Thursday, January 24, 2008

The State of the Union

I have to admit I don't watch the Wire on HBO. But I did read a review of the 5th season of this program in Time Magazine a few weeks back and was struck by few words that talks about the entire society, that really struck a chord with me. With the recent events that have taken over my personal life with fighting to save my son's elementary school open, and the upcoming presidetial elections, and how the main streem media is more interested in Britany and her various troubles, it just made me think. We really do get what we pay for. If you are not willing to work hard, and invest in something, it will fall to pieces. Read it and let me know what you think:
At the Sun, as with many other media organizations--and like The Wire's budget-strapped cops--they're paying attention mainly to the bottom line. Out-of-town owners are demanding higher profits, bureaus are closing, layoffs are draining the institutional memory, and the staff barely has the resources to chase fires, much less do investigative work. One top editor repeatedly asks his troops, in impeccable corporatese, to "do more with less."

What this means is doing less with less and cutting corners to make it look like more, sometimes with disastrous results. The lie of "more with less" is, in a way, the heart of the series. "The Wire's basically about the end of an empire," says Simon. "It's about, This is as much of America as we've paid for. No more, no less. We didn't pay for a New Orleans that's protected from floods the way, say, the Netherlands is. The police department gets what it pays for, the city government gets what it pays for, the school system gets what it pays for. And in the last season, the people who are supposed to be holding the entire thing to some form of public standard, they get what they pay for."

Monday, January 21, 2008

I See the Promised Land - MLK

VIDEO: Martin Luther King's Final Speech - I've Been to the Mountaintop

Thank you very kindly, my friends. As I listened to Ralph Abernathy in his eloquent and generous introduction and then thought about myself, I wondered who he was talking about. It's always good to have your closest friend and associate say something good about you. And Ralph is the best friend that I have in the world.

I'm delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.

As you know, if I were standing at the beginning of time, with the possibility of general and panoramic view of the whole human history up to now, and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?"-- I would take my mental flight by Egypt through, or rather across the Red Sea, through the wilderness on toward the promised land. And in spite of its magnificence, I wouldn't stop there. I would move on by Greece, and take my mind to Mount Olympus. And I would see Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides and Aristophanes assembled around the Parthenon as they discussed the great and eternal issues of reality.

But I wouldn't stop there. I would go on, even to the great heyday of the Roman Empire. And I would see developments around there, through various emperors and leaders. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up to the day of the Renaissance, and get a quick picture of all that the Renaissance did for the cultural and esthetic life of man.

But I wouldn't stop there. I would even go by the way that the man for whom I'm named had his habitat. And I would watch Martin Luther as he tacked his ninety-five theses on the door at the church in Wittenberg.

But I wouldn't stop there. I would come on up even to 1863, and watch a vacillating president by the name of Abraham Lincoln finally come to the conclusion that he had to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. But I wouldn't stop there. I would even come up the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

But I wouldn't stop there. Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, "If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will be happy." Now that's a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land. Confusion all around. That's a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men, in some strange way, are responding--something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya: Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee--the cry is always the same--"We want to be free."

And another reason that I'm happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we're going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence.

That is where we are today. And also in the human rights revolution, if something isn't done, and in a hurry, to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now, I'm just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I'm happy that he's allowed me to be in Memphis.

I can remember, I can remember when Negroes were just going around as Ralph has said, so often, scratching where they didn't itch, and laughing when they were not tickled. But that day is all over. We mean business now, and we are determined to gain our rightful place in God's world.
And that's all this whole thing is about. We aren't engaged in any negative protest and in any negative arguments with anybody. We are saying that we are determined to be men. We are determined to be people. We are saying that we are God's children. And that we don't have to live like we are forced to live.

Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we've got to stay together. We've got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh's court, and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together, that's the beginning of getting out of slavery. Now let us maintain unity.

Secondly, let us keep the issues where they are. The issue is injustice. The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we've got to keep attention on that. That's always the problem with a little violence. You know what happened the other day, and the press dealt only with the window-breaking. I read the articles. They very seldom got around to mentioning the fact that one thousand, three hundred sanitation workers were on strike, and that Memphis is not being fair to them, and that Mayor Loeb is in dire need of a doctor. They didn't get around to that.

Now we're going to march again, and we've got to march again, in order to put the issue where it is supposed to be. And force everybody to see that there are thirteen hundred of God's children here suffering, sometimes going hungry, going through dark and dreary nights wondering how this thing is going to come out. That's the issue. And we've got to say to the nation: we know it's coming out. For when people get caught up with that which is right and they are willing to sacrifice for it, there is no stopping point short of victory.

We aren't going to let any mace stop us. We are masters in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces; they don't know what to do. I've seen them so often. I remember in Birmingham, Alabama, when we were in that majestic struggle there we would move out of the 16th Street Baptist Church day after day; by the hundreds we would move out. And Bull Connor would tell them to send the dogs forth and they did come; but we just went before the dogs singing, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round." Bull Connor next would say, "Turn the fire hoses on." And as I said to you the other night, Bull Connor didn't know history. He knew a kind of physics that somehow didn't relate to the transphysics that we knew about. And that was the fact that there was a certain kind of fire that no water could put out. And we went before the fire hoses; we had known water. If we were Baptist or some other denomination, we had been immersed. If we were Methodist, and some others, we had been sprinkled, but we knew water.

That couldn't stop us. And we just went on before the dogs and we would look at them; and we'd go on before the water hoses and we would look at it, and we'd just go on singing. "Over my head I see freedom in the air." And then we would be thrown in the paddy wagons, and sometimes we were stacked in there like sardines in a can. And they would throw us in, and old Bull would say, "Take them off," and they did; and we would just go in the paddy wagon singing, "We Shall Overcome." And every now and then we'd get in the jail, and we'd see the jailers looking through the windows being moved by our prayers, and being moved by our words and our songs. And there was a power there which Bull Connor couldn't adjust to; and so we ended up transforming Bull into a steer, and we won our struggle in Birmingham.

Now we've got to go on to Memphis just like that. I call upon you to be with us Monday. Now about injunctions: We have an injunction and we're going into court tomorrow morning to fight this illegal, unconstitutional injunction. All we say to America is, "Be true to what you said on paper." If I lived in China or even Russia, or any totalitarian country, maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges, because they hadn't committed themselves to that over there. But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of the press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I say, we aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on.

We need all of you. And you know what's beautiful to me, is to see all of these ministers of the Gospel. It's a marvelous picture. Who is it that is supposed to articulate the longings and aspirations of the people more than the preacher? Somehow the preacher must be an Amos, and say, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Somehow, the preacher must say with Jesus, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to deal with the problems of the poor."

And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men: James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; he's been to jail for struggling; but he's still going on, fighting for the rights of his people. Rev. Ralph Jackson, Billy Kiles; I could just go right on down the list, but time will not permit. But I want to thank them all. And I want you to thank them, because so often, preachers aren't concerned about anything but themselves. And I'm always happy to see a relevant ministry.

It's alright to talk about "long white robes over yonder," in all of its symbolism. But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It's alright to talk about "streets flowing with milk and honey," but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can't eat three square meals a day. It's alright to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God's preacher must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.

Now the other thing we'll have to do is this: Always anchor our external direct action with the power of economic withdrawal. Now, we are poor people, individually, we are poor when you compare us with white society in America. We are poor. Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer than all the nation in the world, with the exception of nine. Did you ever think about that? After you leave the United States, Soviet Russia, Great Britain, West Germany, France, and I could name the others, the Negro collectively is richer than most nations of the world. We have an annual income of more than thirty billion dollars a year, which is more than all of the exports of the United States, and more than the national budget of Canada. Did you know that? That's power right there, if we know how to pool it.

We don't have to argue with anybody. We don't have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don't need any bricks and bottles, we don't need any Molotov cocktails, we just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, "God sent us by here, to say to you that you're not treating his children right. And we've come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda--fair treatment, where God's children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you."

And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy--what is the other bread?--Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart's bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven't been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying, they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right.

But not only that, we've got to strengthen black institutions. I call upon you to take you money out of the banks downtown and deposit you money in Tri-State Bank--we want a "bank-in" movement in Memphis. So go by the savings and loan association. I'm not asking you something that we don't do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We're just telling you to follow what we're doing. Put your money there. You have six or seven black insurance companies in Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an "insurance-in."

Now there are some practical things we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.

Now, let me say as I move to my conclusion that we've got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point, in Memphis. We've got to see it through. And when we have our march, you need to be there. Be concerned about your brother. You may not be on strike. But either we go up together, or we go down together.

Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness. One day a man came to Jesus; and he wanted to raise some questions about some vital matters in life. At points, he wanted to trick Jesus, and show him that he knew a little more than Jesus knew, and through this, throw him off base. Now that question could have easily ended up in a philosophical and theological debate. But Jesus immediately pulled that question from mid-air, and placed it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem and Jericho. And he talked about a certain man, who fell among thieves. You remember that a Levite and a priest passed by on the other side. They didn't stop to help him. And finally a man of another race came by. He got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy. But with him, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, because he had the capacity to project the "I" into the "thou," and to be concerned about his brother. Now you know, we use our imagination a great deal to try to determine why the priest and the Levite didn't stop. At times we say they were busy going to church meetings--an ecclesiastical gathering--and they had to get on down to Jerusalem so they wouldn't be late for their meeting. At other times we would speculate that there was a religious law that "One who was engaged in religious ceremonials was not to touch a human body twenty-four hours before the ceremony." And every now and then we begin to wonder whether maybe they were not going down to Jerusalem, or down to Jericho, rather to organize a "Jericho Road Improvement Association." That's a possibility. Maybe they felt that it was better to deal with the problem from the casual root, rather than to get bogged down with an individual effort.

But I'm going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It's possible that these men were afraid. You see, the Jericho road is a dangerous road. I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road, I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as a setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 1200 miles, or rather 1200 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho, fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're about 2200 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the day of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking. And he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt, in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?".

That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" "If I do no stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness. Let us stand with a greater determination. And let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge to make America what it ought to be. We have an opportunity to make America a better nation. And I want to thank God, once more, for allowing me to be here with you.

You know, several years ago, I was in New York City autographing the first book that I had written. And while sitting there autographing books, a demented black woman came up. The only question I heard from her was, "Are you Martin Luther King?"

And I was looking down writing, and I said yes. And the next minute I felt something beating on my chest. Before I knew it I had been stabbed by this demented woman. I was rushed to Harlem Hospital. It was a dark Saturday afternoon. And that blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery. And once that's punctured, you drown in your own blood--that's the end of you.

It came out in the New York Times the next morning, that if I had sneezed, I would have died. Well, about four days later, they allowed me, after the operation, after my chest had been opened, and the blade had been taken out, to move around in the wheel chair in the hospital. They allowed me to read some of the mail that came in, and from all over the states, and the world, kind letters came in. I read a few, but one of them I will never forget. I had received one from the President and the Vice-President. I've forgotten what those telegrams said. I'd received a visit and a letter from the Governor of New York, but I've forgotten what the letter said. But there was another letter that came from a little girl, a young girl who was a student at the White Plains High School. And I looked at that letter, and I'll never forget it. It said simply, "Dear Dr. King: I am a ninth-grade student at the Whites Plains High School." She said, "While it should not matter, I would like to mention that I am a white girl. I read in the paper of your misfortune, and of your suffering. And I read that if you had sneezed, you would have died. And I'm simply writing you to say that I'm so happy that you didn't sneeze."

And I want to say tonight, I want to say that I am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. And I knew that as they were sitting in, they were really standing up for the best in the American dream. And taking the whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around in 1962, when Negroes in Albany, Georgia, decided to straighten their backs up. And whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Alabama, aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream that I had had. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been down in Selma, Alabama, to see the great movement there. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been in Memphis to see a community rally around those brothers and sisters who are suffering. I'm so happy that I didn't sneeze.

And they were telling me, now it doesn't matter now. It really doesn't matter what happens now. I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane, there were six of us, the pilot said over the public address system, "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong with the plane, we had to check out everything carefully. And we've had the plane protected and guarded all night."

And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say that threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Say No to Pollsters - Part 2

This is my response to Jen Clark's comment about pollsters and their refusal to listen or poll those under 30. I thought it worth a post by itself, let me know what you think:

Jen,

I am not sure if the media does not care about those under 30, or that the under 30 crowd has historically not voted in enough numbers to justify being listened too.


I hope you are correct that a significant number of under 30 voters actually come to the polls through the remainder of the primary season, as well as the actual election in November.

The thing I find most farcical in this whole process is that these talking heads needs something interesting and attention grabbing enough to pontificate enough to keep people watching for 24-36 months before the general election. So they continue to pay for polls and debate the results, determine the front-runner, and take perverse pleasure in lambasting those in the lead and trailing far behind, just long enough for someone else to catapult to the lead, and then give the media ample time to knock them down.


Why is it that no one outside the media can knock them off their g-d damn pedestal? What a bunch of blow-hards, changing position as the wind blows.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Say No to Pollsters

I found this over at the Huffington Post and am much in favor of boycotting all political polls moving forward. We have spent the past 2 years reading about this candidate or that candidate is leading, and when the citizens actually go to the polls, they go and do something different than what the pollsters were telling us previously. The political polling process is a joke and a farce and should be banished from our democracy.

Sign the Petitino

Friday, January 11, 2008

Letter to the Stamford Advocate - January 11, 2008

Dear Board of Education,

Last night hundreds of parents packed Cloonan Middle School to come to express their support for their respective schools. The overwhelming majority spoke loud and clear, that closing an elementary school is not good for the neighborhoods, communities or the city of Stamford. As you have pointed out repeatedly all the schools are successful in their own way and last night validated your point.

You have made it perfectly clear that the fiscal responsibility is more important in the redistricting process than the academic performance of the entire district. It has also been made clear that the Board of Finance has repeatedly cut your budgets for the past few years, and you have no expectations of anything changing over the next few years, which is the basis for your argument.

I think you need you to acknowledge that we have been heard. It is time for you to say “We will work our plan moving forward to include 13 schools, but in order to do this we the Board of Education, need YOU the parents, the voters and tax-payers to help us support this plan. We need you to demonstrate the same energy and fire to the Board of Finance and bring the same passion to those budget meetings.”

We the parents need to understand that having 13 elementary schools could mean an increase in spending, but this would be money well spent if: we can reduce class size by bringing a new school online in 2009/2010 and we can bring back language study and gifted student programs and other programs that have been cut in the past, then we need to accept that tax increase, and we need to work with you to convince the Board of Finance that this is necessary. My pledge to you is if you make this promise, you have my unequivocal support and I will do everything in my power to help convince other parents that this is the correct action.

Sincerely,
Jeff Herz, Parent of a Toquam Magnet 1st Grade Scholar

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Stamford Board of Education Public Forum Comments

I am Jeff Herz, a proud parent of a Toquam 1st grader.

First of all, I would like to thank you each of the members of the Board of Education for the hard work that you have put into this redistricting effort to date. I know having attended multiple meetings for the past four months that this is not an easy task you are undertaking, and your efforts are greatly appreciated.

Tonight, I am going to ask a different question. How is the overall redistricting process, making Stamford a better community overall? We understand the value of diversity in each and every school, since Stamford is in fact a diverse environment. The effort to keep our schools balanced and diverse is commendable and should be applauded.

However, we need to ask what message does discussing a school closure send to those outside our community looking in? What does this say about the value of education here in Stamford if we actually close any elementary school?

When a perspective new member of our community is evaluating this town, and they see that the Board of Education is considering or is actually going to close a school, what message does that send? How are we supposed to attract new citizens, new tax payers, new families, new neighbors if our community perception is that we don't care about education?

Closing any of the five targeted school or any of the other schools sends a negative message to those outside our community that says Stamford does not care or value about education. They are more interested in saving money rather than making the schools better.

We are losing to many people to the W's (Westport, Weston, Wilton) which are perceived to have better schools. I myself am not a life-long Stamford resident, though my wife is, and we are both products of public schools. I am proud to send my son and eventually my two pre-schoolers to public schools, hopefully to Toquam Magnet.

How does redistricting make us a better community? Where and how does this question fit into the redistricting committee agendas moving forward, because at the end of the day isn't making the schools better the ultimate goal? I would advocate that 13 elementary schools made up of five magnets and eight community schools would be the best way to serve the community and say to the state we are serious about education and making this district the best small urban district in the country.

Finally, if all five magnets are utilized as they are supposed to control overpopulation and keep the out-of-balance schools in balance. This might mean to spend more time and money advertising magnets to the educationally disadvantaged community or it might mean changing some of the curriculum to bring more educationally advantaged students into the magnets in the south end, that have had problems attracting them in the past. If the magnets are utilized properly and managed on a year-to-year basis, then there is never a need to redistrict again. Since if the magnets are managed, then we are essentially redistricting every single year through the lottery, and a basic marketing campaign in the schools that are overpopulated or out of balance. Thank you for your time.

Please check out the Save Toquam Blog for comments made by the Save Toquam community to the Stamford Board of Education on Tuesday January 8, 2008 at Cloonan Middle School.

2008 - New Year Special - Link Love Extreme

This is from Carols Place for Peace via Cotojo's Site:




Well Cotojo has really outdone himself with this Award: Happy New Year Bloggers Around The World -

How cool is this? (interesting that he starts the count at 0, I wonder if he is a C programmer)

0-Cotojo 1-Lisa 2-Deborah 3-Pearl 4-Sandy 5-Jesse 6-Chris 7-Zubli 8-Santa 9-BlogElf 10-Jackie 11-Marzie 12-Adrian 13- 15-NAFASG 14-PolliwogFrog 15-Sue 16-Kathy 17-Maartje 18-Morgan 19-Greg 20-MaryAnn 21-Eric 22-Hawk 23-Carol 24-Diane 25-EvNucci 26-Surjit 27-Kuanyin 28-ChristyZ 29-Sandee 30-Robin 31-Hnna 32-Maunie 33-Kim 34-Bobby 35-Billy 36-David 37-Jennifer 38-Aryst 39-Winston 40-Christy 41-LilyRuth 42-Jess 43-Rudy 44-Lynda 45-Lili 46-SandyG 47-Ange 48-BlackWyrm 49-Vincent 50-Colin&Anne 51-BlandlyUrbane 52-Marco 53-Mihaela 54-John 55-Aziz 56-Ugyen 57-Lansy 58-Alex 59-Victors 60-Nostalgia 61-Franco 62-Herby 63-Rubie 64-Santaram&BVK 65-Jean-David 66-Namgay 67-Catherine 68-Yunita 69-PJLighthouse 70-Lorimer 71-DreamCatcher 72-Fred 73-Anja 74-MariaLourdes 75-JonB 76-Aayush 77-Denise 78-Dharmendra 79-BrentD 80-Jerry&Daryl 81-BrianB 82-Calvin 83-Pieter 84-Jessica 85-Taflas 86-Alex 87-Norie 88-Justin 89-Ashish 90-David 91-Thanate 92-Kevin 93-Etienne 94-Gerbera 95-Christina 96-AbhishekD 97-Uprai 98-TexasJam 99-Azmiel 100-Daniel 101-Kristin 102-Luwis 103-Adavait 104-NowSourcing 105-BuenAmigo 106-Kiran 107-Peterson 108-Lynn 109-Chessnoid 110-LuisHipolito 111-Joliveira 112-Jennifer&Pete 113-TeamDog 114-Megan 115-Mark 116-Raivyn 117-Mel 118-Andrea 119-Jen 120-Mimi 121-Bobo 122-Lynda 123-DreadBob 124-Julie 125-RennyBA 126-Bobbarama 127-Becky 128-Magdalena 129-Michelle 130-Stacie 131-ClimateTeam 132-CashMarble 133-OilOffShore 134-Piper 135-Barbara 136-Ann 137-Deb 138-Headbanger 139-Danny 140-Morina 141-Aira 142-Jericho 143-Jeane Michelle 144-Breigh 145-SecretMind 146-Awannabe 147-Gerri 148-Colin 149-eRocker 150-Kitty 151-Mariuca 152-Donna 153-Babyshern 154-Sanni 155-SatoNa 156-Cyn 157-Nessa 158-Steve 159-Francisco 160-Em 161-Christo 162-Riccardo 163-Naren 164-Denise 165-KingTang 166-El 167-Francesco 168-Bella 169-Chris 170-Fe 171-Jim&Emma 172-Incinq 173-Cristian 174-Matson 175-Kiwipulse 176-Sean 177-Anne 178-Xerendipity 179-Omega 180-Debra 181-SJ 182-Joseph 183-Nikki 184-Pocholo 185-BloggerNoob 186-Filot 187-Aseem 188-Mark 189-Antonio 190-Henry 191-Jamiz 192-Tamsyn 193-EverydayWeekender 194-JustMe 195-Brent 196-Ink 197-Alan 198-Debbie 199- BlueRibbonBloggers 200- Me 201- Beth 202- Rod 203- Michael 204-Ted 205-Vice 206-Dave207-Jeff 208-Jon 209-Michael 210-Couchmouse 211-Beaman 212-Cooper 213- Whit 214 - Holmes 215 -SML

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Maps of War

I found this over at Seev's place. It is always great to review the history of a location to help understand why things are they are sometimes. It is a pretty Cool Video either way.
Juan Cole posts a great visual history of Middle Eastern empires beginning about 1800 BC. This is the YouTube version of the Maps of War with a neat musical accompaniment add-on:

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Why is it?

Why is it that children can play with computer games that build entire amusement parks and the paid professional engineers at the Highway Department can't figure out how to synchronize traffic on the Freeways?

The National Interest in 2008 - by Gary Hart

Here is a great piece from Gary Hart that was in the Huffington Post yesterday. It is definitely worth asking which candidate this year stands for the national interest, rather than their own individual or party interest.

There is something called the national interest. It is not an ideology. It is not the possession of a single cabal of self-appointed imperialists. It is not achieved by substituting consensus for principle. It is not "bipartisanship" for its own sake or in pursuit of bad policy. And it is not a euphemism for oil.

Our national interest is the product of more than two centuries of national history which constitutes an amalgam of colossal mistakes, most notably Iraq, and grand sacrifices and noble actions. It required a terrible civil war to establish that slavery was not in our national interest.

It required a cold war to establish that alliance and collaboration was in our national interest.

Oil dependence, climate change, nuclear proliferation, concentrated wealth, fear of terrorism, theocracy, empire, corruption in government, an arrogant and ignorant executive, and violation of civil liberties are not in our national interest.

Equal rights for all, respect for our constitutional guarantees, including most notable habeas corpus, economic opportunity, regulation of market excess, our natural heritage and environment, fairness, justice, and checks and balanced government are all in our national interest.

The age of Roosevelt was replaced by the age of Reagan which itself is coming to an end. The age of Reagan was relieved only briefly by a rare period of peace and prosperity in the 1990s. The brief Clinton era pursued "centrism"at the cost of blurring the fundamental principles of the 20th century Democratic party -- a sense of national community (Roosevelt), citizen duty (Kennedy), and equality and justice for all (Johnson). Return to the age of Reagan, under the current administration, destroyed the security alliances established by Truman.

There will, presumably, always be a conservative party. But it must be retaken by pro-environment, anti-interventionist, fiscally responsible traditional Republicans. For its part, the Democratic Party must redefine itself for an American generation that does not know what it stands for or what its principles are.

The national interest cannot be achieved by settling old scores, vengeance for past wrongs, and demonization of those with whom we disagree. History operates its own court of justice and vengeance is the enemy of progress.

Together, the two new/old parties must recapture a sense of the national interest, above partisan victory and advantage, willing to achieve consensus for the good of the country as men and women of good will and leadership define it, operating in good faith and mutual respect, and most of all bound by constitutional guarantees and constraints.

I choose to be a Democrat. But I am able to do so because I am first an American.


That last sentence is very important. It is obviously important to be a member of a political party in this country in order to be heard, but we need more folks saying they are first an American, then a representative.