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100726 – Monday Ketchup

Posted in 51 Percent, Congress, Election, election reform, Feminism, Finance, I Own My Vote, Justice, Pets, Politics, voter reform, War, women, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »

On this one, I agree with the Prez. Pass the Disclose Act tomorrow, otherwise known as the “Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections Act, S.3628,(correction) see file “getdoc.cgi“! Don’t let this Supreme Court Decision stand. Corporations should not have personhood, or the right to donate money without disclosure to elections. It was bad enough last election WITH disclosure.

The White House Blog

President Obama on Citizens United: “Imagine the Power This Will Give Special Interests Over Politicians”

Posted by Jesse Lee on July 26, 2010 at 03:07 PM EDT

With a Senate vote tomorrow on legislation to undo some of the damage from the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, the President laid out the stakes in no uncertain terms:

Monday A vote to oppose these reforms is nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special interest takeovers of our elections. It is damaging to our democracy. It is precisely what led a Republican President named Theodore Roosevelt to tackle this issue a century ago.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/26/president-obama-citizens-united-imagine-power-will-give-special-interests-over-polit

As pre-announced last month, Hayward’s head is going to be put on the plate for the BP Gulf debacle. If you will pardon the Cold War chuckle, they are sending him HERE in Siberia. Well not quite, the headquarters of TNK-BP was changed to the British Virgin Islands in 2006. However, if he takes the penitent’s job, I see no reason to believe that he will fail to visit the Irtyish River once or twice. TNK-BP announced in January they were aiming to double production. Hayward sounds like just the guy they need. Who needs a river anyway?

BP’s Hayward to Leave as CEO; Russia Job in Works

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11249030

Look at that, China doen’t want to  be left out of the story either!

In counterpoint to our health plans, Japan’s keep producing this:

Japan women’s life expectancy world longest for 25th straight year

Posted : Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:04:50 GMT

By : dpa

Tokyo – Japanese women held the world’s longest life expectancy for the 25th year in row in 2009, with their average life-span hitting a record high of 86.44 years, the government said Monday.

Japanese men’s life expectancy also posted a record high of 79.59 years, but they dropped to fifth in the world from fourth in 2008, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said in a report.

The extension was attributed to improved treatment of major causes of death among Japanese – cancer, strokes, pneumonia and cardiac disorders.

“If an influenza epidemic does not break out, the life expectancy (of Japanese people) is likely to extend further,” a ministry official was quoted by Kyodo News as saying.

In the men’s list, Qatar topped the men’s list at 81.0 years, followed by Hong Kong at 79.8 years, and Iceland and Switzerland at 79.7 years.

As for women, Japan was followed by Hong Kong at 86.1 years, and France at 84.5 years.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/336496,longest-25th-straight-year.html

As adjunct to a recent comment about the lack of alternatives in political parties over at the Confluence last night, this news arrives from the Denver Post.  Just in case you didn’t know, there is frustration among Repubs as well as Dems. Upsetting TeaPartiers, Tom Tancredo has decided to openly declare his right wing intentions by running for the American Constitution Party. Frankly I like this kind of transparency; Tancredo hasn’t changed, he’s just come out of the closet.

Tancredo will run for governor as American Constitution Party candidate

By Karen Crummy, Denver Post Staff Writer

POSTED: 07/26/2010 08:48:17 AM MDT

UPDATED: 07/26/2010 11:49:11 AM MDT

Tom Tancredo (Denver Post | 2008 file)

[Former Congressman Tom Tancredo is in the race for Colorado governor, he said this morning. “I will officially announce at noon that I will seek the nomination of the constitution party,” Tancredo told the Post….]

http://blogs.denverpost.com/thespot/2010/07/26/tancredo-will-run-for-governor-as-american-constitution-party-candidate/12382/

In case you don’ think they are serious, take a look a t the Wiki link and see how many positions they are seeking in the 2010 election. A few can become a voting block pretty quickly.

At the same time, some over at the Black Agenda are advocating ending the sheep stroll for the Democratic party and going Black, Red And Green.

Black American Politics in the 21st Century: Is It Time For A New Plan?

Wed, 07/14/2010 – 09:28 — Bruce A. Dixon

[We all love and respect our ancestor and freedom fighter Frederick Douglass. But in the 21st century, nobody is trying to imitate his haircut or wear his 19th century clothes. So why is 21st century black America still stuck with Frederick Douglass’s political strategy, 140 years later? And how’s that old stuff working out for us, anyway?…]

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/black-american-politics-21st-century-it-time-new-plan

The Green Party has their own list, and want you to support their local candidates.

Keep a repugnant law on the books, just so the very arrogant and powerful can play God. Then, when the international community calls you on the carpet, blame them and the defenders of the victims.

We have our own problems with the death penalty here in the USA, but for this kind of torture even the Humane Society would have your ass in jail and the key thrown away.

Just who gets to throw these stones anyway? You gotta wonder what it does to the throwers as well. It’s government sponsored Milgrams, only with real consequences:

Attorney of Iranian Condemend(sic. Condemned) to Be Stoned Faces Arrest

Edward Yeranian | Cairo

26 July 2010

Iran has reportedly issued an arrest warrant for the attorney of Sakineh Ashtiani, whose stoning sentence has enraged many in the West.  Iranian authorities apparently detained the wife and brother-in-law of attorney Mohammed Mostafaei, when they were unable to locate him

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Attorney-of-Iranian-Condemend-to-Be-Stoned-Faces-Arrest-99249949.html

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New Appointments by the Guvernator

Posted in 51 Percent, Communications, Congress, ERA, Feminism, Feminist Majority, Great American Women, Politics, women, Women's Rights, tagged , , , , , on July 22, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Geena Davis and Alexandra Gleysteen have both been appointed to the State’s “Commission on the Status of Women”, by Governor Schwarzenegger. The appointments are pending CA Senate confirmation.

I’ll just say to whomever is editing Wikipedia for these two, Geena’s page definitely needs revising to better reflect her activities as a woman’s advocate. Alexandra needs inclusion. Better bios were found on the “appointed” link.

They certainly deserve Senate confirmation.

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Have We (They) Learned Yet?

Posted in 51 Percent, Communications, Feminism, Feminist Majority, Humanism, Justice, Politics, women, Women's Rights, tagged , , , , , , on July 21, 2010| Leave a Comment »

It’s always nice when people agree with and say exactly what  you think; especially when they say it so well over at the Confluence:

My $0.02 on Shirley Sherrod

By Wonk the Vote

UTube and all the other media videos deserve the same scrutiny as your local grown fruit.

Ask these questions: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW, and WHY!!! if you can’t answer those questions, you don’t know what you are watching. If you don’t know what you are watching, you can’t make a decision. That sure as heck means you don’t go riling people up and firing them cause, you, Freda, are suffering from information deficit syndrome.

Now, you’d a thunk all those gal’ durned Harvard Grads would know that stuff by now.

Either, they really are a bunch of doofuses, or ?

Try this on:

1) As Wonk alludes, we are a long way from realizing the ageist and misogynist elements of this story. WHO, right now is being asked to take early retirement, or let go in the greatest numbers? Who as a group has earned the highest salary in the last few years, and thus has the greatest impact on the bottom line? If you can’t remove someone because of tenure, what other tactics are used? This is a long running storyline.

2) Liberals, and I am one, should spend a little time pondering a pattern of dispensability of the more liberal political elements and civil rights “Old Guard” on the part of the Obama administration. Van Jones wasn’t the only other example. In case you still don’t get it. Obama is NOT A LIBERAL! He is not on your side. Whatever is wanted must come from you and your actions.

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Pennsylvania, Abortion Rights, and?

Posted in 51 Percent, Communications, ERA, Feminism, Feminist Majority, Health and Food, Health Care, Humanism, Justice, Politics, Women's Rights, tagged , , on July 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

On my travels through FaceBook today, I came across an astounding announcement over at the National ACLU site. It isn’t yet on their webpage. It said:

ACLU Nationwide: BREAKING: Obama shockingly adds abortion coverage ban to new insurance pools for women with pre-existing conditions. More soon.2 hours ago

http://www.facebook.com/aclu.nationwide?v=wall&story_fbid=142916209053423

Looking for any source, I found two.

Earned Media, a rightist site reported:

Administration Reiterates That No Federal Funds Will Be Used for Abortion

“Despite Claims by Republican Groups, High Risk Pools will not pay for Abortion”

http://www.earnedmedia.org/dfloa0715.htm

Then there was NARAL:

Pro-Choice America Speaks Out!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 15, 2010

Statement on Obama Administration Policy Excluding Abortion Coverage from High-Risk Pools

[Washington, D.C. – Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called the Obama administration’s decision today to exclude abortion coverage from newly created high-risk pools wrongheaded and inexplicable….]

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/news/press-releases/2010/0707152010_obamaexcludeabortionhcr.html

Bemusedly, I looked for any announcements from the White House, but there was only one up to the time of this blog, an Executive Order on March 24th.

Now I don’t know about you, but I thought it was pretty clear from the Order in March, even if you didn’t grasp all of the nuances of the , so recently in our memory, that existing conditions for women were never part of the final deal. That’s just one more reason the Act was so heinous for women. In March, over at the Confluence, people were having this kind of discussion about it.

RH Reality check had the best discussion of today’s debate HERE.

So, what is with these groups? Are they really so slow on the uptake? Or is something else going on? If Nancy (I don’t believe in abortion, but I run NARAL and spent big bucks to get Obama elected and drop kick Clinton) is screaming, it must be about something else? Koolaid withdrawals? The start of a new battle?

Hey what do I know, I’m just one of those low information working class voters, with dial-up. Someone out there in blog land, enlighten me.

No enlightenment thus far. Maybe it’s as mundane as basic “Velveteen Rabbit” legaleze. It’s not real until you rub it’s fur off and pull its eyes out, and the PA kurfluffle is a first test. If that’s the case why not present it like that instead of pretending it’s some new horribleness?

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Is Your WP Blog Overrun by Google?

Posted in Communications, Election, election reform, Feminism, I Own My Vote, Justice, Politics, tagged , , , , on July 11, 2010| 6 Comments »

Update – Hubby was kind enough to print up a few examples of what is going on. See one below. When he put them to pdf, the second column normally on the right of my screen slid down to a separate page, so it looks a little different. However these were taken today July 12th, and so are still on my website. When the viewing with the right hand column in place, the text of my blog is a little smaller and ads are even larger. Google  appears to be placing ads on the basis of  some kind of text tagging.  Thus baby formula was inserted on a blog about kittens, that was intended to be a counterpoint to death in the Gulf.  A shoe ad was attached to the recent Oakland disturbance after the conviction where shoes were stolen. Imagine if I blog about a few politicians what might happen!!

Update – Perhaps many of you already know about these ads, but I have been on WP since 2008 and never saw one of these ads before. Find a comment HERE from Matt, clear back in 2006, discussing the ads and how we won’t see them. It’s anyone’s guess what our sites have supported. At the very least, should we decide to forgo the ad blocks, we ought to be able to see what they are. Matt says in his blog that they got very little feedback when they began the ads. How can we provide feedback to WP if we can’t see the ads?

Update – Bobbie informs me that the cost to keep the ads off my blog is $29.95 a year, not a month.

Update -I just logged out and still did not see the ads on MY computer, so I am pretty peeved right now.

Today I happened to be look at my blog site in my husband’s computer. I was stunned to see Google ads at the bottom my page. I had no idea my puny blog was worthy of that kind of consideration.

I immediately went in search of answers and found this one (Let me know if this link drops. I have a pdf.) from Bobbie Newman.

Bobbie thought that being signed out of  WP makes the Google ad visible. Since Hubby doesn’t have a WordPress account, he isn’t signed in, so this might be true. However, I have been signed out before and failed to notice the ads, so I don’t know for sure if this is the case. I wonder though, how many of us WP bloggers have them and don’t even see each others, because we have a WP account.

I OBJECT to these ads, because:

1) To turn them off requires that we pay WP $29.95 a month.

2) I have no control over the ads that display on my page.

3) I am unable to see them from my computer.

4) The formating is terrible and is bigger than almost anything else on my page.

Honestly, I would have considered the $30 bucks a month, but I don’t like the way this has been handled, so now instead, I will have to consider whether I will continue a blog here. The political ads are coming. I have already seen a Google ad denigrating Barbara Boxer on a web site I would not expect. I hated the way Sodahead and Newsmax banner ads were utilized during the election. It appears Google (And WordPress.) will do the same.

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Nader Org. Summer Reading

Posted in Communications, Environment, Feminism, Finance, Humanism, Justice, Nature, Politics, War, tagged , on July 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Ralph Nader’s blog site has put up a a summer reading list. In best Nader fashion, they appear to be books that will inform you and add to to your personal defense arsenal of knowledge and citizenship. I’m putting them on my list;

The 2010 Summer Reading List

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Save Sakineh!

Posted in 51 Percent, Feminism, Feminist Majority, Humanism, Justice, Politics, PUMA PAC, Women's Rights, tagged , , , on July 10, 2010| 1 Comment »

Sign the Petition HERE.

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Recent Blog Thoughts on HIV/AIDs

Posted in Feminism, Health Care, Human Rights, LGBT, Politics, tagged , on July 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Carl has a recent good blog reminding us to keep up funding for HIVAIDS in the US. A snippet in an interview with Duane Wilkerson, Executive Director of the Pierce County AIDS Foundation, in Washington State, sums up the concern:

[In the U.S. we can keep the issue of HIV infection in the forefront of public health concerns. In a country which has no attention span to speak of, too many people assume it is no longer a problem. This despite the fact that 56,000 new infections are still occurring in this country each year.]

Read his blog HERE.

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Julia Gillard – Australia’s new PM is a Sheila!

Posted in 51 Percent, Election, Feminism, Politics, women, tagged , , on June 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Another first – not from the United States. Julia Gillard was voted in as the first woman  Prime Minister of Australia today. She stood unopposed after Kevin Rudd was dumped.

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Smashing

Posted in 51 Percent, Disaster, Feminism, Justice, Nature, Politics on June 14, 2010| 4 Comments »

We had a simply smashing day last week – one that I am still trying to digest. It started late, around 11:00 PM, when I, while half asleep at the blinking TV set, startled to the sound of grinding, tearing, screeching metal, and the rain of broken glass outside my front door. Then came the hurried cacophony of panicked voices.

I raced to open my door just in time to see the backside of some man sprinting off down the street, while a woman coolly opened the trunk of a car, and took out a backpack. As I yelled for them to stay there, she loped off after the first man.  A second man was at the driver’s side of the same car.

Several things happened pretty rapidly.  I woke my husband, and told him to grab his camera.  I called the police and three squad cars arrived, the first, while I was on the phone. Shortly after that a fire truck and ambulance arrived. Amazingly, though he was probably not the driver, the second man did stay at the scene, eventually to be handcuffed, then sent in the ambulance for observation, and though not his, did provide insurance to the police.  Considering the vehicular carnage that had been committed, it was even more amazing that no one was hurt.

We live in the middle of a suburban block. Yet somehow, after turning onto our street, the driver had managed to, in the distance of approximately 75 feet, gather enough acceleration to:

submarine his car into and under my husband’s company owned, parked, half ton Chevy truck and demolish his 1995 Acura Integra right up to the windshield;

break his windshield, as no airbags deployed;

destroy the bumper, one panel on the bed, one taillight, at least one shock and attachment of the truck, push the truck bed into the cab and possibly tweak the chassis, (we will know more after it gets towed to the garage for an estimate.)

push the aforementioned truck into our parked 1998 Eagle Talon, thereby destroying the truck’s front bumper, grill and a headlight;

decimate the back end and side panel of our Talon;

push the front end of the Talon into our parked Tioga RV smashing the Talon bumper;

push the RV trailer hitch through the same bumper of the Talon (we haven’t pulled them apart yet, so we don’t know what horrors might be inside.), and;

dent the RV bumper, (possibly tweaking the hitch and attachment.)

In sum, one drunk totaled two and possibly three vehicles, including his/her own and damaged another.  Based on the skid marks we saw the next day, it appeared as though the driver had actually aimed for and hit the curb, just before hitting the truck. Absent the parked vehicles, the driver would have hit a 50-year-old street tree, with probable worse personal consequences.

It turns out that the Acura did have valid insurance. So, now we are working our way through three different insurance companies, claims, assessments, and soon, estimates. Probably the Talon is totaled. Though we had kept it maintained and just put in a new timing belt and installed new tires, it is a twelve-year-old car. The 2007 company truck might be totaled, depending on whether they find chassis damage.

It looks as though the RV might be my errand vehicle for a while- not the greenest, or most gas efficient way to grocery shop. My husband found that all the fleet vehicles but his were insured for rental car coverage. It took some argument to get his company to give him another fleet vehicle. Since a fleet car is promised as part of his benefit, he wasn’t about to rent a car on his own.

I find myself bemused over my response to this turn of events.  I am sad, but removed over the loss of the Talon. It was a nice vintage car with relatively low mileage, and I was thinking of giving it to my granddaughter for her graduation next year. The policewoman at the scene commented over how calm my husband and I were.  I too think I ought to be angry, especially in light of the alcohol involved, and yet I find I am not.

Instead, I am grateful that the police came, that there was insurance, that no one was hurt. I am also grateful that California mandates valid insurance as part of their vehicle registration process. I think the State’s mandate increased the likelihood that this accident would be insured, even if it turns out not to cover everything.

A smash up like this is a financial injury. An accident like this steals time in coordination and calls, etc. I suspect something is wrong when I treat this accident just another event in the day, and when I am grateful that some things, like insurance processes, appear to be working, rather than expecting that they will. It’s a blasé response, an implied personal acceptance of less.

Our little trouble is a grain of sand compared to the death and destruction happening in the Gulf right now. I am daily easily enraged and saddened by floating acres of poison in the water.  I wonder though, if in becoming desensitized to those little troubles, I don’t participate in a different lowering of the bar.  Maybe I ought to actually do something, like get all my neighbors, who came out to see the mangled metal that night, involved in petitioning for a road bump. Or two.

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