Because I was off the grid for a half week, I have spent most of the day getting caught up--answering emails, making calls... But that has been almost entirely work related. I still am not all the way in the world yet. I need to read the papers that have piled up and visit my friends' sites to get the news not in the papers. Sometime this week (maybe tomorrow) I will email everyone about the fascism site and start to get coordinated there too.
All of which is to say, no commentary on current events at this moment.
Since it is Valentine's Day, I offer you this story from Lancaster's Intelligencer Journal as an illustration of the culture of Lancaster from which I am emerging. Don't get me wrong--I've been in love before. I have no principled objection to an article titled something like "52 ways to say I love you." True, I am not a fan of shmatlz, but I remember the good feeling of doing sweet little things for someone else, and I suppose I can endorse a piece that encourages it. But this one...oy. If they are going to suggest that women put together pin up calendars of themselves or take belly dancing lessons, can't we at least add "for once in your life, take the trash out without your wife asking you too."
Anyway, that's where I spent four days. Here.
I'm glad to be back in LA.
Monday, February 14, 2005
Back on the grid
Two words about my accommodations in Lancaster: "web TV" (or is that one word?). I think that pretty much says it all.
I had an indicator of what I was up against when I got to the front desk just in time to see Lou Rawls' band get turned away because the hotel could not find their reservation.
It was another epic journey back to LA thanks to bad weather in Chicago and other assorted fun things. It's 4:00 a.m. right now (which is, of course, 7:00 a.m. Lancaster time) and I am finally going to sleep, but I could not wait until tomorrow to share a quick story about the flight out.
I'm sitting next to a woman who is also obviously traveling for business (as it turns out she is a "consultant" for Alcoa, whose job is to travel to plants and maximize profits). She tells me she travels to LA from Pittsburgh, where she lives, every week. She spends four days a week in LA and three in Pittsburgh.
Me: Wow, that must be rough. I would have a hard time living in two places
Alcoa lady: Well, you do get used to it. And I love LA so that makes it better.
Me: Yeah, at least they aren't sending you to Stillwater, Oklahoma every week.
Alcoa lady: I'm from Stillwater. That's where I grew up . . . Well, outside Stillwater really.
I had an indicator of what I was up against when I got to the front desk just in time to see Lou Rawls' band get turned away because the hotel could not find their reservation.
It was another epic journey back to LA thanks to bad weather in Chicago and other assorted fun things. It's 4:00 a.m. right now (which is, of course, 7:00 a.m. Lancaster time) and I am finally going to sleep, but I could not wait until tomorrow to share a quick story about the flight out.
I'm sitting next to a woman who is also obviously traveling for business (as it turns out she is a "consultant" for Alcoa, whose job is to travel to plants and maximize profits). She tells me she travels to LA from Pittsburgh, where she lives, every week. She spends four days a week in LA and three in Pittsburgh.
Me: Wow, that must be rough. I would have a hard time living in two places
Alcoa lady: Well, you do get used to it. And I love LA so that makes it better.
Me: Yeah, at least they aren't sending you to Stillwater, Oklahoma every week.
Alcoa lady: I'm from Stillwater. That's where I grew up . . . Well, outside Stillwater really.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
In case you are not convinced
about the "f-word," Bushflash sums it up concisely in this flash movie. (Thanks to Democrappy for the link)
What do you all think?
In writing my last post I thought about linking to some recent stuff on blogs I read a lot. So many of the blogs I read every day have been posting on fascism (you guys mostly know who you are). I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in a fascism watch blog where we aggregate those posts. We could call it fourth reich watch or something. If a few of us cohosted, and others agreed to forward their posts, it would be a pretty simple matter (non-time consuming) to collect them all in one spot. Anybody interested? (It could be just that I'm the queen of make-work, but I thought I'd volley the idea out there to see if it appeals to anyone else.) I think such a site could be a really good resource for folks.
Is that the sound of jack boots I hear?
I am leaving for Pennsylvania Dutch Country tomorrow--home of our first national experiment to abolish science in favor of mysticism. And the combination of the proposed budget and the HR 418 have me feeling actually genuinely frightened today. I am too busy to elaborate right now, but perhaps I will try to articulate my fears about the rise of fascism better from the ground in PA. For now, I'll just note a few things.
First, the budget. Andrea says it best:
Then, there is HR 418, endorsed by 137 Congresspeople, reported on in the "mainstream media" solely under the headline "House Moving to Make Asylum Policy Harsher." The reality is, the headlines could just as easily read "House Moving to Institute National ID System and Close National Borders" or "Bill Grants Homeland Security Secretary Unprecedented Level of Power." As is so often the case, one must hunt for real reporting on the issue. I read the bill last night and am happy to see the Raw Story reporting on it today. It's really quite chilling Fourth Reich stuff.
We can look forward to more stories like this one. (Or this one.)
Yes, we are all talking about Fascism these days. It seems almost every blog I read is posting things about "the f-word" with lines like "maybe I'm wrong" or "perhaps I'm an alarmist." There's an old expression, if one person tells you that you have a tail, you can call him crazy; if two people tell you, you might start to worry; if three people tell you, then you'd better turn around and look.
What is to be done?
First, the budget. Andrea says it best:
The new budget guts social spending at a level that is revolutionary. It's a junta. It changes the nation from a republic with any sense of social responsibility to a military power with a subject population from which to draw. No shit, no exaggeration.The budget both outrages me (how can a person even suggest cutting military benefits right now, really) and frightens me. I lived through the Reagan era and am hardly shocked by the widening gap between rich and poor (which continued to widen through Clinton's administration), but the naked savagery with which this administration steals from the poor to give to the rich feels like something new to me. This budget is vampiric.
Then, there is HR 418, endorsed by 137 Congresspeople, reported on in the "mainstream media" solely under the headline "House Moving to Make Asylum Policy Harsher." The reality is, the headlines could just as easily read "House Moving to Institute National ID System and Close National Borders" or "Bill Grants Homeland Security Secretary Unprecedented Level of Power." As is so often the case, one must hunt for real reporting on the issue. I read the bill last night and am happy to see the Raw Story reporting on it today. It's really quite chilling Fourth Reich stuff.
We can look forward to more stories like this one. (Or this one.)
Yes, we are all talking about Fascism these days. It seems almost every blog I read is posting things about "the f-word" with lines like "maybe I'm wrong" or "perhaps I'm an alarmist." There's an old expression, if one person tells you that you have a tail, you can call him crazy; if two people tell you, you might start to worry; if three people tell you, then you'd better turn around and look.
What is to be done?
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Fuck the poor
Treasury Secretary John Snow discussing the budget before the Senate Finance Committee
Let's hear it for Fargo
In re. the Fargo bluelist, The Progressive has reprinted a letter to the Fargo Forum from the city commissioner. It's worth reprinting in its entirety. And let me say it's an indicator of how really rotten things are getting here in America that I would think for even a nanosecond about moving to Fargo after reading such a thing.
TO THE EDITOR:
I think we can all agree that it is a momentous day when the President of the United States visits our city. And I think we can also all agree that one of our most deeply cherished American values is the right of every person's voice to be heard.
The "do-not-admit list" saga is one of those Small Dumb Things That Mean Something Bigger scenarios that happen from time to time. Clearly, it was the result of an "overzealous" individual who felt they were doing the right thing for their home team. What made this story resonate and spiral into a national news item is the gut-level twinge of anxiety it elicits in each of us, "Am I on a list somewhere? Would I even know? Could this happen to me someday?"
While those are questions that we don't ask ourselves on a typical day, it was jarring to realize that someone, somewhere, thought that making this list was the right thing to do. Sadly, the climate of keeping voices of disagreement at bay has become a well-known characteristic of this administration.
I would suggest that the people of Fargo and of North Dakota could help President Bush with some basic prairie down-to-earth advice: Let everyone be heard. Listen carefully and respectfully to all sides. Ponder what others have to say.
A wonderful advantage to living in a sparsely populated state is that governance is extremely up close and personal. Anyone who has served on a church committee, PTA, school board, township board, park district board, city commission or council, service club office, county commission, non-profit board (in other words, nearly everyone) understands that disagreements, conflicts of opinion, impassioned arguments and fiercely contested issues are not only frequent but normal and healthy. This is how solutions are arrived at in a democratic process - by spirited debate, give and take, wisdom contributed from all sides, and occasionally some heated argument thrown in for spice.
And the next day, we go back to our daily lives side by side with the people we were in disagreement with. There is no room for secret lists in small towns. We conduct our public work in the open, with our neighbors and fellow citizens, and we understand that one side or the other never has all the answers.
President Bush, you may have come to North Dakota to convince our so-called "red" voters to apply pressure to our "blue" senators to see things your way on Social Security, as you plan to do in similar states as ours. But perhaps what you will take back to Washington with you is a little bit of North Dakota wisdom. Out here we vote for who we think is the best person for the job, regardless of the letter after their name. Out here we think for ourselves, given the best information we can gather. Out here we carefully listen to all sides of an issue, because those speaking are our neighbors.
And, most importantly, out here we don't shut people out of the room for simply expressing their opinion.
Linda Coates
Fargo City Commissioner
Co-owner, Raptor Recording Studios and Barking Dog Records
TO THE EDITOR:
I think we can all agree that it is a momentous day when the President of the United States visits our city. And I think we can also all agree that one of our most deeply cherished American values is the right of every person's voice to be heard.
The "do-not-admit list" saga is one of those Small Dumb Things That Mean Something Bigger scenarios that happen from time to time. Clearly, it was the result of an "overzealous" individual who felt they were doing the right thing for their home team. What made this story resonate and spiral into a national news item is the gut-level twinge of anxiety it elicits in each of us, "Am I on a list somewhere? Would I even know? Could this happen to me someday?"
While those are questions that we don't ask ourselves on a typical day, it was jarring to realize that someone, somewhere, thought that making this list was the right thing to do. Sadly, the climate of keeping voices of disagreement at bay has become a well-known characteristic of this administration.
I would suggest that the people of Fargo and of North Dakota could help President Bush with some basic prairie down-to-earth advice: Let everyone be heard. Listen carefully and respectfully to all sides. Ponder what others have to say.
A wonderful advantage to living in a sparsely populated state is that governance is extremely up close and personal. Anyone who has served on a church committee, PTA, school board, township board, park district board, city commission or council, service club office, county commission, non-profit board (in other words, nearly everyone) understands that disagreements, conflicts of opinion, impassioned arguments and fiercely contested issues are not only frequent but normal and healthy. This is how solutions are arrived at in a democratic process - by spirited debate, give and take, wisdom contributed from all sides, and occasionally some heated argument thrown in for spice.
And the next day, we go back to our daily lives side by side with the people we were in disagreement with. There is no room for secret lists in small towns. We conduct our public work in the open, with our neighbors and fellow citizens, and we understand that one side or the other never has all the answers.
President Bush, you may have come to North Dakota to convince our so-called "red" voters to apply pressure to our "blue" senators to see things your way on Social Security, as you plan to do in similar states as ours. But perhaps what you will take back to Washington with you is a little bit of North Dakota wisdom. Out here we vote for who we think is the best person for the job, regardless of the letter after their name. Out here we think for ourselves, given the best information we can gather. Out here we carefully listen to all sides of an issue, because those speaking are our neighbors.
And, most importantly, out here we don't shut people out of the room for simply expressing their opinion.
Linda Coates
Fargo City Commissioner
Co-owner, Raptor Recording Studios and Barking Dog Records
The thing about living in Southern California
is that it unfits you for much of the world. That is to say, I am going to Lancaster, Pennsylvania Thursday and it's inconceivable to me that it will be in the 30s. How did I live in Wisconsin for 11 years???
Twice shy
Does it sound like a really bizarre thing to say that this story and this story are very linked in my head?
Consider this excerpt:
Consider this excerpt:
Although no formal cease-fire was signed at the summit, it was widely seen as a step toward talks on a U.S.-backed "road map" for a Palestinian state alongside Israel.And this one:
. . .
Palestinians and Israelis at home voiced doubts that the truce would lead to an immediate end to hostilities.
"I don't think anyone in Israel thinks it will be different tomorrow and there will be quiet," said 32-year-old Israeli graduate student Yoav Kanyas. "However, there is some sort of optimism for peace, which was not there until now."
Last April, after celebrating his second year sober, he relapsed again, disappearing for two weeks. His sponsor, who had become a close friend of Nick's, assured me: "Nick won't stay out long. He's not having any fun." Of course I hoped that he was right, but I was no less worried than I was other times he had disappeared -- worried that he could overdose or otherwise cause irreparable damage.I do hope this time it will be different for Israel and Palestine. But I've learned to check my optimism. Sigh.
But he didn't. He returned and withdrew on his own, helped by his sponsor and other friends. He was ashamed -- mortified -- that he slipped. He redoubled his efforts. Ten months later, of course, I am relieved (once again) and hopeful (once again). Nick is working and writing a children's book and articles and movie reviews for an online magazine. He is biking and swimming. He seems emphatically committed to his sobriety, but I have learned to check my optimism.
Happy Chinese New Year
It's the year of the rooster. Aesthetically speaking, I'm not sure that's such a good thing.
The year 3697
It's a quiz. Everyone guess the significance of the year 3697. What will happen that year? I'll give you a hint: it's 1692 years from now. I'll give you another hint: go check out Pinko Feminist Hellcat's post on Wal-mart.
I can hear you all now: But Travis, we'll be dead by then. Our children's children will be dead. The world will probably have blown up. If any humans have survived they'll all be living in the offworld colonies somewhere.
Okay, okay, I'll tell you. That's the year the total combined pay (from 2005 until 3697) of the average Wal-mart worker will add up to one year's compensation for H. Lee Scott, Wal-mart's CEO--which is to say, Scott makes 1692 times what that worker makes.
To put it another way, Scott will make $13,925 dollars during your lunch hour. That's $232 a minute.
Anyway, go read the post at Hellcat for more information. And check out Multinational Monitor's Top Ten Worst Corporations of 2004.
I cannot say enough good things about the AFL-CIO's Executive PayWatch Database. If you're feeling like you're low in righteous indignation, poke around for a little while. It will get your blood flowing.
I can hear you all now: But Travis, we'll be dead by then. Our children's children will be dead. The world will probably have blown up. If any humans have survived they'll all be living in the offworld colonies somewhere.
Okay, okay, I'll tell you. That's the year the total combined pay (from 2005 until 3697) of the average Wal-mart worker will add up to one year's compensation for H. Lee Scott, Wal-mart's CEO--which is to say, Scott makes 1692 times what that worker makes.
To put it another way, Scott will make $13,925 dollars during your lunch hour. That's $232 a minute.
Anyway, go read the post at Hellcat for more information. And check out Multinational Monitor's Top Ten Worst Corporations of 2004.
I cannot say enough good things about the AFL-CIO's Executive PayWatch Database. If you're feeling like you're low in righteous indignation, poke around for a little while. It will get your blood flowing.
Monday, February 07, 2005
Get politically active now; ask me how!
A friend just forwarded an email to me from Generation Engage, a new 501c3 that aims to get "young people" more politically active. I do wish them the best of luck. But going to their website the first thing I noticed is the fogey-like graphics. The site sort of says "Hi, we're your parents." And so you get paragraphs like this:
It's a pyramid scheme for political engagement. Can I interest you in some vitamins while you register to vote? Or perhaps some cosmetics?
Generation Engage is distinct from other youth voter initiatives in that it explicitly strives to reach all young people, including those not affiliated with academic institutions. Generation Engage is premised on the notion that young people do not engage politically – or more specifically, vote – because they do not feel tied to the political process. They feel politically fragmented and detached from one another. Generation Engage strives to address that.But the kicker for me was this:
It's a pyramid scheme for political engagement. Can I interest you in some vitamins while you register to vote? Or perhaps some cosmetics?
Consumerism
While I am so much of a leftist to still warm to the idea of Capitalism's demise, I do also like stuff. Call me a Whitmanesque Americanist ("Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself.") After a silly surfing binge the other night during which I went on one of those link-after-link expeditions through a bunch of design-oriented websites, I determined to add a new section to my blogroll. So you see now, on the left side of the page, the "Commodity Fetishism" section added yesterday. (I expect it will grow--or maybe not.) Then today I went out for Chinese food and got this fortune: "You will be surrounded by things of luxury." I suspect it's karma, though I do wish that adding others to the main section of my blogroll would grant me a fortune like "your current administration will soon be overthrown by leftists." Ah well.
"The delusional is no longer marginal"
The title of this post is a quote from a Bill Moyers essay "There is no tomorrow" I just received via email. It's not a new essay--though it's new to me. And I just can't quite make myself buy Moyers' point 100%. Am I in deep denial? Moyers argues that radical Christian fundamentalism is on the rise and that, among these vast numbers of people, the destruction of the environment is positive insofar as it hastens the rapture:
A 2002 Time-CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the book of Revelations are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. . . . people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth, when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"I'm with him on that last part, but am I wrong to be skeptical about the rest? Someone please reassure me that it's not that bad.
. . .
It is hard for the journalist to report a story like this with any credibility. So let me put it on a personal level. I myself don't know how to be in this world without expecting a confident future and getting up every morning to do what I can to bring it about. So I have always been an optimist. Now, however, I think of my friend on Wall Street whom I once asked: "What do you think of the market?"I'm optimistic," he answered. "Then why do you look so worried?" And he answered: "Because I am not sure my optimism is justified."
So maybe I do have some cheesehead in me
Okay, I'll admit it out front: I lived in Wisconsin for 11 years. Be that as it may, I would love Russ Feingold regardless. Initially I loved him like 60s teens loved the Beatles. I'm a little less fervent about it now. That Ashcroft vote knocked him right off the pedestal. And of course, as I was reminded today, he voted for Rice. How will he defend himself to the progressives, I was asked. And that is the question that inspired me to post again about Russ.
His voting record is really amazing. Yes, he capitulates at times. God knows, he tried to do some deal making for campaign finance reform. But in the main, he makes Kerry look like a brownshirt. Kerry earned the by-now-infamous label "the most liberal man in the Senate" because he scored 100% on the ACLU's scorecard. Well that's because he was only present for 1 of the 9 votes they counted. Feingold has an 89% and he was there for all 9. He was the only Senator (THE ONLY ONE) to vote against the PATRIOT Act. He also imposed voluntary campaign finance reforms on himself during his second run for Senate (his opponent did not). He's one of the "poorest" Senators (it's all relative). And his first bid for Senate featured an endorsement by Elvis.
His voting record is really amazing. Yes, he capitulates at times. God knows, he tried to do some deal making for campaign finance reform. But in the main, he makes Kerry look like a brownshirt. Kerry earned the by-now-infamous label "the most liberal man in the Senate" because he scored 100% on the ACLU's scorecard. Well that's because he was only present for 1 of the 9 votes they counted. Feingold has an 89% and he was there for all 9. He was the only Senator (THE ONLY ONE) to vote against the PATRIOT Act. He also imposed voluntary campaign finance reforms on himself during his second run for Senate (his opponent did not). He's one of the "poorest" Senators (it's all relative). And his first bid for Senate featured an endorsement by Elvis.
I know I shouldn't get my hopes up
I know this is like harboring a fantasy, as a 12-year-old girl, that I will really get a pony for Hannukah, but I can't help but dream. . .
Maybe next time it will be different.
If Dean were chair and Feingold got the nomination, well fuck, I can't even tell you how happy I would be. I would wet myself with glee like those puppies who get so excited about going out for a walk.
Maybe next time it will be different.
If Dean were chair and Feingold got the nomination, well fuck, I can't even tell you how happy I would be. I would wet myself with glee like those puppies who get so excited about going out for a walk.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Frozen things cannot be killed
Yet another news item that makes me do my Linda Blair impression: Alison Miller and Todd Parrish have been granted permission to pursue a wrongful death suit against the Center for Human Reproduction in Chicago, which accidentally discarded frozen embryos belonging to the couple:
(In other news of how your reproductive rights are receding into the sunset, Prof. B. has the story of why you should not patronize La Quinta.)
In an opinion issued Friday, Cook County Judge Jeffrey Lawrence said "a pre-embryo is a 'human being' ... whether or not it is implanted in its mother's womb."Here's what I want to know: there were nine embryos in question, does that mean that the couple would be guilty of criminal negligence had they not implanted all nine, one after the other, in Alison's womb? Could Alison and Todd have declared them as dependents on their tax forms? For fuck's sake. I'm not nearly as reasonable and generous about this as Shakespeare's Sister, from whence comes the link. I think it's patently ridiculous that we are at a point in our history where we confer human status on a small bunch of frozen cells all the while massacring thousands in other countries. I know...it's an obvious point. Forgive me; I nonetheless need to utter it now and then.
He said the couple is as entitled to seek compensation as any parents whose child has been killed.
(In other news of how your reproductive rights are receding into the sunset, Prof. B. has the story of why you should not patronize La Quinta.)
I am not a litigious person
but were I Soheyla Zolfaghary I would be on the phone to a lawyer before I even got out of the OB/Gyn office.
Marx as a founding father of America
In light of the Internet buzz over the recent survey of high school students that found most students think the First Amendment is over-rated, let me provide those on the left with some good news. Apparently, most people think that the Constitution contains (or could contain) Marx's maxim "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." A 2002 Columbia Law School survey asked respondents whether that phrase was in the Constitution. 35% said yes; 31% said no; and 34% didn't know.
For more information, see the press release and Michael Dorf's commentary. (News of the survey comes via an LA Times editorial by Molly Selvin that I can't find online "We the People, Ignorant and Tuned Out")
For more information, see the press release and Michael Dorf's commentary. (News of the survey comes via an LA Times editorial by Molly Selvin that I can't find online "We the People, Ignorant and Tuned Out")
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