Open Thread

New America Media, Commentary, Domenico Maceri, Posted: Sep 04, 2007

Editor’s Note: The father of U.S. Private Armando Soriano, 20, who died in Iraq is facing deportation. Many parents of U.S. soldiers who are fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are facing the same fate. Domenico Maceri, Ph.D, teaches foreign languages at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, Calif. His articles have appeared in many newspapers and some have won awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications.

Three years after U.S. Army Private Armando Soriano, 20, died fighting in Haditha, Iraq, his father is facing deportation. Soriano is now buried in Houston, Tex., his hometown, where his parents, undocumented workers from Mexico, are currently living.

Before his death Soriano had promised his parents he’d help them get green cards. He only succeeded partially before losing his life. Although his mother was able to obtain a green card, his father did not qualify and is on the verge of being deported.

Enrique Soriano, Armando’s father, is not the only person to have lost a son or daughter in the Iraq war and face deportation. There are more than 3 million people born in the U.S. with parents who came into the country illegally. Those born in the U.S. are automatically citizens and have all the rights and duties enjoyed by Americans. That includes military service with the possibility of losing one’s life.

I love this poet. Check him out. . .

Posted by Adam Howard at 5:31 PM on August 31, 2007.

Adam Howard: Shocking testimony from the Haditha massacre trial.

Lance Corporal Humberto Mendoza testified this week that Marine Sargeant Frank Wuterich, who faces 17 counts of murder over the Haditha killings, ordered him to execute Iraqi women and children.

The marines had been responding to a roadside bomb on November 19, 2005 when a roadside bomb killed one in their midst. Mendoza says Wuterich ordered him and his fellow marines o begin clearing housses in search of insurgents, what followed was one of the most horrific episodes reported out of Iraq:

At one house Wuterich gave an order to shoot on sight as Marines waited for a response after knocking on the door, said Mendoza.

"He said 'Just wait till they open the door, then shoot,'" Mendoza said.

Mendoza then said he shot and killed an adult male who appeared in a doorway.

During a subsequent search of the house, Mendoza said he received an order from another Marine, Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum, to shoot seven women and children he had found in a rear bedroom.

"When I opened the door there was just women and kids, two adults were lying down on the bed and there were three children on the bed ... two more were behind the bed," Mendoza said.

"I looked at them for a few seconds. Just enough to know they were not presenting a threat ... they looked scared."

Today I thought of our friend Richie Perez who tragically died three years ago of cancer. He was truly a great spirit. Among many other things, he was a Young Lord, a teacher, an activist, and a visionary. Richie faught against so many things with absolute dedication. He took on issues of police brutality, racism in our educational system, prisoners' rights, and the rights of Puerto Rican people. He became a strong advocate with a powerful voice. Above all, I admired Richie's ability to connect and communicate with young people. He knew how to listen and create meaningful dialogue about critical issues of our time.

Richie was also highly intuitive and I believe that he was able to take the pulse of an entire community and push for progressive political and social reform. He was one of the first male activists I ever met that learned to question gender discrimination and women's rights issues within people of color communities. He knew how to effectively communicate the key issues that intersect race and gender. He was a gifted educator in this way.

Many of Richie's teachings had a strong impact on my beliefs. I believe that his work and philosophy have touched the lives of many people. If you want to learn more about who Richie Perez was, you can go to http://www.cssny.org/pubs/urbanagenda/2004_04_01.html

New America Media, Commmentary, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Posted: Aug 20, 2007

When Newark Mayor Cory Booker learned that the alleged shooters in the execution killing of three black college students were illegal immigrants, he did the responsible thing.

He did not finger point a porous border and lax law enforcement for allegedly letting so many supposed violent prone illegal immigrants slip into the country as the cause of the killings. Booker said, and did, the right thing as a responsible public official, and in this case a black elected official, who did not want to arouse public passions any more than they already were over the murders. He certainly did not want to inflame the fragile tensions between black and Latinos any more than they already are.

But others have not exercised the same restraint. Some black talk show hosts and black writers have burned up Internet sites, and sent of floods of emails (this writer got several) with outlandish and reckless charges that the killings were part of a concerted plot by Latino gangs to target African-Americans for murder and mayhem.

Leading immigration reform foes from Center for Immigration Studies to Bill O’Reilly also claimed that state and federal officials are so fear being branded racist that they have turned a blind eye to waves of illegal immigrants who supposedly have unleashed a violent crime wave across the country.

Just think! Little kids ready for the First Grade this year will be ready to vote in the November 2020 presidential election. Looking back, those old enough to vote on November 5, 2008 had their growing years during the Bill Clinton administrations.
There’s currently interest in education, as it pertains to civic affairs. I watch people on C-Span who, right and left, deplore the ignorance of youngsters when it comes to social science.
It almost seems as though school boards are reluctant to lay out a curriculum for fear it will offend someone. If you think I joke, consider the recent criticism over using Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” in English classes. And we don’t even have to venture into the murky territory of sex education. If the very term “Darwinism” is mentioned on a playground, children may take sides without ever having studied what the theory of evolution is. Yet on the evening news, some of their parents may be nodding in approval when their Congresspersons espouse more emphasis on Science in the Classroom.
What percentage of the population, grown or still growing, can fill in the names and capitals of the 50 states? And who can give more than the barest details about past US Presidents? George Washington couldn’t tell a lie. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. What about Andrew Jackson or Andrew Johnson? Or Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt?

[Editor's Note: Promoted and reformatted by mole333]

Until this year, I have always looked forward to the musical revue at the Capitol, aired by PBS for the Fourth of July. For reasons other than my disappointment in it this go around, I didn’t see but a portion of the show. The disappointment started because it no longer has the likes of Ossie Davis and Charles Durning. I’m a softie when it comes to the Greatest Generation. Yet, I must confess.

I don’t like war, think it is a waste of time and money, not to mention lives. In short, I consider war to be stupid. Which makes me not very patriotic in the sense of putting yellow ribbons on my belongings and marching in parades.

Being vigilant about what government is doing for us–and to us–is almost an occupation with me. And having lived a good part of a century, I absorbed enough history to realize war is what I study a lot of the time. The current self-inflicted shot in the foot by the US is especially galling. Still and all, I suppose eventually the thinkers will devise a way to explain what special malady in the world’s psyche got the troubles started this time.

Start with religion. And most do. Some fanatics decide it is better to die than to live against their grain, so they lash out. And the aggrieved come back with symbolic trenches, where there are reportedly no atheists. And we have ourselves a new conflict.

All over the Internet are sincere efforts to reform and improve America’s political-government system. The downside is fragmentation of the subpopulation that has escaped brainwashing, cultural distraction, and self-delusion. Strategy solidarity is missing, but is possible.

Millions of discontent, dissident and truly patriotic Americans see our federal government as corrupt and untrustworthy, disrespectful of our Constitution, under the grip of moneyed interests, subservient to corporate and globalization elites, unresponsive to the needs of ordinary people, and very much on the wrong track. But they are not united.

This subpopulation no longer believes that electing different Democrats or Republicans will turn around the nation. Many have stopped voting. Some believe violent revolution is necessary. Some think that only national economic disaster will produce necessary change. Most find hope in a particular reform strategy that has attracted their attention and respect. However, so many reform efforts reduce prospects for success.

I am talking about political-government reforms, not party reforms. Many successful websites often described as “progressive” seek changes in the Democratic Party. On the political right others hope to reform the Republican Party. Party reform is not the same as reversing the many declines in American democratic institutions. Devotees of popular sites like dailykos.com, moveon.org and huffingtonpost.com, for example, still believe that electing different Democrats is the solution, while true dissidents have given up on that. Being passionately anti-Bush/Cheney does not change their loyalty to the two-party system.

After the PDF Conference I thought I was going to have a much needed lull and a slow down of work. Not so. Another round of invitations to conferences came in along with some much needed consulting work.

I also have had to deal with the impact of grieving --I wasn't expecting the tidal wave of emotions that came with the loss of Steve Gilliard. Then there's the patriarchy at home and what he thought was minor surgery. The poor man had some basal cells removed from his face last week. He has been at home for the past 5 days all battered and bruised and stitched up like a modern day gothic monster. We call him Daddy Frankenstein.

Anyhow, this week I can finally focus on doing a bit of updating to accommodate some new features we have along with the old ones we were able to rescue in the last upgrade.

So what's on your plate?

excerpted from cnn.com:

here's the link to the story: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/28/sheehan/index.html

[EDITOR'S NOTE: The Quoted text was removed for two reasons: a.) too much text was directly quoted from a commercial site (CNN.com) and b.) no link was provided to that commercial site. The former can get us into serious copyright problems and it is standard procedure on blogs to quote only a few paragraphs of text directly from other sites to avoid potential copyright issues. The exact number of paragraphs that are "allowable" varies, but quoting the vast majority of someone else's work from a copyrighted site is always considered unacceptable. Not providing a link to the site you quote is considered both rude and can make people suspicious about your quote. We want people to know where our writers are quoting from so we encourage such links...unless we know a commercial site uses our work without a link. It is ALWAYS safer and more polite to provide the link. I encourage the author to rewrite the diary in a way that complies with the rules of this site and the standard blog protcedures when quoting others. I would like to note that there was no particular problem I had with the content of the diary, merely the quote of an extensive block of another person's work without so much as a link. There are legal issues here!]

I have admired Cindy Sheehan's dedication/devotion to the anti-war effort and am saddened to see that she is throwing in the towel. She is a remarkable woman whom many of us have had the opportunity to meet and/or participate in rallies and events she attended. This happens to a lot of activists who put their heart and soul into the cause and then don't see results at the end of the day. You start wondering if the battle was worth fighting. You ask, "when do I see something for all this effort?", "when do we win?"

Economic Armageddon Is Coming

Joel S. Hirschhorn

Stop being a compliant consumer. Face the ugly truth. Don’t get fooled by the stock market. Accept the need for the mistreated middle class to become the revolutionary class. The British military establishment's most prestigious think tank sees what too few over-consuming Americans are willing to anticipate. Unjustified and mounting economic inequality is planting the seeds for global economic conflict.

Here is what the new report from the UK Defense Ministry's Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre warned might happen by 2035. "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class. The growing gap between themselves and a small number of highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel disillusion with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes are likely to pose an increasing threat...Faced by these twin challenges, the world's middle-classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest."

Consider the wisdom of economist John Maynard Keynes: The rich are tolerable only so long as their gains appear to bear some relation to roughly what they have contributed to society. Think of it as proportional and justified economic success. This can be tolerated by poor and middle class people if they believe the economic system is fair and properly rewards those who work harder or have better capabilities. But truly obscene economic rewards angers people. When most prosperity and wealth is unfairly channeled to relatively few Upper Class people, it is only a matter of time until fuming, resentful people in the Lower Class decide enough is enough and revolt. Perhaps violently, if the political system remains controlled by the Upper Class.

"Incorrect" is not good.

The New York Times reports,

NBC News dropped Don Imus yesterday, canceling his talk show on its MSNBC cable news channel a week after Mr. Imus made racially disparaging remarks about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

The move came after several days of widening calls for Mr. Imus to lose his job both on MSNBC, which simulcasts the “Imus in the Morning” show, and CBS Radio, which originates the show. NYT

My Wife, Teresa Francisco Holland, Does Not Straighten or Iron Her African Hair, Letting Her Dreads Swing Naturally.

Cross-posted at the Francis L. Holland Blog.

In a post about discovering that she had never valued being Black, Bronze Trinity blog discusses everything from hairstyles to a Canadian Culture that doesn't support her being her African self and leaves her feeling alien amongst the crowd:

Some of you may have noticed a change in the tone and subject matter of my recent blog entries. It is because I am discovering my culture and history and each new thing I learn changes me. I realize now that in the past I really hated myself, and I think I also hated people like me but I didn't know that until recently. Now I am trying to immerse myself in my culture and unbrainwash myself. Some of you may not like it and feel uncomfortable, but it doesn't change what I am feeling and thinking.

Imagine it this way, suppose your whole life you thought there was something off about your family. You were a part of your family but didn't quite fit in. In fact, it didn't seem as though they really liked you at all. You constantly felt that there was something they were not telling you, that other people treated them better, and that you just didn't belong. Then one day they tell you that you were adopted and you had a whole biological family that you didn't even know. In fact, your biological family lived on the same block and they were the very people you ignored and didn't really like. That is what it is like for me to be African Canadian.

I tried to fit in with the Euro-Canadian society, activities, friends, teachers, culture, entertainment, education, and standardards of beauty but it never quite fit with me or I didn't quite fit. On the other hand, I unconsciously didn't like Black people that much. I draw that conclusion because I didn't date them, go out of my way to be friends, read their books, listen to their music or appreciate their beauty.

I realized that the problem all along was that I didn't know much about my culture or history and that was also why I devalued them. Now I have changed and the way I view my culture, history, and the world has changed. Now I am seeking out my African family so that I can find out who I really am. I found this great video on Girl 600's website and it describes many of the feeling and thoughts I have had over the years. I really felt and still feel like the girls in the video. Please take a look:

de: "Pedro Barroso" pedrobarrosos@yahoo.com.br

Francisco:

Nem todo mundo é capaz de conviver com palavras venenosas. Torrentes constantes de mensagens tóxicas levam determinados indivíduos ao suicídio. Alguns preferem morrer a suportar os vilipêndios rudes e desrespeitosos das pessoas maléficas que estão à sua volta.

Esses tipos negativos podem afetar partes importantes de qualquer pessoa das maneiras mais diferentes possíveis. Freqüentemente eles não acreditam em você e movem-se para contrariar os seus propósitos.

Se tiver alguém em seu convívio que dar opiniões zombeteiras ou depreciativas a seu respeito e em seguida se desculpa falando “estou apenas brincando”; se esse alguém freqüentemente está sendo chamando à sua atenção ou o criticado na presença de outros;

se você fica tranqüilo e sossegado quando está sem se comunicar com essa pessoa; se fica abatido ou desgostoso na companhia dela, ou após ter conversado com ela;

se perto, ela causa-lhe mau humor, nervosíssimo, falta de energia... você está se relacionando com alguém que lhe inferniza, está lidando com alguém maléfico e por conta disto, seu comportamento poderá ser alterado em função dos efeitos venenosos que ele provoca em você...Vamos planejar maneiras de evitá-los.

Bush Administration Announces New Consumer Feature

Beginning in June 2007, American cell-phones will ring when idle and fall silent when a call comes through, said a Federal Trade Commission spokesman in an advanced announcement. In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, the White House said the change "gives phone customers the right to pay only for the services they want, like making the constant ringing stop."

"Idle cellphones will be much easier to find when the ringers are used consistently," said Brad Hanging-Chad, a 2006 Bob Jones University graduate who is now awaiting Senate confirmation as the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.

"Most customers are expected to be happy with the reverse ring-silence modality, but those who prefer the traditional ring-when-called mode can now purchase that value added service for just $6.99 and up per month," said Mr. Hanging-Chad, who did not return reporters' phone calls about his stock in several wireless telephone carriers.

Although regulations to be implemented in 2012 will require phone companies to offer the "no ring" function for "a reasonable fee", customers can call this number or this number now to report charges that seem excessive.

A while ago, I wrote an essay called, “On the Nature and Meaning of “Bitch Slap,” ” in which I explained why a “bitch slap,” far from being heroic, is actually a profound act of cowardice.

I wrote that essay because I had observed that white and particularly white male “progressives” were fascinated with the term “bitch slap” and were using it constantly, like children repeating newly-discovered slang words for male and female genitalia. In fact, white (usually male) "progressives" have taken the term “bitch slap” entirely out of its originally limited underclass context and usage and are using it instead as a generally applicable synonym for “to castigate” and “to put in one’s place.” In so doing, they are celebrating violence against and subjugation of women, particularly Black women.

Now, Michael Bouldin of Culture Kitchen has visited one of my diaries there to accuse me of diary “pimping.” Merriams defines “pimping” as “solicit[ing] clients for a prostitute.” Merriams (Certainly, Michael does not intend to literally accuse me selling women’s flesh for profit.) But, is it not unacceptably and intentionally offensive for a white man to falsely accuse a Black lawyer of “pimping”? I’ll let readers be the judge of that. Blacks and many women will generally say it IS unacceptably offensive, while white men who regularly use the terms “bitch slap” and “diary pimping” (or simply “pimping”) will vociferously insist that they mean no color-aroused offense by these inherently linguistically color-bound insults.

I have lived most of my life in a “white-news” media environment. In my experience, “white-news” can be defined as “daily facts mixed with propaganda prepared and controlled by whites for the purpose of maintaining white people’s unreasonably exalted self-image and their privileged status in American society and the world, while systematically depriving others of information that would help Blacks and others to improve their status or support their positive self-image.”

The existence of Black History Month is an official acknowledgement by white America that white-news has been so pervasive historically and remains so pervasive that Blacks and whites have systematically been deprived of positive information about Black people, so much so that only by focusing on Black people intensely for a month each year can we begin to undo the damage done by “white-news”. (Ironically, Black history month continues to be necessary precisely because white-news remains so pervasive.)

But now that we have blogs, to what extent have American blogs changed the white-news paradigm? In my experience, white blogs are just as committed to white-news as is the mainstream media. White blogs are mostly dedicated to exposing injustices that affect white people, for the purpose of empowering “progressive” white people to gain more control over society and make society more “progressive”.

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I have found that basic health care is more accessible in Brazil than in the United States.

The New York Times reports today that the process in the United States for getting basic vaccines against deadly childhood diseases is becoming more and more expensive and precarious.

Getting a vaccination was not always so difficult. In 1980, it cost only about $23, or $59 adjusted for inflation, for the seven shots and four oral doses needed to immunize a child, according to data provided by Thomas Saari, who is emeritus professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin.

Today, though, a child who receives all the recommended vaccines would receive as many as 37 shots and 3 oral doses by the 18th birthday — at a cost exceeding $1,600. NYT

Before I moved to Brazil in 2004, I contacted public and private clinics in New Jersey, looking for the basic vaccines that were recommended before my travel. It would have cost me $800 dollars or more to receive these vaccinations in the United States. Since I didn't have that much money and I was not covered by any insurance, I decided to go to Brazil without first receiving this basic and easily administered medical care.

When I got to Brazil, I discovered that all of the medications that I needed but could not afford in the United States are available for free at all Brazilian government health clinics, even for visitors from the United States. In fact, there is a hospital a block from my house that provides all medical care for free. So I have more access to health care in Brazil than I did in the United States.

A couple of weeks ago, my Brazilian wife informed me that the government was recommending that everyone in our state receive shots for malaria. The first time we went to the clinic, the supplies had been exhausted. The following week, I, my wife and two children went to the government clinic and we all got our shots for free, with no lines or additional waiting. The government of Brazil cares for my medical health more than my own government does.

I have also discovered that the same anti-depressant drugs that cost $200.00 USD per month in the United States may cost $40.00 USD per month at regular Brazilian pharmacies and only twenty dollars per month at Brazil's government run pharmacies. But at certain Brazilian government pharmacies, many basic medications are available at no charge whatsoever, to anyone who has a prescription, while supplies last.

I hope someday that the United States will have a public health system that is as accessible to the public as Brazil's health care system is now. In the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, I'm absolutely going to vote for a presidential candidate who has a long-standing and proven dedication to seeing that we in the United States have care that is at least as accessible and affordable as the care now available to people in so-called "Third World" countries like my new home, in Brazil.

Today, I read the following message from Shaquanda Cotton, a 14 year-old Black girl who was sentenced to seven years in a Texas juvenile correctional institution for pushing a door guard at her high school:

About Me

Shaquanda Cotton

Paris, Texas, US

I am a 14-year-old black freshman who shoved a hall monitor at Paris High School in a dispute over entering the building before the school day had officially begun and was sentenced to 7 years in prison. I have no prior arrest record, and the hall monitor--a 58-year-old teacher's aide--was not seriously injured.

I was tried in March 2006 in the town's juvenile court, convicted of "assault on a public servant" and sentenced by Lamar County Judge Chuck Superville to prison for up to 7 years, until I turn 21.

Just three months earlier, Judge Superville sentenced a 14-year-old white girl, convicted of arson for burning down her family's house, to probation. Squaquanda Cotton Blog

So, I called the Texas Courthouse at which Shaquanda was sentenced and I spoke to Judge Superville's receptionist.

Democracy Dreaming

Joel S. Hirschhorn

What is this thing called democracy? So easy to talk about, so difficult to make real. Pure democracy is not what our Founders gave us. Who would want a simple majority to control the minority? Instead, America was given a representative democracy within a constitutional republic where laws that protect all people trump majority rule. Standing between majority-won elections and government power are elected representatives: writing, overseeing and implementing laws. But when you can no longer trust the elected representatives what happens to American democracy? It becomes an oxymoron.

We have arrived at a delusional democracy. Delusional because Americans overwhelmingly cannot admit the painful truth that their limited democracy no longer works for the good of most citizens. Instead, through corruption and dishonesty, our representative democracy has morphed into a plutocracy that serves the wealthy, power elites and corporate masters that control the political system and through that the economic system.

The Framers of the Constitution had deep concerns about the long-term viability of the government structure they created. Some think that the checks and balances among the three branches of the federal government preserve its integrity. Really? The money that controls the legislative branch also controls the executive branch, and both of those control the judicial branch. Even worse, it has become clearer to increasing numbers of Americans that many parts of the Constitution – the supreme law of the land – have been directly or more deviously disobeyed or distorted. Constitutional rule is a myth.

I haven’t owned a car since 2003, and it's a tremendous relief. I no longer receive parking tickets or speeding tickets, don't have to control the temptation to drive like a lunatic. (I was a road rager if there ever was one.) Each month, I need not concern myself with car payments, insurance payments or maintenance payments.

Having moved to Brazil, the dreaded task of removing snow and ice from a car windshield is not only in my past, but it is inconceivable to those in my present.

The alternatives to driving have become much more attractive to me. Having moved to within a five minute walk of the ocean, I no longer need to spend ten dollars of gas and two hours of driving to reach the Jersey Shore. I just walk.

Because the nearest shopping mall is eight hours away, the ritual of endeavoring to earn more and more money to drive to the mall and invent new ways to spend it is much deemphasized. No more shopping mall parking lots for me! Less is more.

In Brazil, there are buses that reliably take passengers to most anywhere we might want to go, no matter how remote. So, when I want to go to a beach further up the coast, I just wait at a bus stop on this beach for a bus to that other beach. Unlike in the United States, the buses in urban areas here typically run twenty-four hours per day, which makes them a viable alternative, even for nocturnal people who like, sometimes, to party all night.

Taking Democracy Seriously

Joel S. Hirschhorn

American: So you mean that if you Australians don’t vote, you get a fine?
Australian: Yeah, and when you Americans don’t vote you get George W. Bush.

As surely as politicians lie, citizen apathy produces democracy atrophy. Much more than a right – in a democracy voting is an irrevocable civic duty. No mental gymnastics can help you jump over this ugly reality: Voter turnout over all American elections averages markedly less than half of eligible voters. This disgrace must be fixed.

These are my proposed solutions: We should make voting mandatory, give voters the option of “none of the above,” make Election Day a national holiday, provide same day registration everywhere, and lower the voting age to 16.

No one reform is a panacea. But together these five reforms can dramatically re-energize voting in America. They could be placed in one constitutional amendment and ratified by the states in time for the 2008 presidential election. Limiting public support, however, is an elitist mindset among people with political power, wealth and intellectual arrogance. They wrongly dismiss large numbers of citizens for their lack of education or political involvement. Electoral reforms can create a culture of voting that ultimately produces a more informed public.

Mandatory Voting

This is not a crazy, radical idea. Hold your reaction on what probably is a new idea for you. Over 30 countries have compulsory voting. Violating the law usually merits something akin to a parking fine, but it still works. When Australia adopted it in 1924 turnouts increased from under 50 percent to a consistent 90-plus percent. Conversely, when the Netherlands eliminated compulsory voting in 1970 voting turnouts plunged from 90 percent to less than 50 percent. Polls regularly show 70 percent to 80 percent of Australians support mandatory voting. Research found that people living in countries with compulsory voting are roughly twice as likely to believe that their government is responsive to the public’s needs and 2.8 times as likely to vote as compared to citizens in countries without compulsory voting. Is compulsory voting inconsistent with personal freedom? No! We have compulsory education, jury duty, and taxes that are more onerous than voting periodically. And all people have to do is turn out to vote. What they do with their secret ballot is up to them.

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Today, Markos Moulitsas, is the doctrinaire leftist publisher of the DailyKos “progressive” anti-war blog, railing against the moderation of candidates like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Harold Ford. But in the 1980’s, Mr. Moulitsas was an unabashed Reagan Democrat, even working as a campaign aid to George H.W. Bush in the 1992 Presidential election. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0601.wallace-wells.html http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2007/01/markos-was-republican-states...

Last year, in a piece Markos wrote for the Cato (libertarian) Institute, Markos acknowledged that the spent the 1980's as a Reagan Republican. http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/10/02/markos-moulitsas/the-case-for-the...
http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2007/01/yes-progessive-markos-of-dai...

How did Markos achieve this stunning metamorphosis in just a few short years? Actually, nobody knows and Markos isn’t telling. He has told interviewers, improbably, that he last voted for the Republicans in 1992, because he suddenly realized that they didn’t support “states rights” as strongly as he would have liked. (See articles above.)

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I watched the promotional video based on last year's gathering, and I saw six Black people among 1,500 participants.

Cross-posted at http://francislholland.blogspot.com/2007/02/is-yearlykos-and-overwhelmin... and MyDD.

Today, I came across a link to a publicity video for YearlyKos and I watched the entire video to confirm a suspicion:  That YearlyKos is an overwhelmingly white gathering -disproportionately white considering the number of Blacks in the Democratic Party.  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=

-1234580617661540850&q=Mark+Bowllan  Watch the film for yourselves and tell me if my perceptions are in error.

Here's what I saw:  Watching a thirty-nine minute video of "1,500" "progressive" Democratic Party bloggers at a hotel in Las Vegas, in all of the shots where the camera panned the crowds, the hallways, the hotel rooms, and speakers diases, I saw two Black women and four Black men among 1,500 people.  If accurate, this would mean that YearlyKos was about .03% Black in a Democratic Party that has 20% elected and appointed Black delegates at the Democratic National Convention.  What is it about DailyKos and Yearly Kos that makes it so white in a Party with so much Black participation?

A growing number of women of color are seeking alternative mental health services to help cope with stress and other recurrent struggles in their lives more effectively. Many of these women are now utilizing hypnotherapy, breathwork, and reiki as means of effective therapeutic intervention minus psychiatric labels and medications.

One of them is "Maya," a 36 year-old African American woman. Among many things, Maya is a single mom of two pre-teens, and a lawyer. In the past, Maya sought treatment from a psychiatrist and was diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). She had been an incest survivor since age 8 and experienced recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, and anxiety attacks. Maya also had difficulty maintaining relationships with men as a result of her childhood trauma. Years of intensive talk therapy and anti-anxiety medication led Maya to see very little improvement in her recovery, until a friend recommended that she try hypnotherapy.

Maya says, "At first, I was skeptical about hypnosis and what it could do for me. But I was frustrated. I felt like I was hitting a wall with my therapist and that she didn't really understand where I was coming from. This had been the eighth therapist I had been to, and I was beginning to feel like talking about my symptoms and my past was beating a dead horse. When was I going to get over it? I just wanted to feel better and stop the panic attacks. . . "

The Annual Gynological Exam: What to Expect
Soma Mandal
Features Columnist
Issue date: 10/4/06 Section: Features

Reprinted from Washington Square News

Dear Dr. Mandal: I have my first gynecological exam coming up, and I'm nervous. I don't know what to expect, and I've heard really horrible stories. Does it hurt? What should I anticipate? Can my doctor answer any questions I have?

Thanks,

Nervous in New York

Dear Nervous,

The gynecological exam (sometimes called "pelvic exam" or "annual exam") is very important because it allows your physician to make sure that your genitals and reproductive organs are healthy. During this visit, breast health and sexual health is addressed as well. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Cancer Society recommends a gynecologic exam for any woman who is sexually active or over 21 years of age.

It may seem daunting for many women. Many stress over their first exams because they don't know what exactly the exam entails.

THE EXAM, STEP-BY-STEP

Once you are in the examination room, you will be given a gown and sheet to cover your torso. The doctor will ask general questions about your health and then do a brief external physical exam.

The doctor will examine your breasts for any lumps or any pain, then teach you how to do a monthly self-exam. Before beginning the pelvic exam, you will be asked to lie down and place each foot in a foot holders, called stirrups, at the end of the table. It helps to relax your knees and pelvic muscles to facilitate the exam.

It occurrs to me some days that I don't really work at a school. I work at a Holding Tank.

Let me share a little bit with you, and I'm sure you will understand.

Inmates are restricted to a small space, and there are too many of them. They are fed awful stuff, loaded with excess simple carbohydrates to ensure that the guards work hard for their money.

Restroom facilities are locked. Permission must be obtained to go to the restroom, and the head guard must be located to unlock the facilities. This is because inmates have repeatedly tried to set fires in the restrooms and use them more often to do drugs than to use the toilets.

In the room with you are: persons under the influence, drug dealers, gangsters who have beaten a fellow inmates head against the sink causing a broken nose, sniveling brats, wiseasses who are cracking joke after joke, none of them funny, in an effort to make the time pass more quickly, girls who have been picked up for looking like prostitutes, girls who have been picked up for acting like prostitutes, a shrieking guard who is calling the warden down every two minutes, a guard who mills about silently, for the most part, occasionally sending people up to see the warden, a guard who is tall, scary, and makes horrible threats that don't get followed up upon, and a psychotic guard who looks as stoned as the inmates because she has not been sleeping enough. Periodically, the assistant warden or the warden will wander down for a stroll through. This riles the inmates up, and as soon as they are gone, the level of interaction increases dramatically.

My colleague from the Drug Policy Alliance wrote this op-ed piece [Liza's Note: We are reprinting the whole article with the author's permission]:

Put Drug Laws on Day One Docket
By Gabriel Sayegh
First published: Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Albany Times-Union

New Yorkers are waiting to see whether Gov. Eliot Spitzer's campaign slogan -- "Day One, Everything Changes"-- is genuine, or just a slogan. There are a number of issues that warrant the attention of the new administration, and reforming the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws should be a priority.

The Rockefeller Drug Laws, passed in 1973, mandate harsh mandatory minimum prison terms for simple, low-level drug offenses. Under these laws, people convicted of first-time drug offenses receive 8 to 20 years in prison. While the state spends millions of taxpayer dollars every year imprisoning drug offenders, spending on community-based drug treatment is pitifully low.

Indeed, treatment options for people with drug problems are too limited, especially for low-income people. There are more than 14,000 people in New York prisons under the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Nationwide, over 500,000 people are incarcerated on drug offenses, more than any other industrialized nation (and more than the European Union, with 100 million more residents, incarcerates for all offenses combined).

But perhaps the most despicable aspect of the Rockefeller Drug Laws is the institutional racism associated with their application. More than 90 percent of the people incarcerated under the Rockefeller Drug Laws are black and Latino, even though whites use and sell illegal drugs at approximately equal rates. There is no excuse for this disparity.