the heading of recommendations, the draft suggested, "Utilize undercover officers to distribute misinformation within the crowds."

Asked about the proposal, Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department, said yesterday: "The N.Y.P.D. does not use police officers in any capacity to distribute misinformation."

And my other point, putting out things to get the crowd to be alarmed and thus a rational to arrest them

In another report, a police inspector praised the "staging of massive amounts" of armored vehicles, prisoner wagons and jail buses in the view of the demonstrators, writing that the sight "would cause them to be alarmed."

Is this really what we want OUR tax funded police to be doing? Actively stifling debate in America?

It seems wrong to me. When I am abroad defending America, it is our active debate and civil liberties that I always point to as our greatest attributes and thus worth defending at any cost. But what are we fighting for if not the freedom to speak away from state interference?

Update: Bush is Delusional

Update: Bush is Delusional

I still can't believe this headline.

Bush Marks Anniversary, Never Says 'War'

This is an article according to the AP

WASHINGTON - President Bush marked the anniversary of the Iraq war Sunday by touting the efforts to build democracy there and avoiding any mention of the daily violence that rages three years after he ordered an invasion.

The president didn't utter the word "war."

"We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq," the president assured a public that is increasingly skeptical that he has a plan to end the fighting after the deaths of more than 2,300 U.S. troops.

What exactly have all the troops died for? What have so many Iraqis died in? How have almost 50,000 troops become mamed?

Its so insensitive and outlandish to just be ridiculous. Everything is a PR stunt, its never real, the sacrifice, never touched by anyone Bush knows. Its all about profits, and how to sell if for political power.

A recent [Reported March 16th] CBS News Poll found that 3% of Americans believe the President went to war in Iraq to free the Iraqi people or Promot Democracy.

Thank G-d the American Public now gets it.

3rd Year Anniversay of the War

On the 3rd Anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, I am here in the other major power fighting this unfortunate war.

Read about the world wide protest HERE.

There is not a good place to begin with how to talk about this terrible war.
So lets talk about what we can do, and lets honor all these people who came out to help.

Military Families Speak Out

The group that Cyndy Sheehan rose to prominance through. Please go to there website, help out, educate yourself on our [Military Family Members] plight during war time. Thank G-d my mother has been in the Air Force to long to be in harms way. But I remember during the first Gulf War when she wasn't. This must be musch worse for those families.

Iraq Veterans Against the War

needs your support through word of mouth and finanacially. They are made up of Iraq War Veterans and their purpose is to speak truthfully about what is going on there. To oppose any government talking points, and to speak candidly about their service and the needs once they return.

There is also:

Military Families Against the War
(British Version of MFSO)

Veterans For Peace

September 11th Families for A Peaceful Tomorrow

There are so many great groups. And so much to do. I know it often feels useless and daunting. but take some time and do something. Go to one of these websites. If we bring this awful war to an end a daily earlier, that is many lives saved.

If we can get our troops equipped with appropriate armor, get them the resources they need. And when they come home actually FUND their benefits.

They need so much help, and everyone Iraqis, Military Members, their families, all that our touched by this awful war need our support, so lets take this day to do something about it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I am off enjoying St. Patrick's Day in London. I have no posts this week as I have been off enjoying the city with a friend. This is what I have been up to.


Flowers In Front of Buckingham


Snuggling with Rich People on Bond Street


Following the Beatles on Abbey Road Playing


Miles Davis Trumpet He used to record Bitches Brew
The Vault in the Original Hard Rock Cafe


Playing JIMMY HENDRIX GUITAR. Used for Blues. SERIOUSLY
The Vault in the Original Hard Rock Cafe


This Last One Just Cracks Me Up, In Front of Buckingham. Guess we know what the queen stares at.

Republican Shows True Color

This isn't that Shocking

A Loveland lawmaker has been blasted by his colleagues for e-mailing an essay written by someone else that accused "welfare-pampered blacks" of waiting for the government to save them from Hurricane Katrina.

This is why Black people are and should be suspicious of Republicans. Of course not all, I would venture even most Republicans who vote Republican do not believe this to be true. But the mindest of Republican legislatures and party officials is exactly this.

This Representative just had the guts to say it.

Rep. Jim Welker, a Republican, said Thursday morning that he forwarded the article because of its message about society victimizing people by making them dependent on government programs. ....One passage says, "President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks.

He did apologize...

After the uproar, Welker issued the following statement late in the afternoon:

"Forwarding this e-mail, particularly without comment, showed poor judgment on my part. I found the opinions expressed by this individual, especially if taken literally, to be offensive and inappropriate. I should not have assumed that this would be clear when received by others."

But this is my favorite reponse to this: SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE BLACK.

"Some of my best friends are of different skin color, like Ed Jones," said Welker, referring to Sen. Jones, a Colorado Springs Republican who is black.

Some other parts of this essay, its Klassy with a "K." Oh the Author... BLACK

Excerpts from an essay by the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson posted Sept. 21, 2005, on WorldNetDaily.com:

• "Say a hurricane is about to destroy the city you live in. What would you do?
If you're black . . . you'll probably wait for the government to save you."

• "When 75 percent of New Orleans residents had left the city, it was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out."

• "About five years ago, in a debate before the National Association of Black Journalists, I stated that if whites were to just leave the United States and let blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within 10 years. (But) I gave blacks too much credit. It took a mere three days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into ghettos, rampant with theft, rape and murder."

• "Had New Orleans' black community taken action, most would have been out of harm's way. But most were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves."

• "Blacks are obligated to help themselves and not depend on the government to care for them. We are all obligated to tell them so."

• The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is a conservative black evangelical minister from Los Angeles and host of a nationally syndicated radio show.

And the Republican sent this out... I don't care if he doesn't agree with all of it. Could this be more offensive?

Updated! Ken Blackwell's Blog Caught Scrubbing Super Secret Post

Daily Kos had a diary about Ken Blackwell who is running for Governor of Ohio.

The name my sound familiar, he was the Secretary of State in Ohio deciding on election day to take voting machines out of Black districts and put them into suburban White districts, making it harder for Black people to vote. He also was the head of Bush 2004 in Ohio. Among many other incredibly immoral acts.

He has taken that to run for Governor. Lets not even begin to talk about how bad it is for a Black man to disinfranchise Black voters. But then this comes out.

While campaigning he went to the Council for National Policy.

READ ABOUT THIS GROUP IT IS FREAKY

HERE

The CNP was founded in 1981 as an umbrella organization of right-wing leaders who would gather regularly to plot strategy, share ideas and fund causes and candidates to advance the far-right agenda.

Since its founding, the tax-exempt organization has been meeting three times a year. Members have come and gone, but all share something in common: They are powerful figures, drawn from both the Religious Right and the anti-government, anti-tax wing of the ultra-conservative movement.

CNP's first president was Tim LaHaye famed millenialist preacher and writer of the Left Behind series of popular books about the "end-times" and the Second Coming of Christ. LaHaye,like the whole of the nation's Religious Right leaders, nurtured a strong contempt for the First Amendment principle of church-state separation, because it seriously complicates their goal of installing fundamentalist Christianity as the nation's officially recognized religion.

Many members of the CNP are part of the Christian Recon­struc­tionist movement. Reconstructionists espouse a radical theology that calls for trashing the U.S. Constitution and replacing it with the harsh legal code of the Old Testament. They advocate the death penalty for adulterers, blasphemers, incorrigible teen­agers, gay people, "witches" and those who worship "false gods."

...Tom Ellis, a top political operative of the ultra-conservative Jesse Helms, followed LaHaye as the CNP president in 1982. Ellis had a checkered past, having served as a director of a foundation called the Pioneer Fund, which has a long history of subsidizing efforts to prove blacks are genetically inferior to whites.

In addition to obsessing over communist threats and buttressing white supremacist ideology, the CNP has included many members bent on replacing American democracy with theocracy.

"Stealth candidates" were trained to emphasize pocketbook issues such as taxes and spending. But once elected, they would pursue a Religious Right agenda, such as demanding creationism in public schools.

Gordon Parks, a Master of the Camera, Dies at 93

I have to admit, I only knew of Mr. Parks from Essence Magazine... but he did so much, I had to put him on here... Please read and learn about this amazing man as well.

Some of his photos at the bottom:

NY Times Article

Gordon Parks, the photographer, filmmaker, writer and composer who used his prodigious, largely self-taught talents to chronicle the African-American experience and to retell his own personal history, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.

His death was announced by Genevieve Young, his former wife and executor. Gordon Parks was the first African-American to work as a staff photographer for Life magazine and the first black artist to produce and direct a major Hollywood film, "The Learning Tree," in 1969.

He developed a large following as a photographer for Life for more than 20 years, and by the time he was 50 he ranked among the most influential image makers of the postwar years. In the 1960's he began to write memoirs, novels, poems and screenplays, which led him to directing films. In addition to "The Learning Tree," he directed the popular action films "Shaft" and "Shaft's Big Score!" In 1970 he helped found Essence magazine and was its editorial director from 1970 to 1973.

An iconoclast, Mr. Parks fashioned a career that resisted categorization. No matter what medium he chose for his self-expression, he sought to challenge stereotypes while still communicating to a large audience. In finding early acclaim as a photographer despite a lack of professional training, he became convinced that he could accomplish whatever he set his mind to. To an astonishing extent, he proved himself right.

Gordon Parks developed his ability to overcome barriers in childhood, facing poverty, prejudice and the death of his mother when he was a teen-ager. Living by his wits during what would have been his high-school years, he came close to being claimed by urban poverty and crime. But his nascent talent, both musical and visual, was his exit visa.

His success as a photographer was largely due to his persistence and persuasiveness in pursuing his subjects, whether they were film stars and socialites or an impoverished slum child in Brazil.

Mr. Parks's years as a contributor to Life, the largest-circulation picture magazine of its day, lasted from 1948 to 1972, and it cemented his reputation as a humanitarian photojournalist and as an artist with an eye for elegance. He specialized in subjects relating to racism, poverty and black urban life, but he also took exemplary pictures of Paris fashions, celebrities and politicians.

"I still don't know exactly who I am," Mr. Parks wrote in his 1979 memoir, "To Smile in Autumn." He added, "I've disappeared into myself so many different ways that I don't know who 'me' is."

Much of his literary energy was channeled into memoirs, in which he mined incidents from his adolescence and early career in an effort to find deeper meaning in them. His talent for telling vivid stories was used to good effect in "The Learning Tree," which he wrote first as a novel and later converted into a screenplay. This was a coming-of-age story about a young black man whose childhood plainly resembled the author's. It was well received when it was published in 1963 and again in 1969, when Warner Brothers released the film version. Mr. Parks wrote, produced and directed the film and wrote the music for its soundtrack. He was also the cinematographer.

"Gordon Parks was like the Jackie Robinson of film," Donald Faulkner, the director of the New York State Writers Institute, once said. "He broke ground for a lot of people — Spike Lee, John Singleton."

Mr. Parks's subsequent films, "Shaft" (1971) and "Shaft's Big Score!" (1972), were prototypes for what became known as blaxploitation films. Among Mr. Park's other accomplishments were a second novel, four books of memoirs, four volumes of poetry, a ballet and several orchestral scores. As a photographer Mr. Parks combined a devotion to documentary realism with a knack for making his own feelings self-evident. The style he favored was derived from the Depression-era photography project of the Farm Security Administration, which he joined in 1942 at the age of 30.

Dana Reeve Dies

Dana Reeve, Leading Advocate for Spinal Cord Research, Dies

Dana Reeve, an actress who became an advocate for the disabled after her husband, Christopher Reeve, became paralyzed, died on Monday night of lung cancer at the age of 44, said Kathy Lewis, the president and chief executive officer of the Christopher Reeve Foundation.

Ms. Reeve, who did not smoke, announced last August that she had lung cancer. She lived in Pound Ridge, N.Y.

I found her personally inspirational after hearing her speak during a congressional meeting I went to in the September of 2000 when I worked for Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (wow that was unintentionally name-droppy).

I knew nothing about Stem Cells, as it was just entering the public's conciousness; and after hearing her speak and the vision for the future to cure so many of the world's problems left me speachless. I will never forget the session.

Since then she has done so much, never fearing to make strong statements and fair criticisms. Eventhough she endoured many criticisms for politicizing her husband's death, she endorsed Kerry in 2004 because of Bush's stance on Stem cells.

She understood the importance of her cause and the potential for good they could lead to. She lived and spoke eliquently. I hope she is at peace with her beloved husband who inspired so many and least of all me.

The last paragraph of this NY Times Story is my favorite:

Ms. Reeve became the foundation's chairwoman after her husband's death in 2004. She was responsible for developing the foundation's Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Resource Center, and for a program that has distributed more than $8 million for projects that improve the daily lives of people with paralysis, Ms. Lewis said in a statement...

...In 1999, Ms. Reeve edited "Care Packages," a book of letters to her husband from strangers.

In its introduction, she wrote: "This book is a thank-you letter. A long overdue reply to all of the people who, during one of the most difficult and painful periods my family has had to endure, took time and wrote to us; faxed us; phoned or visited us; prayed for us; joined hands for us; sent us flowers, gifts, white light, religious tokens and talismans, books, tapes, drawings, funny stories and jokes that made us laugh, tales of overcoming hardship that inspired us and gave us hope."

Taliban Reforming

I supported the war in Afghanistan.

People are often shocked to hear this from me, because I am such a pacifist. But I honestly believed in the war.

The Taliban was an oppressive regime that subjugated women, even beheading them when raped by a man. And I will never forget the site of the Taliban blowing up century old Buddhist statues.

Here was a chance to support a DOMESTIC opposition force against an oppressive regime that attacked us on 9-11. We could right a wrong, free women from the tyranny, and rebuild a much devastated nation.

The world, it seemed, was ready to take on this task. We could get EVERYONE behind the rebuilding of Afghanistan, what a wonderful world project. I felt that was worthy of my support.

I regret to say, I had to much faith in the Bush Administration. They half-heartedly fought the war, did nothing to implant a firm democracy, put NO resources into redeveloping the country and did not take the world's help in fixing it.

Instead they used the World's goodwill to attack a country that had no connection to 9-11, no support from the world community for the attack, and took our troops out of securing the nation.

And this is the result, NY Times article:

Taliban Rebels Still Menacing Afghan South

By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: March 2, 2006

LOY KAREZ, Afghanistan
When Haji Lalai Mama, the 60-year-old tribal elder in these parts, gamely tried to organize a village defense force against the Taliban recently, he had to do it with a relative handful of men and just three rifles. "We were patrolling and ready," he recalled.

But they were not ready enough. The Taliban surprised them under cover of darkness by using a side road. One villager was killed, and 10 others were wounded by a grenade. Two Taliban fighters were captured in the clash. The rest disappeared into the night.

In fact, four years after the Taliban were ousted from power by the American military, their presence is bigger and more menacing than ever, say police and government officials, village elders, farmers and aid workers across southern Afghanistan.

The Way It Should Be

Does G-d Hate Black People?

Does G-d hate black people?

Is a white life worth more than a black life?

Is my life worth less simply because of the color of my skin?

An American\European more than an African?

Does it matter if an African dies?

Does a person dying really matter?

Is it human nature to kill each other?

I saw the movie Shooting Dogs. You Can find the blog here.

Shooting Dogs is a movie about the Rwandan Genocide. The movie takes place at Ecole Technique Officielle (ETO), a high school in Kigali.

It is a simple premise. The UN was in the High School and the Tutsi, fleeing gathered in the compound to avoid the genocide. But when some UN peacekeepers were killed in a different part of Rwanada, the UN withdrew totally. They did take all the whites that were in the compound before leaving, but not any Tutsi.

The title of the film comes from the fact that UN Peacekeepers wanted to shoot local dogs that fed on the decomposing bodies of the genocide victims. Bullets to save the dead bodies, but none to protect the Tutsi inside.

When the UN left, the Hutu came in and killed the Tutsi in the compound.

2,500 Died, massacred. If the UN stayed in the compound if the soldiers defied the request they would have lived.

GO SEE THE MOVIE



I was left with so many questions. But one immediately came to mind.

While visiting my Grandparents in Alabama, I was 8 or 9, I remember hearing a little black girl, just little younger than me at the time, ask her mother a question I will never forget, it still haunts me because I am sometimes am unsure of the answer.

Does G-d Hate Black People?

Happy Birthday Dad

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD

THE BIG 60th BIRTHDAY


MAN TIME FLYS

Global Warming, IT IS REAL

We should all be very concerned.

While our government seems to think this is a joke, or something not serious. Here, the worry is that Britain in 5, 10, 25 years maybe to cold to be inhabited... This year has been the coldest in its history.

BBC Report

The global scientific body on climate change is expected to report soon that emissions from humankind are the only explanation for major changes on Earth.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) formerly said greenhouse gases were "probably" to blame. Its next draft report will be sent to governments next month.

The BBC has learnt the report will state that greenhouse gas emissions are the only explanation for changing patterns of weather across the world.

It will say rising concentrations of gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere must be the cause of simultaneous freak patterns in sea ice, glaciers, droughts, floods, ecosystems, ocean acidification and wildlife migrations.