13 posts tagged “politics”

Did anyone watch the Democratic Debate in New Hampshire?  I am depressed.  Appalled at their answer to the Osama bin Laden question.  Appalled at their refusal to send troops to Darfur.

But some of it was interesting.  I jaiku-ed to death on it.  And was majorly impressed by Edwards.

Imagine my surprise yesterday at hearing WLS label Hugo Chavez as a dictator (again and again and again) in their discussion of Glover taking the acting job.  I guess I should have expected it, being that WLS is the home of Rush Limbaugh in Chicago, but having not listened for months on end to the spew they call news/talk, I suffered a bit of shock.

And then to be insulted because I was surprised and honestly laughed (derogatory, trust me) at the so-called "news" and its "accuracy" wassn't pleasant, either.  Get this: I had to defend myself on why he's not a dictator.  (I should have just told them to prove a negative or to shut up, but ah well.)  I didn't even know where to begin. 

On the spot, I was only able to come up with a few reasons why I liked Hugo Chavez and didn't consider him a dictator (contrary to belief, I wasn't just saying I liked Chavez to be contradictory or difficult):
1. He was elected.  (maybe this was naive of me, given the recent history of dictators and the state of those elections)
2. He's far left, and helps the poor.  (This resulted in clarification: Communist Dictator)
3. He's doing good things for his country (albeit unpopular with D.C. and ignorant [meaning: uninformed] American opinion)

And, uhm, I just plain like the fact that he stands up to the demands of the U.S.

Anyways.  What do you think on the topic? 

The National Day of Prayer supposedly preaches tolerance, diversity, and freedom.

However, it does not embrace diversity. It's now basically a Christian observance, with more than 30,000 events nationwide promoted by the National Day of Prayer Task Force, an organization that requires its volunteer coordinators to agree to a statement that reads in part, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the only one by which I can obtain salvation and have an ongoing relationship with God." -chicago tribune column by Eric Zorn

And better yet is the details about the Task Force. 

"We're not an official group," said task force spokesman Michael Calhoun in response to a question I left on his voice mail. "Where did you get that idea?" 
EZ: From "National Day of Prayer Official Website," the logo on top of every page at ndptf.org, I told him.
"Oh," he said. "That just means we're the official Web site of the task force that promotes the Judeo-Christian expression of the National Day of Prayer."
EZ: A "Judeo-Christian expression" that excludes Jews?"

BLEH!

The column goes into moer detail about the counter to the National Day of Prayer, which is the National Day of Reason.  I like the idea behinds it.  But, as yezida put in her LJ, I don't want either to be mandated.

I wanted to share this, even though the theory isn't mine. It makes me happy to read this, it provides me some sort of comfort that OMG I know such amazingly thoughtful people. People that stir in me a desire to be more than I currently am.

Enjoy:

i have a theory about the lack of mainstream acknowledgement of neopaganism. i think it's because, basically, neopaganismis hard to talk about. it's not catchy. neopaganism the "religion" of people who want to create their own religion, follow their own muse, have their own personal relationship with the divine. since these people are navigating by an internal compass, they tend to share much less common vocabulary than a group of people driven by an external homogenizing force such as major religions tend to have in the form of dogma or a well-worded philosophy. when you're writing a book about religion, you can talk about christians and buddhists with sound bites, but what sound bite captures neopaganism? better yet, what sound bite captures the reality of neopaganism in a way that sounds even vaguely related to the word "neopagan"? as supporting examples, i cite wicca and gnostic christianity. wicca at least has a couple of documents and mostly-agreed-on principles that you can point at and talk about, and of all the stuff under the neopagan umbrella, wicca is the only thing that gets any press. gnostic christianity is the complete other end of the spectrum: even though it's a branch of a major religion, nobody talks about it and it never gets any mainstream respect, because what can you say about a "religion" that gives the finger to dogma in favor of finding your own jesus, other than to call them a bunch of heretics?

if a group can't define itself clearly and concisely, then it's easy to dismiss that group from discussion.

full disclosure: i adapted this theory about neopaganism from my previously held theory about the democratic party. democrats have a problem with a weak or inconsistent image; people say we need to get it together, have a plan, stay the course. i think this is because we generally have the sense to disagree or reserve judgment about complex, controversial topics-- which is good if you want to be wise and just, and bad if you want to get a coherent sound bite on the evening news.

Yeah that was great. My best friend's partner posted that in T. Thorn Coyle's LJ.  If you don't know T. Thorn Coyle, you should check out that journal. It is amazing. And will make you THINK.

Normally I skim over these emails that appear in my inbox each day, then press the delete icon.  But today I found a winner..

Why is "Out of Iraq, now!" an impossible, dash-yourself-against-rocks approach to ending the occupation in my opinion? I think it's because it doesn't admit to the breakdown of the American political system that has allowed the invasion of Iraq to happen, or the existence of the American empire that was required to undertake it.

...

It's funny; I read about six or seven essays from the progressive side about Iraq every day, and there is also scant mention of the fact that we've lost, and what losing means. Just that the occupation is horrible and violent and expensive... so we need to get out now.

That was 'What does it mean to say that we've lost in Iraq?' Posted by Jan Frel 

"In other words, I think "redeployment" is neither a response to the kind of process that got us into Iraq in the first place, nor a response to the problems that our occupation of Iraq have given rise to. Dealing with Iraq itself is about regional diplomacy, UN peacekeeping, US reparations to Iraqis, a more equitable means of oil revenue distribution, among other things."

for miracles, apparently.

Is it true? Bolton just resigned from the United Nations?

The news is pissing me off on the topic of North Korea.  Not the hysteria over North Korea doing weapons testing.  It bugs me that there is SUCH a double standard in the world.. but I understand the freak out.  What pisses me off is the comparisons being drawn between North Korea and Iran.

Iran doesn't test fire missiles that land in the ocean showcasing its range to be well within target distance of an 'enemy' state, the way North Korea did to Japan.

Iran is FAR more cooperative with the West than North Korea. Amazing, but true. 

NPR yesterday on All Things Considered and this morning kept playing this sound bite by some dude who was all like "Iran is watching very carefully to see how the world treats North Korea" blah blah blah that Iran is much more dangerous than North Korea, blah blah blah that Iran wants to move forward with its self interest.

Oh my gawd.  Self interest is a bad thing?!  Someone better tell that to the U.N. and the big powerrful nations of the world like India, China, Russia, the U.S., France, Germany and the U.K.

Oh, and then another thing that pissed me off... Some Alaskan tribes have turned down Hugo Chavez's offer of FREE HEATING OIL for the winter because he called Bush a Devil at the U.N.

Those idiots deserve to freeze to death and have their land sink into the ocean, if they are THAT retarded.

ADMINISTRATION -- BUSH ISSUES SIGNING STATEMENT CITING AUTHORITY TO IGNORE FEMA LAW: This week, President Bush issued a signing statement, claiming executive authority to disregard a new law establishing "minimum qualifications for future heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency." The White House sought to divert attention from the signing statement by waiting to release the document on its website until 8 p.m. Wednesday, after most reporters had gone home. Congress included the law in the appropriations bill "as a response to FEMA's poor handling of  Hurricane Katrina" and to shield FEMA from cronyism by requiring the President to select an agency director who has "a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management" and "not less than five years of executive leadership." In his signing statement, Bush claimed that "under his interpretation of the Constitution, the FEMA provision interfered with his power to make personnel decisions." A 27-page report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said the Bush administration is using these signing statements "as a means to slowly condition Congress into accepting the White House's broad conception of presidential power, which includes a presidential right to ignore laws." The report also indicated that, under most interpretations of the constitution, "the legal assertions in Bush's signing statements are dubious." Since taking office, Bush has issued a record 750 signing statements.

source: Center for American Progress
CampusProgress.org: Connect. Engage. Speak Up.

I dig Glenn Sacks

Are single mothers the 'New American Family'?

 "Call it the backlash against the backlash. Over the past decade, Americans have increasingly understood that the divorce revolution, fatherlessness and single parent households are harming our children. Now those who view the traditional family as disadvantageous to women are firing back, defending women who choose single motherhood and depicting fathers as superfluous.

"Last fall Stanford University Gender Scholar Peggy Drexler penned the highly-publicized book Raising Boys Without Men: How Maverick Moms Are Creating the Next Generation of Exceptional Men. This month Oxford Press released Wellesley College Women's Studies Professor Rosanna Hertz's Single by Chance, Mothers by Choice: How Women Are Choosing Parenthood Without Marriage and Creating the New American Family.

"Certainly one can sympathize with those single mothers whose husbands or lovers abandoned or mistreated them, and who soldiered on in the raising of their children without the father those children should have had. However, Drexler and Hertz go well beyond this, openly advocating single motherhood as a lifestyle choice....

LABOR -- WAL-MART PUSHES TO CAP EMPLOYEE WAGES, CUT BACK ON HEALTH CARE

Wal-Mart is "pushing to create a cheaper, more flexible work force by capping wages, using more part-time workers and scheduling more workers on nights and weekends." Employees say the changes will "further reduce their modest incomes and put strain on their personal lives." Some managers "have insisted workers make themselves available around the clock," and workers are "often given only a few days� notice of scheduling changes."

Wal-Mart's tougher work schedule is especially taxing for its employees because the chain has more than 1,900 stores open 24 hours. Lower-paid workers have received one-time payments of $200 to $400 to compensate for future wages lost from the income cap. Several workers described the payments as "hush money."

The changes come a year after Wal-Mart's top human resources official circulated a confidential memo expressing concern that, as wages increase with an employee's tenure, Wal-Mart is "pricing that associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart." The memo also recommended hiring healthier and more part-time employees because they are "less likely to enroll in Wal-Mart�s health plan," which currently covers fewer than half of its employees.