Friday, April 30, 2010

Arizona and apartied

Earlier this week, Pat Bertroche, an Iowa Republican congressional candidate also compared illegal immigrants to animals and suggested capturing them and embedding them with microchips.
"I think we should catch 'em, we should document 'em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going," Bertroche said. "I actually support microchipping them. I can microchip my dog so I can find it. Why can't I microchip an illegal?"
*****

"Abominations such as apartheid do not start with an entire population suddenly becoming inhumane....

However, when you strip a man or a woman of their basic human rights, you strip them of their dignity in the eyes of their family and their community, and even in their own eyes. An immigrant who is charged with the crime of trespassing for simply being in a community without his papers on him is being told he is committing a crime by simply being. He or she feels degraded and feels they are of less worth than others of a different color skin. These are the seeds of resentment, hostilities and in extreme cases, conflict...."
Desmond Tutu1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner
*****

Boycott Arizona.

Facebook and the POTUS assassination site

A Facebook group “praying” for President Obama’s death has surpassed one million members.)

There has been a hugh spike in rightwing white supremacist activity.
Many, but not all, advocate violence.
The Feds. claim that the POTUS has not received more violent threats than other presidents.
I don’t believe that.
I would recommend a re-reading of JFK’s planned speech at the Dallas TradeMart on Nov.22,’63.
He went into the strongest bastion of rightwing activity, including the violent Minutemen, as well as the John Birch Society (which still functions,even in the Capitol district).
And in the Trademart speech, JFK preached tolerance, and the acceptance of ambiguity on public issues.
At that time, the most extreme rightwing did not have a cable channel outlet.
Today, they have cable Fox, and the surriculus Beck,Hannity and O’Reilley.
Time’s Joe Klein suggests these three should be charged with sedition…advocating the overthrow of our govt.
2nd. Amendment gun lovers march just outside DC, with guns unloaded (at least for now).
We are in the midst of a dangerous, polarizing,time.
Recently,Bob Dylan played at the White House.
The times are achanging,but perhaps not in the direction Dylan, and sane, rational people want.
If the POTUS is shot, or shot at, civil war could erupt.
The Secret Service operates with what has been described as 1950s computer technology.
We should all pray for the safety of the POTUS

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Sen. Parker,Cornel West,David Horowitz,black studies and white supremacy

(Sen. Kevin Parker was unapologetic about calling his GOP colleagues “white supremacists.”

Parker was overheard shouting about the fallout from the episode by Times reporter Jeremy Peters. He lowered his voice when told Peters was waiting outside his office door.

The DN says Parker harbors a “bizarre racial paranoia)
———-
My comment:
Parker, Cornel West, David Horowitz, black studies and white supremacy
_________________________

Sen. Parker has taught (does teach) in the CUNY Black Studies programs (Wikipedia:
In addition to his work in the State Senate, Parker is also a professor of African-American Studies and Political Science at several colleges within the City University of New York system, primarily Brooklyn College, where he is also a faculty advisor to student organizations.)

In spite of my liberalism, I essentially agree with the hard-rightist David Horowitz. Black studies, like women studies, are not traditional academic studies.
There is a rich African-American heritage that should be taught. But it should be taught within a a broader, integrated liberal arts curriculum.
Black studies segrate, rather than integrate.
Black studies teachers can very easily become black supremacists as they protray US history one of white supremacy.
Cornel West is the leading figure in black studies, first at Harvard, and now Princeton.
He began, perhaps, as a black supremacist. But has now evolved as more of an integrated leader…referring to us all as “brothers and sisters”..regardless of skin color.
We are all spiritual beings.
While I don’t agree with West’s socialist orientation, I do think Parker could productivly dialogue with West.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

the first post yesterday on ny senator kevin parker

Sen.Parker was wearing a matching red tie and hankerchief.
It’s a nice touch.
When I used to wear ties and jackets, I had a multi-colored hankerchief that I could use on any color tie and shirt. The multi-color is so cool, as it can be adjusted for any coordinated tie. Now, being 150 yrs. old, I not only don’t wear ties, but I use the colored hanki. to wipe up the dribble.
Hopefully that tie of yours is the multi-type.
According to Taylor Hartman,Ph.D., in The Color Code, red is the power color.
Although it could be psychobabble, you could be on a power trip.
Keep it in check. You seem to have a propensity for violent talk and action.
Anyone could easily get a negative impression of the NY Senate.
By the way., doesn’t Sen. Espada wear coordinated ties and hankies.?
Not that there is anything wrong with you doing it.
As long as you are the “master of your domaine”.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

State Sen. Kevin Parker's tirade

I went to the 20 minute mark here on this video, and listened to Parker’s titrade.
Sen. Kruger seemed to be sitting there, a little man, with a gavel he doesn’t know how to use.
And Kruger is the leader we’re looking for to pass a budget?
Parker is a schoolyard bully, using street terror tactics.
Where was the Capitol security to pick Parker up, and throw him out of the hearing?
Parker allegedly was wearing a red tie, and matching hankerchief.
I posted on that earlier.
Actually, Parker apparently was weaned on the worse hip hop music…the genre that has promoted violence and degradation of women.
I may be 150 yrs,but if I was at the hearing, I would have gone to Parker, grapped him by his red tie, stuffed his red hankie into his mouth, and physically kicked him out of the room.
As I quoted Dr. Taylor Harmon earlier, the color we like determines our personality type.
In his book, The Color Code, Harmon describes the Reds’ obession with power:
“Reds want their own way. .when they have gotten their way for too long, Reds find it almost impossible to relinquish their power and freedom when they meet authorities in society who refuse to grant them the total control they demand..” p.45.

Sen. Espada, we're almost over you

‘I saw an old friend of our’s today
We asked about him, but didn’t quite know what to say
heard youv’e been making the rounds ’round here
while w’ve been trying to make you disapear

Chorus:
Now we’re almost over you
we’ve almost shook these blues
so when you come back around
after painting the town
you’ll see we’re almost over you…

you’re such a sly one with a cold cold heart
maybe leavin came easy, but it tore us apart
time heals all wounds they say and we should know
coz it seems like forever,
but we’re letting you go..”
Dedicated to Sen. Padro Espada, and adopted from Sheena Easton’s Almost Over You
———————–
Today is Sheena’s 51st birthday.
Ah, yes, Sheena. Being 150 years old myself, I barely remember the great 50.
Remember, ms. easton, whereever you are, age is just a number, and you should keep your number unlisted.

Monday, April 26, 2010

The Plague Year

The Plague Year
________________

Mr.Lloyd Constantine’s book, “Journal of the Plague Year,” is an insider’s account of the fall of Eliot Spitzer.
This weekend CSpan Book Review showed his appearance at a private book store in Albany.
Mr.Lloyd is a very bright, type A, energenic lawyer who was,in many ways, Eliot’s alter ego.
But his personality,I believe, is grating;confrontational;and moralistic..a Spitzer soulmate; an Eliot clone.
Lloyd argues that Eliot was a transforming,reformist leader..someone who could have changed the cesspool that is Albany.
In spite of Lloyd’s hubris, he admits that Eliot insulting Bruno,Shelly and Pataki in the first inaugural speech was a mistake.
You need to break eggs to make an omelette, but you also have to deal and broker with Bruno and Shelly.
The confrontational hubris that worked well in attacking Wall Street was counterproductive with Bruno and Shelly.
Directly trying to bring Bruno down, leading to Troopergate, was silly hubris from lawyer mindsets.
Eliot’s attempt to flip the Senate backfired. Mario Cuomo never tried that; and survived for 12 years.
The great tragedy is that Eliot could have been a positive transforming leader. His downfall has made the Capitol worse than ever.
In his strange self-centered hubris, Lloyd suggests that Eliot became Client 9 because he had stopped playing tennis with Lloyd. Eliot had too much energy stored.
Right!
"Shine a little light", corporate murder, and robots
______________________________________________________

The W.Virginia coalminer's memorial service was poignant and sad.
Kudos for the POTUS and VP for attending.
Kudos for the POTUS for staying through the entire service, and standing as each of the 29 names were called.
The real sadness is that coal mine safety gutted under Bush2.
Massey Energy, and its' president Blankenship, have long been willing to pay the small fines; or appealing same; and then allowing the mines to operate unsafely.
Hopefully the POTUS told the miners' family, privately, that safety will be paramount.
The mine safety division of the Labor Dept. has been captured by the regulated mine owners.
That should end.
Massey Corp., and Blankenship, should perhaps be indicted for murder.
The "shine a little light" spiritual should be taken seriously..shine a good deal of light on Massey Energy.
Our goal should be a coal-free energy model; or,at least,clean coal.
Can nucear power plants totally replace the coal-fired power plants?
And can the Cave Dweller and Groundhog robots do the dirty work of coal mining?
See the ABC story:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/coal-mining-robots-humans-dirty-work/story?id=10303050

Sunday, April 25, 2010

"Are we listening? And if we are, what are we going to do about it?"

"Are we listening? And if we are, what are we going to do about it?"
Congressman Alan Grayson
________________________________
The DN's Bramhall's World this morning has a good cartoon...Obama is pulling the ears of a Wall Street tycoon, and in the next room SEC staffers are watching net porn.

There will be some sort of financial reform bill voted out of the Senate.
But it will not deal with the most important issue..breaking up the TBTF (too big to fail)financial giants.
In the good read, 13 Bankers, Simon Johnson and James Kwak argue that if the 6 megabanks are not broken up, the next financial crisis, which will happen, will destroy the entire world's finance.
The big six( Bank of America,JP Morgan,Chase,Citicorp,Wells Fargo, Goldman-Sachs, and Morgan Stanley), have a total wealth equal to 60% of the US GDP.
They want to "reconfigure the megas to be small enough to fail."
How small? Well, NO bank should have wealth that is larger than 4% of the US GDP. The goal should be 2-4% of GDP as the maximum size.
And we, on main street, should move our money into the community banks and local credit unions.

Rocky Mountain High, Leaving Albany and the old Albany handshake

Rocky Mountain High, Leaving Albany and the old Albany handshake.
______________________
(I hate to wake you up to say goodbye.
But the dawn is breaking, it’s early morn.
The taxi’s waiting, he’s blowing his horn,
Already I’m so lonesome I could cry.
.
‘Cause I’m leaving on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again -
Oh Babe, I hate to go.

There’s so many times I’ve let you down,
So many times I’ve played around,
I tell you now, they don’t mean a thing.
Every place I go, I’ll think of Albany
Every song I sing, I’ll sing for Albany)
(Adopted from John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane)

He climbed cathedral mountains, he saw silver clouds below,
saw everything as far as you can see.
And they say that he got crazy once and that he
tried to touch the sun,
And the Colorado Rocky Mountain High,
I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky
You can talk to God and listen to the casual reply.
Rocky Mountain High, ….in Colorado….
Rocky Mountain High.
(John Denver)
__________
The Colorado legislature had to debate whether to make Rocky Mountain High the state
song. The politicos thought Denver was celebrating a drug high.
At least the Colorado legislature appeared to be working.
Our state legislature appears to be mummified.

In May’s Harper’s, Chrisopher Ketchum describes the Albany handshake: “the laziness, the corruption, the shameless posturing…”
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/05/0082944

Liz Benjamin asked Assembley majority leader Ron Canestrari when there will be a budget; and he said ,without smiling, probably never.

Ketchum says a radical solution is needed..abolish the legislature.
That’s not going to happen.
What can, and should, happen is Pedro Espada should leave Albany on a jet plane,asap.
State budgets should be two years, off-election years.
And perhaps the next governor should adopt emergency-like dictatorial power.

.
.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The smart car,electric cigaratte,iphone,earth day, and stuff

Earth Day was celebrated this week.
And, one thing is for sure, we have too much stuff.
Stuff here, stuff there, stuff everywhere.
I strolled through Crossgates Mall, up here in the Albany region.
I stroll through a mall now, in my early winter of life, about once a decade.
I believe, like others, that our shopping malls will evolve into religious meeting halls in the near future.
During my stroll, I saw a display for the electric cigarette and the Smart car.
The Smart car is smaller than a volks, and can get 50-60 mpg. The mall had a super yellow model. I would consider it, if I had any money.
The electric cigarette ” gives a nicotine hit while still managing to avoid the smoking ban.
The small white stick, which looks just like a proper cigarette, contains a chamber that vapourises pure liquid nicotine into a puff of steam.
Smokers can inhale the vapours as they would a cigarette smoke..”
And they can be recharged.
I saw a recent poll that found that females are more likely to date men that have an IPhone.
Since I’m 150 yrs. old, but dateable, I wonder if I drove to a speed dating meet in a Smart car, and used the electric cigarette,and held up an IPhone during the meet and greet, I could get at least one email or phone number

Marriage between a socialist and liberatarian

Would a marriage between a libertarian and a socialist work?
Not likely.
But Vermont Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders has an amendment prepared for the finance reform bill debate...he wants to have the Federal Reserve audited.
This proposal began in the House, with libertarian Ron Paul, and actually passed in Dec.
The Federal Reserve's money movements are opaque, rather than transparent.
JFK was a radical in many ways..too bad we lost him too early.
He issued Executive Order 11110, which allowed the Treasury to issue its' own currency, without going through the Federal Reserve.
Under this order,there were $4.3 billion US notes backed by silver certificates issued.
In short, the Federal Reserve could have been eliminated.
Dallas stopped that from happening.

Andrew Cuomo,Rick Lazio and Wall Street

(Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. called AG Andrew Cuomo the “prince of darkness” during a TV interview.

Cuomo is the subject of an Esquire profile.)
__________________________________________

Pedro is spinning gossamer..and will be tangled into a unbreakable web .
Actually, Rick Lazio, the expected GOP governor candidate, is really the prince of darkness.
Wayne Barrett,Village Voice, looked into Lazio’s public papers that he (Lazio) donated to this alma mater, Vassar.
The papers include those from his House years, and his years on Wall Street.
Lazio served the interests of Wall Street in the House, and through the revolving door rubric, got wealthy going to Wall Street.
Professor Bill Black, on Moyers Reports last night, called the Wall Streeters criminals and if a ceo on the street has 3 strikes, s(he) should be given life.
See Barrett at http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-04-13/news/rick-lazio-s-fingerprints-are-all-over-the-recent-economic-collapse/

Obama and Goldman Sachs

(Obama’s tone was not that of a sword-wielding avenger—he doesn’t do fire and brimstone—but of a stern parent explaining to party-hearty teenagers why their driving privileges are being curtailed.)
Post's Eugene Robinson on Obama's Wall Street speech.
_____________

(The story of the financial debacle will end the way it began, with the super-hustlers from Goldman Sachs at the center of the action and profiting wildly. Never in U.S. history has one company wielded such destructive power over our political economy, irrespective of whether a Republican or a Democrat happened to be president...)
Robert Scheer,Truthdig
___________________________________

In 2008, the top three contributors to Obama were 1)University of California;2)Goldman Sachs; and 3)Harvard.

But it is GS that has the highest presence in the White House.
Sen. Branch Lincoln (Ark), in a tough reelection fight, wants to prevent GS from dealing in derivatives. In short, it would make GS a regular commerical bank.
The GS people in the White House oppose Lincoln's move.
Lincoln should be supported in her effort.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Sen. Espada and the power addiction

The good Sen. Espada is spinning….spinning legal gossamer.
How does Espada’s coup shaniganians help Cuomo?
Is Espada for real, asking the AG for his personal (AG’s) cell phone and email records.
Did the AG use his cell phone to call senators to encourage a coup?
This is silly season.
The coups did show Espada’s drive for power…an obsession if you will.
The added perquistes that came with majority leader allowed him to put many of the Soundview relatives on the Senate payroll.
It’s likely that many of these relatives are no-shows in the Senate.
Espada’s health clinics should be put into receiverships…so that the Bronx residents can continue health care.
Espada should resign, and get help for his power addiction.
Can power be an addiction? Yes, it can provide a high.
As the good Senator resigns, and drives back to a luxurious mansion in Westchester County., he can stop at a Motel 6, and order sushi.
As Tom Boddett says, the Motel 6 will leave a light on for him.

#1

OBAMA ZOMBIES

As a traditional liberal and progressive,I believe it is always good to pay attention to what the rightwingnuts are up to.
Jason Mattera is one to watch and read.
In his tirade, Obama Zombies, he argues that Obama captured the independent millenials in 2008 because of the social network tech. revolution…i.e face book.
He wants the rightwing to “shake ,rattle and roll the Obama zombies”.
He wants them to do what “their liberal lobotomies have prevented them from doing and thinking..”
He wants them to take out their IPod earplugs, and go back to basics, fiscal sanity, get a job,make money and be happy.and use the Twitter technology to reverse the Obama brainwashing.
Mattera is correct that Obama captured the 18-29 millenials in 2008; and many of them are now disaffected.
But his remedies are flawed.
Obama and the White House need to become more progressive and liberal..more transforming in action, as well as rhetoric.

The SEC and porn

(During his Cooper Union speech, President Obama urged Wall Street to “join us, instead of fighting us” on reform efforts)

Reports today say that the SEC IG investigated at least 33 employees during the early period of the Great Recession.
Several highly paid staffers, including at least one lawyer, spent most of their work hours viewing net porn.
The lawyer was so addicted that he burned the porn on cds and dvds,and stored them in boxes all around his office.
The SEC is the civil watchdog of Wall Street.
The porn these SEC employees should have been watching was the Wall Street credit default swaps;the sub-prime mortages wrapped into packages and sold to hedge fund betters; and the funny financial fangdangles that swept Wall Street.
The IG’s findings suggest the SEC has long ago been captured by the financial industry.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Earth Day and stuff

Earth Day and our stuff

“You accululate all the Stuff. And it takes over the house. You need a second house-one for the Stuff and one to live in…”
George Carlin, Stuff
Youtube.com/watch ?v=mvg N5gCulac

I got no respect. One time, my immature wife came home, and I was taking a bath. She came in and sunk my rubber boats..”
Rodney Dangerfield

Chelsea Handler pleading with her father, at 8 yrs. old, for a Cabbage Patch doll:
“Dad, there are thousands of types of Patch dolls. I don’t want a blonde or anyone with brown eyes. Green eyes. They have ones with two dimples, but I just want one dimple. The ones with two dimples look too fake, and the ones without dimples look like Chucky. This is a very precise assignment. Please do not screw this up. Under no circumstances are you to come home with a redhead..”
Chelsea Handler, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, p.28
-----

On this Earth Day, it is important to focus on Stuff…all the Stuff we have, and all we really don’t need.
Annie Leonard’s video The Story of Stuff has been seen by millions. Her companion book of the same name is a good read.
Her position is strait forward: “Our obsession with stuff is trashing the planet, our communities, and our health. We need a new vision for change..”

We, in the US, have 5% of the world’s population, but use 30% of the world’s resources; and produce 30% of its’ waste.
We have too much stuff; and too much of it is toxic.
Just take water, as one example.
By 2025, 2/3rds of us in the US will face a water scarcity.
As we morph from a grey stuff consumer to a green environmentalist, think about showers vs. baths.
A typical 8 minute shower uses 17 gallons of water. A bath uses 45 gallons.
Take a shower, shorten it 5 minutes; use a low-flow showerhead; and turn off the water while you soap your body. Then run the shower.
Now John Stossell, and the libertarians, will say…”I will take a bath if I want to. And an 8-min. shower. I have a constitutional right.”
No, John. You take the rubber boats in your bath and put them where John Denver’s sun will never shine.

Roger Stone and the flying fickle finger award

The flying fickle finger award to political consultant and bon vivant Roger Stone.
__________

“attack,attack, attack
never defend; admit nothing; deny everything;
launch counter attacks;hit from every angle;
open multiple fronts on your enemy; he must be confused and feel besieged on every side”
The Stone modus operandi, as quoted in Peter Elkind, Rough Justice.
_____
Elkind’s new book on Elliot Spitzer is a good read, if you relish the slimey,ugly power plays practiced in Albany,our esteemed State Capitol.
Elkind describes the power plays of Spitzer,Joe Bruno, and Stone, where civility disappeared.
Spitzer wanted reform,and wanted to flip the State Senate.
He offered Sen.Michael Balboni a job in his administration,and Joe Bruno also killed Balboni’s career to run for the AG position.
Bruno needed Balboni to stay in the Senate,to keep GOP control.
As the power plays became really ugly, Bruno hired Stone as a $20k monthly consultant.
Stone set out to destroy Spitzer, including feeding the FBI information gleaned from his lady contacts in Florida.
These power plays were not pretty.
Elkin contrasts Bruno and Spitzer. Bruno the poor kid from Glens Falls, who wanted Albany power to gain private riches. Spitzer, the son of a wealthy NYC Jew, who wanted Albany power to reform and transform.
Our fickle finger award goes to Stone. He’s is less than a class act. Power does corrupt, especially when the power plays take place in Albany.
And I still see no compelling rationale to send Joe Bruno to prison.

Charters,inequality, and politics

The data shows that charters are, in general, successful in reading,math and science indices.And NYS should increase the cap on these public funded,privately run, schools.The feds. would likely look favorably on this; and the state could really compete in the Race to the Top $700 million funding.Charters do, however, tend to cherry pick.There are too many applicants; and the cherry picking leaves the more difficult-to-learn students in the underachieving public schools.I favor charters, and I say lift the ceiling on them.The future of public schools are in limbo.Many are failures, and should be closed.In almost all states, the fiscal crisis is creating a crisis in the public school systems.There will be major changes in our centralized,public school systems.As my friend, writer, and social critic James Howard Kunstler suggests in The Long Emergency, all our central systems will unravel as we move into the end of oil period.The oil heavey yellow school buses, for one, will no longer be viable.Small schools, home schooling, are the future.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Game Change

I had the opportunity to attend a book review of John Heilemann and Mark Halperin’s Game Change.

The reviewer was local Albany attorney,and talk show host, Steve Coffey.

The review was excellent, highlighting most of the major events of the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Did have a chance to ask two questions, both, methinks, important.

First, John McCain and Sara Palin.

Game Change vividly describes the quick process that led to Palin’s pick as McCain’s running mate.

McCain’s direct talk, and vetting, with Palin took about an hour.

A scary vetting in chosing our VP candidate.

As Coffey suggests, Palin was a possible big game changer. A choice that could have salvaged McCain’s campaign.

But as I suggested, her pick was like Mel Brooks building a young Frankenstein.

Palin is still with us. But even the moderate tea partiers don’t feel she is qualified to be President.

Will her future be on Fox?

Coffey was noncommital.

The second question dealt with the msn and John Edwards.

The msn buried the scandal of Edwards, , Rielle Hunter, and the love child.

How sad to hear that the National Enquirer was nominated for a Pulitizer for their Edwards scandal stories.

Where was the msn?
It could have gone to Edwards and his wife before Iowa , and just told them that the story of the love child will go public; and Edwards should withdrawl for the sake of the country,the Dem. Party, and his family.

He likely would have.

Suppose Edwards had broken through in the 2008 campaign?

Suppose he had gone all the way, and won the Presidency?

Can’t we see him ready to take the oath of office in Jan. 2009, in the cold, at the steps of the national Capitol.

Just as the oath is about to be given, , Rielle Hunter,with the lovechild in one arm, uses her other hand trying to grab the Bible from Elizabeth Edwards.

Then, and only then, would the msn have asked: Hey, what’s going on here?

Coffey main response was that MSNBC was very Obama biased.

But I also suggested that MSNBC was necessary to balance cable Fox.