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I consider this a Radical Gumbo, with many varied ingredients making more than the sum of its parts. We are no-holds barred, passionate and not overly PC here. Yes, Liberals can have Fangs. Jump in and be part of the cutting edge!
. . . The protest is being sponsored by a broad coalition of about 25 left-wing groups, including American Jews for a Just Peace, Codepink, Gaza Freedom March and Jewish Voice for Peace. Organized by Jews Say No!, the protest was endorsed by the Israeli groups Coalition of Women for Peace and BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS From Within.
"We think it's inappropriate for an American organization to be feting the Israeli army, when the Israeli army is implicated in violations of international law," said Rebecca Vilkomerson, director of Jewish Voice for Peace. She said Operation Cast Lead opened up people's eyes to the role that the Israeli army plays. The Goldstone Report also made people consider the notion that the IDF is fallible, she added.
"Definitely, it has opened up a big conversation in the Jewish community," she said, observing that in the past year more Jews have begun "questioning the idea that Israel is always right."
Okay, I admit, the actual Jerusalem Post headline was "Hundreds set to turn out for anti-Israel demo in NY." I.e., equating support for Israel with support for its the criminal actions of its military, like labeling an anti-Iraq war protest an anti-U.S. protest. But, okay, par for the Jerusualem Post course, and we move on. . . . to more important positive news out of Israel/Palestine from a basic humanitarian perspective. Note btw the efforts by Israel to avoid a fair verdict:
I'm now pondering the possibility of a WWL meet up weekend again. Last summer we thought about doing one at M_A's house in the summer in Iowa, but in the end, it just didn't pan out. It seems even the draw of the most excellent company of a band of wild ones wasn't enough to sell people on the idea of Iowa as a vacation destination... especially in the dead heat of summer. Heh. (Hi Louise!)
It was too far for Ed, and in the middle of Gottsy's theater season, Elian's damned dissertation got in the way, our Chicago guys and West Coasters never jumped in, and ultimately the idea fizzled due to lack of will to make it happen.
Of course, back then, we had yet to meet Sally, the QUEEN of research and vacation destinations, who is amazing at this kind of thing: Who also happens to have a friend with a charter-sail business out of Key West. I know this is a secret I have never let escape.... but I have this thing about the Caribbean. You'd never know that, would you? ::no I did not say that with a straight face::
So, I'm going to start this more logically this time.
Do you think you could scrounge enough money to do a weekend on the cheap with a bunch of brilliant lefty bloggers? I'm thinking just a long weekend, maybe Thurs-Mon.
What MONTH is the month most likely for you to be able to vacation/travel?
Does the Conch Republic sound like a dream vacation spot, or is there another place you think better? (The Keys: Queers, Hippies, renegades, and people waiting out the statute of limitations - I mean, that's like PERFECT in my book, even before you factor in perfect beaches, palm trees and bars that only close for an hour to hose out the floors!) Its not Costa Rica, but damn, its a reasonable facsimile thereof.
Ahhh, the view from Sunset Pier, and the boat I missed back in 81:
I THINK I could drive more cheaply than fly. Perhaps if enough Midwesterners could get to I-75 enroute, and use some park and ride, we could car-pool. Besides, you cannot pack scoobie snacks on a plane.
I'm still open to you all coming to Michigan and laying siege on my household here in the land of lakes, (in summer its heaven) but, you know, getting the fuck away from man, kid, dogs, housework and responsibility is the POINT of a vacation for me. Or... my dear Jill would let us use her cabin on Black Lake MI (almost to the bridge) if anyone wanted to go that far. That would be perfection-place too. ((OH! is "the bridge" too obscure a reference? I mean the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula))
You know, we should do this shit once before we die, kids. Life is short, and funerals are no place to meet for the first or only time.
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In other news, today I will be able to see. The glasseseses (see the Eye Rant for that reference) came in today. People tell me they have astigmatisms and contacts work fine for them, so I should have got a second opinion before having believed the Costo chickipoo doctor. Oh well. I will be able to see is the point.
I wore shorts yesterday. I will wear shorts again today, maybe even OUTSIDE this time. heh.
Mid to high 50's with bright sun feels wonderful after a winter of acclimation to cold. Its a northern thing: "But, but, but, it feels so good when the pain stops." I am fairly positive somewhere, sometime, some psychologist wrote a dissertation about the qualifying experience of pleasure being heightened by denial and/or pain and the thesis of heaven cannot exist without hell to compare it to, and wrote it coming out of the brutality that is the dark soul of a Michigan Winter while watching Spring return. Anyone who says there is no buzz like your first, and everything else is chasing the dragon; never watched feet of snow melting away in the Spring. Its a first-time adrenalin rush every time, every year. Its falling in love, the first touch of an inferno of lust finally sated, its all that with a dark chocolate drizzle served with Beaujolais by hookah bearing Cabana Boys. Its THAT good.
There is nothing like the high of drinking the sun in on your skin. The simple things in life are always the best, cliche be damned. I just need the sun, some water, my guitar, some quiet space to think to be happy. The rest is just stuff.
But Spring is more than quiet rebounding with what really matters to you, and losing yourself in daydreams, its about fun too.
Care International's work in Zambia has two main goals: increase the production of staple crops and improve farmers' access to agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers. But instead of giving away bags of seed and fertilizers to farmers, Care is "creating input access through a business approach," not a subsidy approach, according to Steve Power, Assistant Country Director for Zambia.
One way they're doing this is by creating a network of agro-dealers who can sell inputs to their neighbors as well as educate them about how to use hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs. At the same time, "we are mindful" of the benefits of local varieties of seeds, says Harry Ngoma, Agriculture Advisor for the Consortium for Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition, AIDS, Resiliency and Markets (C-FAARM). Care and C-FAARM are working with farmers to combine high- and low-technology practices.
Care thinks that this "business approach" will help farmers get the right inputs at the right time, unlike subsidy approaches that give farmers fertilizer for free, but often at the wrong time of year, making the nutrients unavailable to crops. And Care's focus on training agro-dealers and giving them start-up grants allows the organization to remain invisible to farmers. Power says that Care wants to be a "catalyst to the market" and help transfer resources, without distorting the basic pricing structure.
Another component of Care's work is improving the production of sorghum and cassava. "Zambia is as addicted to maize as we are to Starbucks coffee," says Power. But by encouraging the growth of other crops, including sorghum, which is indigenous to Africa, Care can help farms diversify local diets as well as build resilience to price fluctuations and drought.
Care is promoting conservation farming in Zambia as well. The organization has been working in six districts since 2007, reaching 24,000 households. In addition to promoting minimum tillage practices and the use of manure and compost, Care is helping to train government extension officers about conservation farming so that eventually they'll be responsible-instead of Care-for training farmers.
According to Power, the key to Care's work is promoting business-like approaches to agriculture alongside more traditional ones, so farmers don't become dependent on the organization for gifts of fertilizer or seed. These sorts of programs, according to Care, will be more effective at feeding people and increasing incomes than traditional food-aid projects that rely on long-term donor support. This is a big challenge in a country-and a region-facing the impacts of both climate change and the global economic crisis.
Stay tuned for more blogs about how farmers are linking to the private sector.
In his film Capitalism: A Love Story [set to be released on DVD and Blu-ray Monday], Michael Moore squares off with the free-market system for its role in leveraging the United States's wealth into the hands of a few.
But in one clip cut from the documentary -- which Moore provided exclusively to RAW STORY -- he interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, who explains how capitalism is actually contributing to the very downfall of the human race and the "degradation of the planet."
"All sorts of people who have spent their lives studying climate change, from Bill McKibben on down, have warned us that we don't have a lot of time left," Hedges said. "So it's not just that capitalism has destroyed our economic system and hijacked our political system, but it literally is extinguishing the system that sustains life. If that's not thwarted soon...then we will begin to see massive dislocations, environmental refugees, further depleting of natural resources. Overpopulation is also an issue. The UN estimates that by 2050 the size of the planet will double."
The very concept of capitalism, Moore declares in the film, is the problem because it inevitably leads to a system where the richest few control the means of production as well as the levers of power -- leading to a "plutonomy," a term used in a leaked Citigroup memo from 2005, in which the finance juggernaut concluded that the United States is no longer a democracy.
In the interview, Hedges decries America's turn toward supply-side economics over the last three decades as the cause of stagnating middle class incomes, contrasting it with the increasingly lavish fortunes of the wealthy and the aid they often receive from the government at the expense of working people.
This was my history lesson: Men live in groups. A few People come to power in groups. Powerful people abuse less powerful group to obtain more power. People are fucked. People suffer. People rise up, overthrow those in power. Things improve. Then people come to power in those groups.... Rinse, lather, REPEAT.
Of course, there are new variables in this equation I lacked time to address Friday.
I believe history tells us that what Nezua and Field said to us on WWL radio is right: There are always growing pains, and people always die in the process. It is also true that until white liberals embrace how doubly every hardship we experience is visited upon people of color, we will never come to a unity.
I believe what Gottlieb said is true as well: That the Left cannot regain power under the current conditions no matter what we wish. I guess in Field's terms we are a Nation of House Negroes, sucking up to the 1% massah's to try and improve our personal lot at the expense of everyone else.
Yet? This show became fodder for a huge argument in my household. I find that wildly interesting and indicative of the biggest problem we face.
A Rhode Island school board fired all the teachers in a school, in a dispute over working more hours without any more pay, and Obama says, that's just great, while the right wing applauds.
To get a share of the $3.5 billion in what are known as School Improvement Grants, school officials can choose to transform the learning environments in failing schools by extending instructional hours and making other changes, converting them to charter schools, closing them entirely or replacing the principal and at least half the staff.
The Central Falls superintendent, Frances Gallo, initially chose the first option this year, but after a dispute arose with the union over extra pay for adding 25 minutes to the school day, she broke off negotiations. Backed by the local school board, she announced the firings on Feb. 23. Last Monday, Mr. Obama supported the board's action in a speech to a dropout prevention group.
Of course, it's just fine to militarize the schools:
Disturbing as well is the prominence of Duncan's belief in offering a key role in public education to the military. Chicago's school system is currently the most militarized in the country, boasting five military academies, nearly three dozen smaller Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps programs within existing high schools, and numerous middle school Junior ROTC programs. More troubling yet, the military academies he's started are nearly all located in low-income, minority neighborhoods. This merging of military training and education naturally raises concerns about whether such academies will be not just education centers, but recruitment centers as well....
The battle for America's future is being played out in the schools, charter schools, and Texas-approved textbooks, and the left just doesn't seem to care. For 30 years, the right is pushing the schools ever further right, although they don't plan to send their own kids their-- many have pulled their own kids out- for those that can afford it to expensive private schools, and those that can't, to homeschooling (82% of home-schoolers are Christian right) .
Yep, That's Robert Allen Zimmerman, AKA Bob Dylan shaking the hand of President Obama. I'm sure everyone is familiar with Bob Dylan, one of the most prolific singer/songwriters of our age, who to me, exemplifies the essence of the "everyman" persona and the working class hero. His songs permeate our culture and penetrate the soul of collective every day life's experiences. They cut to the core and expose the nuance and hardships of modern existence, be it politics, love, winners and losers and just about everything that parallels 20th and 21st century life. His songs are us.
I'd like to add a little twist to this version of Caption This by asking you to caption this photo by using some of Bob's own words to describe what you see here. By using Bob's words I mean lyrics from his songs, either by quoting a line or two or even the whole song if you'd like. To help in this endeavor I'll include links that will save you much time and effort in divining the exact quotes.
Here you'll find a Complete List of Dylan songs, click on any song title and it will open another webpage with the complete lyrics for that song. Just copy and paste a line, multiple lines, or the whole song if you'd like, that best defines the caption you'd like to apply to the photo of Mr. Zimmerman and the Pres. If you already know the song you'd like to quote and aren't sure of the lyrics or just want to browse to find a relevant song, you'll find this link very helpful.
Here is a link to the Bob Dylan Youtube Pages if you would like to add video to your comments.
Of course if you don't want to caption this picture with song lyrics, you can use your own words to describe your interpretation of the image, thanks for playing and have fun!
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're all doing what we can...
I would hope that somehow the Democrats will learn a lesson from knowing they are going to take a serious beating in November, and do something about it.
They have 8 months to get the progressive and independent votes back.
Plenty of time to create and pass some useful legislation, like a universal single payer HCR bill, and plenty of time to charge, try and begin prosecution of Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the war criminals.
Why, I bet they could even get away with not prosecuting Obama as an accessory after the fact, as long as they prosecute the others, and defund the wars and start REALLY getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq.
And plenty of time to charge, try and prosecute Paulsen, Geithener, Bernanke, and Lloyd Blankfein, and the upper management of AIG, and break up Goldman Sachs.
If they do these things in the next few months they can win November with landslides, and Obama might even win a second term two years down the road.
Making Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac public utilities would be icing on the cake.
Otherwise they are toast. And apparently republicans are worse. Somehow (scratches head in puzzlement).
Gottlieb & I had the honor of hearing the POV's of Nezua & The Field Negro tonight: Worth the listen:
UPDATE: **We are honored to say both Nezua and The Field Negro have agreed to call in tonight as Special Guests on our main topic!!**
Tonight at 6PM Eastern Time, WWL Radio!!!!!
Gottlieb and Diane G. will be live and in color (or is that off color?) on WWL radio tonight to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective.
Hear the Unreported & Under Reported Headlines stories you should be paying attention to, from US Politics, to the farthest reaches of the Earth.
The numbers are in: Hate groups are on the rise, in frightening numbers, and unsurprisingly, the highest hate-rate is among Christian-identifying Americans.
As the economic collapse continues, it seems Americans again are easily lead to the divide and conquer strategy that always serves the Elite Class: Attacking fellow men who are also struggling, and never blaming the real culprits causing our distress.
The whack-jobs keep shooting, the children protesting are arrested enmasse, and the militias form to fight "immigrants" and people of color.
More frightening yet? Most of them are espousing the government doesn't "serve them" not because the new-shiny-face-on-the-kleptocracy, Pres. Obama, is continuing the disastrous policies of the Bush Era... they are protesting because they see him as "too liberal."
We are hoping to have a couple guests to speak to the new stressors being left in the Latino and Black communities, and how those effects can be overcome.
Life under Obama seems to be more of the same....
Controversy? We face it. Cutting Edge? We step over it. Revolutions start with information, and The Wild Wild Left Radio brings you the best in information and op/eds from a position that others on the Left fear to tread.
Call In!
Join Gottlieb and Diane every Friday at 6pm EDT on Wild Wild Left Radio, via BlogtalkRadio, for News from the Real Left. No hand-wringing, no PC, just straight talk from reality based politics.
Over at Daily Salem Witch Trials, where Jane Hamsher has been burned at the stake so many times they've run out of stakes, someone set their torch down long enough to deliver a sermon about the dangers of fire . . .
President Obama told progressives that if this healthcare bill fails, not only will the democrats go down in flames but his presidency. I think those who are not satisfied with this bill need a come to jesus moment. We democrats need to realize that we can't get everything we want.
I'll have a come to Jesus moment if you stop sniffing glue. While drinking a case of beer. While posting a diary from a rabbit hole somewhere deep beneath the surface of Obamabot Land.
Someone needs to understand the basic difference between flying and never getting off the ground. You can't go down in flames when you never even got the damn plane into the air. It didn't even make it to the runway, because there aren't any runways. It's still in the hangar. At the No We Can't International Airport. Where there's no runways, where there's no control tower, where there's no departure gate because nothing ever departs, where the only thing in the air is Rahm's middle finger.
Did I mention the plane doesn't even have a pilot? No? Well then I'd better mention that.
THE DAMN PLANE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A PILOT.
Hopey McChange talks about flying, he talks about it all the time, he talks about soaring high up into that Sky of Change, soaring high above the status quo, high above those red states and blue states, way up into that Heaven of Bipartisanship, where the Centrist Angels play their harps and halos glow above every Republican head.
He talks so much the wind never stops blowing . . .
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth . . .
Blowing down the backroads heading south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You're an idiot, babe, it's a wonder,
That you still know how to breathe.
"Why are Obama and the Democrats so incompetent/such wimps/such 'pussies'? They control the White House and both houses of Congress, yet they haven't even managed to [insert embarrassingly modest and/or reformist liberal/progressive goal here, e.g., "pass health care reform that includes a public option", "end the Iraq war", "enact strict regulations on Wall Street", etc.]! Obama needs to 'grow a pair' and start acting more like the Republicans did when they were in power! You know, like a man. I mean, Bush never cared about bipartisanship and consensus-building when he was president. He was willing to use his power to enact his agenda, and he did so without giving the Democratic opposition in Congress a second thought."
The Left's™ persistent broadcasting of variations on the Democrats-as-incompetent-"pussies" (Bill Maher's word, not mine) meme reeks of a highly sophisticated and finely-tuned advertising campaign. The corporate owners of Brand Left™have so thoroughly saturated the nation with this message that even Apple's marketing department has started taking notes.
Of course, it is unsurprising when Brand Left's™ corporate mouthpieces help spread such a patently false characterization of Obama and the Democrats. The Leftists™ that have been anointed by our capitalist dictatorship -- Rachel Maddow,Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore, Ariana Huffington, and Bill Maher (to name a few)- have each done their part to perpetuate this dangerous lie about Obama and the Democrats. One should expect nothing less of such a distinguished cadre of amoral hypocrites.
Despite their faux-leftist rhetoric, they are cut from the same rotting, moth-eaten corporate cloth as Certainly Not News and Fox. The plutocracy has allowed them to express their "left wing" convictions for one primary reason: A few advertising firms conducted focus groups to figure out what kind of programming would best attract a coveted demographic to various media sources where they could be subjected to target marketing (i.e., mostly white limousine liberals who constantly reiterate their love for National "Public" Radio whenever they are going for progressive realness). Likewise, The Jersey Shore was created so that advertisers could target an equally repugnant demographic.
************* The Wild Wild Left's graphics are courtesy of Edger.
Want a better look? Contact Edger at edger10 at gmail dot com!
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We're excited to promote The Pluto Chronicles, A Field Guide to Our Corporate Overlords and the Nation's Clueless Plutocrats.
Check out the new site.
But instead of giving away bags of seed and fertilizers to farmers, Care is "creating input access through a business approach," not a subsidy approach, according to Steve Power, Assistant Country Director for Zambia.
