March 9, 2014
Bookshelf:Molly Ivins
MOLLY IVINS: Letters to The Nation, a collection of articles byTexas journalist and gadfly who graced the pages of the Nation for twenty-five years, is available in paperback and in digital format for tablets, smartphones and computers. Writing in her native "Texlish," Ivins planted herself squarely in the tradition of American vernacular humor, which includes such writers as Mark Twain, Will Rogers and Ring Lardner.
Major league soccer to use scab refs
Portside - The Professional Soccer Referees Association, otherwise known as the refs union, has been attempting to negotiate their first collective bargaining agreement in league history. The amount of money that separated the two parties is not vast, estimated between $440,000 and $1 million for the lifetime of the deal. The main financial issue was that in recent years, MLS mandated far more trainings for referees to improve the quality of officiating. The refs, however, were not compensated for the extra hours.
The greater issue, however, was political. It was the fact that the refs union refused to sign a no-strike pledge. As the MLS league negotiator Peter Walton said, "Since they will not give us a guarantee they will not go on strike immediately prior to our match we are left in a position where we must use replacement officials."
The response to the refs shockingly ungentlemanly refusal to sign a no-strike pledge, has been to lock them out...As for the refs, they have decried the lockout as a "scorched-earth" tactic and vowed to press on. They point out that the lockout comes after the union had already filed unfair labor practice and labor intimidation complains with the National Labor Relations Board.
The greater issue, however, was political. It was the fact that the refs union refused to sign a no-strike pledge. As the MLS league negotiator Peter Walton said, "Since they will not give us a guarantee they will not go on strike immediately prior to our match we are left in a position where we must use replacement officials."
The response to the refs shockingly ungentlemanly refusal to sign a no-strike pledge, has been to lock them out...As for the refs, they have decried the lockout as a "scorched-earth" tactic and vowed to press on. They point out that the lockout comes after the union had already filed unfair labor practice and labor intimidation complains with the National Labor Relations Board.
Pocket paradigms
Why do so many of the people who talk about
"intellectual property" seem not all that bright? On precisely what date
and under what circumstances did an advertising jingle for a new type
of tampon become intellectual property? - Sam Smith
Word
Everything has been said but not everyone has said it yet -- Rep. Morris Udall, 1988 Democratic convention
Chief of law breaking NSA wants to criminalize journalists for doing their job
Popular Resistance - National Security Agency head Gen. Keith Alexander told a cybersecurity panel that the “media leaks legislation” he proposed to prevent journalists from reporting on government surveillance programs like those leaked by Edward Snowden could be here within weeks.
“We’ve got to handle media leaks first,” Alexander said in a Guardian report. “I think we are going to make headway over the next few weeks on media leaks.”
The general expressed his support for similar actions taken by the United Kingdom last summer when the British government detained Guardian Journalist Glenn Greenwald’s partner David Miranda for nine hours at London’s Heathrow airport on terrorism charges for carrying classified data about UK surveillance programs leaked by Snowden.
Last month, a panel of UK judges defended the British government’s decision, despite acknowledging Miranda had no involvement in terrorism.
“They looked at what happened on Miranda and other things, and they said it’s interesting: journalists have no standing when it comes to national security issues,” Alexander told the panel audience at Georgetown University. “They don’t know how to weigh the fact of what they’re giving out and saying, is it in the nation’s interest to divulge this.”
What the test tyrants leave out of education
Scientific Blogging - Classroom programs designed to improve elementary school students' social and emotional skills can also increase reading and math achievement, even if academic improvement is not a direct goal of the skills building, according to a study to be published this month in. The benefit holds true for students across a range of socio-economic backgrounds.
Maine Greens stirring things up
Opposition News - In Maine, the state’s Green Party affiliate is the Green Independent Party. And the statewide group has blazed a trail of political success that other Green Party chapters are emulating. The most note-worthy recent victory was Portland, Maine’s voter referendum that legalized recreational use of marijuana within the borders of the state’s largest city. The vote won in the November General Election by a vote of 67-33 percent.
It isn’t only marijuana reform that voters, the Greens and the state of Maine will have to decide on in the coming months and years. One recent local party report mentions a few of the hotly-contested issues and proposals facing the state and its largest city writing, ‘Nestle wants to privatize our water. We need an oil pipeline. A bunch of ugly high rises in Bayside will revive Portland. We should turn Washington County into a tax free zone. And so forth.’
Good news from CPAC
@NicholsUprising: Poll of #CPAC participants finds three-quarters disapprove of NSA monitoring phone calls & scanning emails of Americans. Only 19% approve.
@NicholsUprising: Pot Poll numbers from #CPAC: 41% say marijuana should be legalized. Another 21% percent favor medical marijuana. Just 31% favor prohibition.
@NicholsUprising: Pot Poll numbers from #CPAC: 41% say marijuana should be legalized. Another 21% percent favor medical marijuana. Just 31% favor prohibition.
March 8, 2014
Furthermore. . .
Joel McHale and Jam Rash's version of "True Detective"
Great thoughts of GOP presidential candidates
These are the things that I know. I know there is a God, and I know this nation would not exist had he not been the midwife of its birth. And I know that this nation exists by the providence of his hand, and if this nation forgets our God, then God will have every right to forget us,...I hope that we repent before we ever have to receive his fiery judgment." - Mike Huckabee
Meanwhile
Big media echoes the right's "Obama's weak" line
Washington lobbyists lining up behind Hillary Clinton
States supporting marijuana legalization
Infrequently asked questions
To TV networks: Name the progressive conferences that you have covered as intensely as you have CPAC's
Getting through the winter
 |
Catchy catchy catchy bing bong |
These are the things that I know. I know there is a God, and I know this nation would not exist had he not been the midwife of its birth. And I know that this nation exists by the providence of his hand, and if this nation forgets our God, then God will have every right to forget us,...I hope that we repent before we ever have to receive his fiery judgment." - Mike Huckabee
Meanwhile
Big media echoes the right's "Obama's weak" line
Washington lobbyists lining up behind Hillary Clinton
States supporting marijuana legalization
Infrequently asked questions
To TV networks: Name the progressive conferences that you have covered as intensely as you have CPAC's
Getting through the winter
 | |
Billy Taylor plays and talks about jazz |
Repo industry invading your privacy
Beta Boston - Few notice the “spotter car” from Manny Sousa’s repo company as it scours Massachusetts parking lots, looking for vehicles whose owners have defaulted on their loans. Sousa’s unmarked car is part of a technological revolution that goes well beyond the repossession business, transforming any industry that wants to check on the whereabouts of ordinary people.
An automated reader attached to the spotter car takes a picture of every license plate it passes and sends it to a company in Texas that already has more than 1.8 billion plate scans from vehicles across the country.
These scans mean big money for Sousa — typically $200 to $400 every time the spotter finds a vehicle that’s stolen or in default — so he runs his spotter around the clock, typically adding 8,000 plate scans to the database in Texas each day.
“Honestly, we’ve found random apartment complexes and shopping plazas that are sweet spots” where the company can impound multiple vehicles, explains Sousa, the president of New England Associates Inc. in Bridgewater.
But the most significant impact of Sousa’s business is far bigger than locating cars whose owners have defaulted on loans: It is the growing database of snapshots showing where Americans were at specific times, information that everyone from private detectives to insurers are willing to pay for.
An automated reader attached to the spotter car takes a picture of every license plate it passes and sends it to a company in Texas that already has more than 1.8 billion plate scans from vehicles across the country.
These scans mean big money for Sousa — typically $200 to $400 every time the spotter finds a vehicle that’s stolen or in default — so he runs his spotter around the clock, typically adding 8,000 plate scans to the database in Texas each day.
“Honestly, we’ve found random apartment complexes and shopping plazas that are sweet spots” where the company can impound multiple vehicles, explains Sousa, the president of New England Associates Inc. in Bridgewater.
But the most significant impact of Sousa’s business is far bigger than locating cars whose owners have defaulted on loans: It is the growing database of snapshots showing where Americans were at specific times, information that everyone from private detectives to insurers are willing to pay for.
Pentagon wants to keep huge war, despite lack of wars
Imagine if this $80 billion was used for domestic public works. . .
Legit Gov - Pentagon wants to keep war chest despite Afghan 'exit' 05 Mar 2014 The Pentagon wants to keep its US$80 billion war chest even though most or all US troops are to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of this year, officials said on Tuesday. "Overseas contingency operations" [aka billions for 'Blackwater'] funds are separate from the main Pentagon budget and have financed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and counter-terrorism efforts elsewhere for more than a decade. The Defence Department's proposed budget, released on Tuesday as part of the White House's annual spending plan, calls for US$79.4 billion in war funding for fiscal year 2015. That represents only a small cut in the overseas operations fund accorded US$85.2 billion this year's main budget.
Legit Gov - Pentagon wants to keep war chest despite Afghan 'exit' 05 Mar 2014 The Pentagon wants to keep its US$80 billion war chest even though most or all US troops are to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of this year, officials said on Tuesday. "Overseas contingency operations" [aka billions for 'Blackwater'] funds are separate from the main Pentagon budget and have financed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and counter-terrorism efforts elsewhere for more than a decade. The Defence Department's proposed budget, released on Tuesday as part of the White House's annual spending plan, calls for US$79.4 billion in war funding for fiscal year 2015. That represents only a small cut in the overseas operations fund accorded US$85.2 billion this year's main budget.
Canada has good results from new community courts
The Province, CA - Canada’s first court to link repeat offenders to social programs such as health and housing has met its goal of cutting crime, says an evaluation into the pilot project in Vancouver.
The document released by the Justice Ministry Wednesday says the Downtown Community Court, which was created in 2008, has led to a greater drop in recidivism compared with a traditional court that doesn’t connect offenders to services in the community.
The community court in the city’s impoverished Downtown Eastside saw an average drop of 2.3 offences per person, compared with 1.35 offences per person in the provincial court, the report said.
The main idea behind establishing the community court in Vancouver was to help offenders break from the cycle of crime, homelessness, and mental-health and addictions issues prevalent in the Downtown Eastside.
Former B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal, who was in office when the community court opened, said he was encouraged to see its progress.
“When you look at chronic offenders, 50 per cent at least are suffering from some kind of mental illness,” he said Wednesday. “Others are either homeless or addicted to drugs and alcohol, so the idea was to try and rehabilitate people so they don’t become chronic offenders or repeat offenders.”
The document released by the Justice Ministry Wednesday says the Downtown Community Court, which was created in 2008, has led to a greater drop in recidivism compared with a traditional court that doesn’t connect offenders to services in the community.
The community court in the city’s impoverished Downtown Eastside saw an average drop of 2.3 offences per person, compared with 1.35 offences per person in the provincial court, the report said.
The main idea behind establishing the community court in Vancouver was to help offenders break from the cycle of crime, homelessness, and mental-health and addictions issues prevalent in the Downtown Eastside.
Former B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal, who was in office when the community court opened, said he was encouraged to see its progress.
“When you look at chronic offenders, 50 per cent at least are suffering from some kind of mental illness,” he said Wednesday. “Others are either homeless or addicted to drugs and alcohol, so the idea was to try and rehabilitate people so they don’t become chronic offenders or repeat offenders.”
Oakland classrooms try healing rather than punishment
Truthout - Nelson Mandela’s adage, “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends” captures the profoundly inclusive nature of restorative justice. The hallmark of RJ is intentionally bringing together people with seemingly diametrically opposed viewpoints—particularly people who have harmed with people who have been harmed—in a carefully prepared face-to-face encounter where everyone listens and speaks with respect and from the heart no matter their differences. The talking piece is a powerful equalizer, allowing everyone’s voice to be heard and honored, whether that of a police officer, a judge, or a 14-year-old youth...
Use of suspensions has almost doubled since the 1970’s. Black students are disproportionately impacted. According to data from the U.S. Office of Civil Rights, black students are three times more likely to be suspended than their white counterparts for comparable offenses.
Overreliance on exclusionary school discipline that disproportionately impacts African American youth led the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education recently to announce the launch of a national initiative to help schools and districts meet their legal obligation to administer discipline without unlawfully discriminating....
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control, a student’s sense of belonging to a high school community is a top protective factor against violence and incarceration. In addition to convening restorative justice circles [Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth] also uses circles proactively to deepen relationships and create a school culture of connectivity, thereby reducing the likelihood that harm will occur.
A UC Berkeley Law study found RJOY’s 2007 middle school pilot eliminated violence and expulsions, while reducing school suspension rates by 87 percent. After two years of training and participation in RJ practices, whenever conflict arose, RJOY middle school students knew how to respond by coming to the RJ room to ask for a talking piece and space to facilitate a circle. Today, at one of the RJOY school sites, student suspensions decreased 74 percent after two years and referrals for violence fell 77 percent after one year. Racial disparity in discipline was eliminated. Graduation rates and test scores increased.
MORE
Use of suspensions has almost doubled since the 1970’s. Black students are disproportionately impacted. According to data from the U.S. Office of Civil Rights, black students are three times more likely to be suspended than their white counterparts for comparable offenses.
Overreliance on exclusionary school discipline that disproportionately impacts African American youth led the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education recently to announce the launch of a national initiative to help schools and districts meet their legal obligation to administer discipline without unlawfully discriminating....
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control, a student’s sense of belonging to a high school community is a top protective factor against violence and incarceration. In addition to convening restorative justice circles [Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth] also uses circles proactively to deepen relationships and create a school culture of connectivity, thereby reducing the likelihood that harm will occur.
A UC Berkeley Law study found RJOY’s 2007 middle school pilot eliminated violence and expulsions, while reducing school suspension rates by 87 percent. After two years of training and participation in RJ practices, whenever conflict arose, RJOY middle school students knew how to respond by coming to the RJ room to ask for a talking piece and space to facilitate a circle. Today, at one of the RJOY school sites, student suspensions decreased 74 percent after two years and referrals for violence fell 77 percent after one year. Racial disparity in discipline was eliminated. Graduation rates and test scores increased.
MORE
PBS News Hour has been financed by rightwingers
David Sirota, Pando - Most Americans likely assume that the NewsHour (which, after all, is made with support from viewers like you) is actually owned and produced by PBS. It is an understandable assumption considering PBS’s own president declared that the NewsHour “is ours, and ours alone,” and further considering that the program receives millions of public dollars every year.
However, since 1994, the NewsHour has been produced and primarily owned by the for-profit colossus, Liberty Media. Liberty, which is run by conservative billionaire John Malone, owns the majority stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions – the entity that produces the journalistic content of the show. While other standalone public television projects are often produced by small independent production companies, the NewsHour stands out for being owned by a major for-profit media conglomerate headed by a politically active billionaire.
But now that ownership is about to change. According to an internal memo sent to staff by NewsHour’s founders and minority owners Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer, ownership of NewsHour will soon be transferred from Liberty Media to Washington, D.C.’s PBS member station, WETA.
For one thing, why is the for-profit Liberty Media agreeing to transfer ownership of a privately owned, $28-million-a-year asset to a PBS member station? Is it an altruistic move on the part of John Malone or might there possibly be some financial or tax benefit to Liberty? Also, during Liberty’s ownership of NewsHour, exactly how much money from “viewers like us” (and taxpayers like us) went from PBS to NewsHour and into the coffers of Liberty? And how much control did Liberty have over NewsHour’s journalistic output?
MORE
However, since 1994, the NewsHour has been produced and primarily owned by the for-profit colossus, Liberty Media. Liberty, which is run by conservative billionaire John Malone, owns the majority stake in MacNeil/Lehrer Productions – the entity that produces the journalistic content of the show. While other standalone public television projects are often produced by small independent production companies, the NewsHour stands out for being owned by a major for-profit media conglomerate headed by a politically active billionaire.
But now that ownership is about to change. According to an internal memo sent to staff by NewsHour’s founders and minority owners Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer, ownership of NewsHour will soon be transferred from Liberty Media to Washington, D.C.’s PBS member station, WETA.
We have concluded that the time has come to find a new, long-term home for The NewsHour. The current operation has worked beautifully because our long-time partnership with Liberty Media has been as perfect as any such relationship could be. When Liberty acquired its majority interest in MLP 18 years ago it was done with the agreement that editorial control and management would always rest with us–Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer, individually. Liberty has honored that arrangement in such a way that has made it possible for us to have the independence we all have enjoyed all these years.Despite the chummy nature of the letter, and the apparent generosity underlying the deal – Liberty is handing the NewsHour to PBS! – the deal raises a huge number of questions.
For one thing, why is the for-profit Liberty Media agreeing to transfer ownership of a privately owned, $28-million-a-year asset to a PBS member station? Is it an altruistic move on the part of John Malone or might there possibly be some financial or tax benefit to Liberty? Also, during Liberty’s ownership of NewsHour, exactly how much money from “viewers like us” (and taxpayers like us) went from PBS to NewsHour and into the coffers of Liberty? And how much control did Liberty have over NewsHour’s journalistic output?
MORE
ACLU takes on NSA's illegal spying on American citizens
Guardian - A federal appeals court should outlaw the National Security Agency’s collection of millions of Americans’ telephone records, concentrating searches instead on terror suspects, civil liberties lawyers said in papers filed seeking a reversal of a lower-court judge who ruled the program was legal and necessary to fight terrorism.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the New York Civil Liberties Union submitted papers to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan late Thursday, saying it is wrong that the NSA for more than a decade has kept a record of all phone calls made or received on major US telephone networks.
“Courts have insisted that the government’s intrusions on privacy be precise and discriminate,” the lawyers said. “The phone-records program is anything but. To pursue its limited goal of tracking the associations of a discrete number of suspected terrorists, the government has employed the most indiscriminate means possible – collecting everyone’s records.”
They said the First and Fourth Amendments were violated by a program that initiated widespread collection of phone records of Americans after the 11 September 2001, terrorist attacks, risking the discovery of telephonic associations Americans have in their family, political, professional, religious and intimate relationships.
The lawyers asked the appeals court to reverse a December ruling by US district judge William H Pauley III finding that the phone surveillance program was legal and a necessary tool for the government to stop terrorism.
“This blunt tool only works because it collects everything,” Pauley said. “The collection is broad, but the scope of counterterrorism investigations is unprecedented.”
US District Judge Richard Leon in Washington DC, had previously ruled that the program likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on unreasonable search. The judge has since stayed the effect of his ruling, pending a government appeal.
The issue may ultimately be decided by the supreme court.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the New York Civil Liberties Union submitted papers to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan late Thursday, saying it is wrong that the NSA for more than a decade has kept a record of all phone calls made or received on major US telephone networks.
“Courts have insisted that the government’s intrusions on privacy be precise and discriminate,” the lawyers said. “The phone-records program is anything but. To pursue its limited goal of tracking the associations of a discrete number of suspected terrorists, the government has employed the most indiscriminate means possible – collecting everyone’s records.”
They said the First and Fourth Amendments were violated by a program that initiated widespread collection of phone records of Americans after the 11 September 2001, terrorist attacks, risking the discovery of telephonic associations Americans have in their family, political, professional, religious and intimate relationships.
The lawyers asked the appeals court to reverse a December ruling by US district judge William H Pauley III finding that the phone surveillance program was legal and a necessary tool for the government to stop terrorism.
“This blunt tool only works because it collects everything,” Pauley said. “The collection is broad, but the scope of counterterrorism investigations is unprecedented.”
US District Judge Richard Leon in Washington DC, had previously ruled that the program likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on unreasonable search. The judge has since stayed the effect of his ruling, pending a government appeal.
The issue may ultimately be decided by the supreme court.
Bill would upgrade urban farming in DC
New proposed DC council legislation provides that the the mayor shall identify at least 25
District owned vacant lots that can be potentially be used for urban
farming ventures, and that they would be a minimum of 2,500 square feet.
Applicants (must be a D.C. resident with at least some farming
experience) who are approved to farm the land will then be exempt from
real property taxation or possessory taxation on the land leased.
Another part of the bill creates a tax credit for urban farmers who
donate to a D.C. Food Bank or Shelter.
Text of legislation
Text of legislation
March 7, 2014
Latino media market a tough one to tap
Alan Gomez, USA Today - American firms trying to tap into the fast-growing Hispanic market, particularly those in the news business, are receiving a very clear message: Good luck.
The lights are going out at CNN Latino, a year-old experiment by the news network to reach America's 53 million Hispanics with Spanish-language programming. That comes three months after the shutdown of NBCLatino.com, an English-language attempt that targeted the same demographic.
The closures do not indicate any slowdown in the growth of the Hispanic population - it remains the fastest-growing demographic in the U.S. and is expected to increase from 17% of the population to 26% by 2050, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
The trouble is, the Hispanic population is so varied and its interests so diverse that it's difficult to cater to it. That's especially true when it comes to crafting news coverage, with outlets not even sure which language to use.
It doesn't take long for the Hispanic population to adopt English. Only 18% of first-generation Hispanic immigrants speak English very well, but 93% of their American-born children do, according to "Latinos in the New Millennium: An Almanac of Opinion, Behavior and Policy Preference." That means many Hispanics looking for news on U.S. politics or events across the country can easily tune in to established English-language news outlets.
Most Hispanics hold onto their Spanish, though, so if they want to catch up on the protests in Venezuela, the capture of a drug cartel leader in Mexico or economic turmoil in Argentina, they can go straight to established Spanish-language networks like Univision or Telemundo.
And they're savvy enough to find more personal accounts of news events through social media. In fact, Hispanics are the most active group of Americans on Facebook, Twitter and the like, with 80% using social media compared with 75% of African Americans and 70% of white Americans.
Officials at Fusion, a joint venture between ABC and Univision that debuted last year, learned that complicated lesson before they went on air. Fusion CEO Isaac Lee said the team spoke with thousands of young Hispanics and learned that they weren't interested in programming that would appeal only to them.
The lights are going out at CNN Latino, a year-old experiment by the news network to reach America's 53 million Hispanics with Spanish-language programming. That comes three months after the shutdown of NBCLatino.com, an English-language attempt that targeted the same demographic.
The closures do not indicate any slowdown in the growth of the Hispanic population - it remains the fastest-growing demographic in the U.S. and is expected to increase from 17% of the population to 26% by 2050, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
The trouble is, the Hispanic population is so varied and its interests so diverse that it's difficult to cater to it. That's especially true when it comes to crafting news coverage, with outlets not even sure which language to use.
It doesn't take long for the Hispanic population to adopt English. Only 18% of first-generation Hispanic immigrants speak English very well, but 93% of their American-born children do, according to "Latinos in the New Millennium: An Almanac of Opinion, Behavior and Policy Preference." That means many Hispanics looking for news on U.S. politics or events across the country can easily tune in to established English-language news outlets.
Most Hispanics hold onto their Spanish, though, so if they want to catch up on the protests in Venezuela, the capture of a drug cartel leader in Mexico or economic turmoil in Argentina, they can go straight to established Spanish-language networks like Univision or Telemundo.
And they're savvy enough to find more personal accounts of news events through social media. In fact, Hispanics are the most active group of Americans on Facebook, Twitter and the like, with 80% using social media compared with 75% of African Americans and 70% of white Americans.
Officials at Fusion, a joint venture between ABC and Univision that debuted last year, learned that complicated lesson before they went on air. Fusion CEO Isaac Lee said the team spoke with thousands of young Hispanics and learned that they weren't interested in programming that would appeal only to them.
Pocket paradigms
The humanities like to ask questions without providing answers while politics tends to provide answers without asking questions.
So what's a humanities? I can't really give you one answer. But I can give you several. It's asking why before we say yes. It's remembering something someone wrote two centuries ago when we can't remember what we wrote yesterday. It's mistakes we don't have to make because they've already been made and solutions we don't have to dream up because someone has already thought of them. It's how we got where we are and where we might go from here. It's things we can't measure yet know have depth and breadth. It's parts of our culture we might lose like the Indian tribe writing its language down and putting it in a book. It's parts of our culture that we're often slow to recognize as such, like the legislature in Georgia finally making "Georgia on My Mind" the state song and inviting Ray Charles to come down and sing it. It's the moral, philosophical, and historical issues hidden behind the political babble. It's rights and beliefs and their protection. It's preserving the past and the future as well as exploiting today. It's thinking as well as talking, questioning as well as answering. And it's placing human values and culture at the center of our world and making machines and technology and Channel Seven serve us rather than the other way around. - Sam Smith
So what's a humanities? I can't really give you one answer. But I can give you several. It's asking why before we say yes. It's remembering something someone wrote two centuries ago when we can't remember what we wrote yesterday. It's mistakes we don't have to make because they've already been made and solutions we don't have to dream up because someone has already thought of them. It's how we got where we are and where we might go from here. It's things we can't measure yet know have depth and breadth. It's parts of our culture we might lose like the Indian tribe writing its language down and putting it in a book. It's parts of our culture that we're often slow to recognize as such, like the legislature in Georgia finally making "Georgia on My Mind" the state song and inviting Ray Charles to come down and sing it. It's the moral, philosophical, and historical issues hidden behind the political babble. It's rights and beliefs and their protection. It's preserving the past and the future as well as exploiting today. It's thinking as well as talking, questioning as well as answering. And it's placing human values and culture at the center of our world and making machines and technology and Channel Seven serve us rather than the other way around. - Sam Smith
Word
The illegal we can do right now; the unconstitutional will take a little longer -- Henry Kissinger
You hear about 'constitutional rights,' 'free speech,' and the 'free press.' Every time I hear these words I say to myself, 'That man is a Red....' You never hear a real American talk like that. - Frank Hague, Mayor of Jersey City 1917-47
You hear about 'constitutional rights,' 'free speech,' and the 'free press.' Every time I hear these words I say to myself, 'That man is a Red....' You never hear a real American talk like that. - Frank Hague, Mayor of Jersey City 1917-47
15 Vermonth towns vote for a state bank
On the first Tuesday of March, communities across Vermont hold town
meetings at which they elect local officials, approve the coming
year's budget and vote on measures announced in advance.
This week, 19 Vermont cities and towns voted on a measure calling for the Vermont Economic Development Authority, a statewide finance lender created in 1974, to be turned into a public bank. Fifteen approved the notion.
In January, state Sen. Anthony Pollina (D) and five other progressive state lawmakers had introduced legislation to advance the proposal. Senate Bill 204 would direct the state government to deposit 10 percent of its unrestricted funds in a public VEDA bank, which could then leverage the money in the same manner as private banks do.
This week, 19 Vermont cities and towns voted on a measure calling for the Vermont Economic Development Authority, a statewide finance lender created in 1974, to be turned into a public bank. Fifteen approved the notion.
In January, state Sen. Anthony Pollina (D) and five other progressive state lawmakers had introduced legislation to advance the proposal. Senate Bill 204 would direct the state government to deposit 10 percent of its unrestricted funds in a public VEDA bank, which could then leverage the money in the same manner as private banks do.
McDonald's admits worker action is having an effect
Common Dreams - Growing calls to address inequality and the nationwide strikes demanding fast food giants pay a living wage have not escaped the notice of the McDonald's corporation.
In its annual filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the fast food giant stated that among the risks it faces are labor organizing campaigns, including online ones, that could "promote adverse perceptions of ... our brand."
The filing states that fallout from boycotts, protests and labor strikes "can adversely affect us."
The historic strikes, which began in New York City in November of 2012 and targeted McDonald's among other chains, grew and continued to gain support in other cities across the country, rallying behind the cry that "low pay is not OK."
In the latest multi-city strike in December, protest organizers wrote: "We work for corporations that are making tremendous profits, but do not pay employees enough to support our families and to cover basic needs like food, health care, rent and transportation."
Growing attention to wage inequality could bring scrutiny to its low wages, and it could be forced to raise its wages, McDonald's added in its filing statement. It lists as another risk factor:
The impact on our margins of labor costs that we cannot offset through price increases, and the long-term trend toward higher wages and social expenses in both mature and developing markets, which may intensify with increasing public focus on matters of income inequality.
March 6, 2014
Minimum wage boost would cut fooid stamp costs by $4.6 billion
Wall Street Journal - Raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would cut federal government outlays on food stamps by $4.6 billion per year, according to a study. The estimate published by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank ... backs supporters who say the policy change would benefit not just low-wage workers, but also taxpayers by reducing government expenditures. The group’s analysis found that increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 from the current $7.25 rate would lower total food-stamp aid by $4.6 billion, or 6% of the program’s budget.
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