The Don Imus affair is not about Sharpton, it is not about Jesse Jackson, and it's not about hip-hop. Imus and the co-hosts he hires routinely use the nastiest and crudest language available to attack people. It's a pattern, and it is not going to change if he is allowed to spew his hate again in two weeks. Additionally, attacking a 30% president is not something progressive, or something that makes the I-man a noble figure. This is not 2002, and out standards should be higher. This is who you are defending, Libertarian Kossacks.

Imus on fighting terrorism and Giuliani:

If we're gonna be fighting these terrorists through the lives of [8-year-old son] Wyatt Imus' children," then "it might be good to start with somebody who is willing to take three big ones and drop one on Mecca, one on Jeddah, and one on Saudi -- one on Riyadh," 2/6/07

I urge everyone to check out the review of 'New World', a new movie based on Pocahantas, in the San Francisco Chronicle. Regardless of the attributes of the movie, there are so many racist and overused caricatures in the review that it's worth a comment to the editor..

I will counterpoint the review in the Chronicle with a review in Indian Country , the leading Native newspaper in the country, and my own comments.

SF Chronicle writes :

Me: so, Pocahontas is the 1st American , the English 2nd, the rest of the savages do not count ?

The bird flu virus has now reached a major city, and seems to have spread across the country of Turkey:

Turkey claims to have controlled an earlier outbreak, but obviously their reporting system is weak, or the disease went underground in some way.  Many people have fallen ill in Van province (in the East) and bird flu now appears to be in the capital, where the possibility of human-human mutation seems higher, given the larger number of people and birds. It's an ominous development.

The Chinese government is apparently sealing off a peasant village after killing some demonstrators. They are said to be hunting for protest leaders after "thousands of people gathered to protest the amount of money offered by the government as compensation for land to be used to construct a wind power plant". There are an estimated 20 dead, so far.

A man is quoted:

while a 14 year old girl says :

link

Around 4,700 janitors in Houston, who clean about 60% of downtown office space, have voted for union representation with the SEIU. This is one of the biggest private sector union victories in Texas and Southern history.

Read the SEIU statement here.

Despite a typically slanted article, one actually working person is quoted by the Houston Chronicle:

There were elections in Venezuela today, and it looks like Hugo Chavez's 5th Republic Party got a clear majority. Other sympathetic parties claimed the rest of the national legislature.

This sweep basically happened because the opposition boycotted the election. The leaders of this were the traditional ruling parties of Venezuela, notably Accion Democratica and an umbrella group called Democratic Coordinator.

One problem with this strategy is that voting boycotts rarely work. It's perceived that Chavez was going to trounce the opposition parties and that the boycott comes from weakness. This is partly because these same groups complain about the August 2004 referendum on Chavez, which was validated by the Carter Center.

Hundreds of SEIU health care workers are still on strike against California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and Sutter Health Care (which owns CPMC).  

An important issue is the establishment of staffing committees, represented by workers, management, with a health care expert as mediator. Sutter is one of the last major hospital systems in California that does not have these patient care committees.

Says Sutter Watch:

Another issue motivating the workers is a proposed re-training and education fund.

At the strike website, you can also sign a petition to ask Sutter/CPMC to sign a Federal Mediator's compromise offer. There's a blog and pictures of the picket line, and also an adopt-a-striker fund set up especially to help families on the picket line.

Hundreds of SEIU health care workers are still on strike against California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and Sutter Health Care (which owns CPMC). They want CPMC/Sutter to accept a Federal Mediator's compromise offer.

One important issue , among many, is patient staffing. The SEIU writes in their flier:

Sutter is one of the last major hospital systems in California that does not have patient care committees. They are also quite profitable, despite clams to being a 'non-profit'. (They are currently under investigation in San Francisco for violating their non-profit status)

Says Sutter Watch:

Hundreds of SEIU health care workers are on strike now at some of Sutter Health's top hospitals, the California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC).

The strike has national implications for the power of the SEIU and Stern's strategy of leaving the AFL-CIO and forming a new progressive coalition.

Sutter has nixed a mediators compromise offer, though Pelosi, Boxer and Gavin Newsom urged them to sign the agreement.

An issue that affects patients is staffing. The SEIU writes:

There is more information on this flier. Most of the issues are about giving workers a democratic voice in the workplace. Similar programs have been instituted at major hospitals throughout California.

Andy Stern is quoted :

The national SEIU has contributed $250,000 to a strike fund.

Ways to support them are below...
 

The two AP/AFP photos - one with a black person 'looting' for food, and the other with two white people 'finding' food has hit the mainstream.

Here's their response:

Sadly, there is another photograph with a white woman coming directly out of a store with a bag of 'stuff', while a black man leaves with nothing in his hand. No mention of looting.

I doubt they remember this picture but, at best, it shows they have no policy. At worst, it shows their entire statement is a lie.

I am attempting to contact Mr. Lyon for a comment.

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bigbay

Today's shooting in Minnesota highlights the lack of economic justice on most Native American reservations in this country. According to CNN, the Red Lake Reservation has a poverty rate of 39%.

Consider the following snapshot of 40 "high poverty" rural Native counties:

Reservations suffer from the same problems as rural areas, but they also lack arable land (the Europeans got that) and have deep seated social problems from centuries of discrimination. For instance, until the 1960's,  familes were often split up and children sent to boarding schools where they were forced to be "white". The social fabric of the community was destroyed.

below the fold, the casino myth...

This is big news, if it holds:

The article goes on to quote some bitter sounding Kurd leaders, and a Chalabi (!?) aide.

I'd bet the hangup remains Kirkuk, and Kurdish autonomy. Kurdish leaders have spent the last few decades calling for independence, and their people expect them to deliver. However, there are susbstantial numbers of Sunni and Shiite in the Kirkuk areas, and Sistani has been clear about keeping Iraq united.

How Chalabi fits in is somewhat murky, but it's probably not good.  

A weak government will be dependent on the U.S., much as Allawi was, and probably fuels the insurgency.

I didn't catch the entire Super Bowl, but when I turned on, I caught an ad featuring uninjured U.S. soldiers being greeted with adulation at an airport.

At the end, Anheiser Busch flashes its logo across the screen.

I personally find this disgraceful , for two reasons.

One, they didn't show any injured soliders. They deliberately hid the cost of war to present an idealized image that is a lie - but "makes America feel good".

Second, they stick their logo in at the end of the ad, channeling our positive feelings for the troops towards their beer company.

The ad wasn't about the troops, or honoring them. It was about hocking beer, in a subtle but slimy way.

If they wanted an ad to only honor the troops, they should have dropped the logo for starts. Second, they could have shown us real footage of what the soliders are going through , at home and at war.

Corporate America: have they no decency ?

I don't view this group as the "good guys", but they are the most visible symbol of Sunni sentiment.

More ominously, they say :

Raed and Khalid Jarrar both wrote, in their blogs, that elections would "open the gates of hell". They both boycotted, and represent the viewpoint of Sunni nationalists, I believe.

It appears initially, as if the election has increased the likelihood of civil war, with a weak government against an entrenched insurgency.

One thing that might change the dynamic is the scheduled withdrawal of U.S. troops, as Kennedy recommended.

The Social Security Trustees have three projections for the future of the trust fund.  Projection I forecasts using some of the trust fund, but things stabilizing pretty quickly after the boomers retire. Projection II, the median model, projects the trust fund out in around 2040.

Projection I is based upon future productivity of 1.9 %
Projection II is based upon future productivity of 1.6 %

The productivity of the last 10 years is 2 %

Projection I is based upon wage growth of 1.6 %
Projection II is based upon wage growth of 1.1 %

Wage growth for the last 10 years is 1.65 %

They get the statistical model for Projection II (the "official" model) by giving 70's-80's equal weight to the last 10 years.

bigbay

I think they're floating a little trial balloon.
Or just stating the obvious. No election can take place today in Iraq, and there is no sign the insurgency is going away - it seems to be getting slowly stronger.

Wiping Fallujah off the map, while a possible war crime, is not tactically important. It's a city of 300,000 with no major industry or supply routes.

guardian uk

Barham Salih said the authorities were determined to hold the vote, but admitted they would have to assess the security situation nearer the time.

"Holding free and fair elections on time is an obligation that we have undertaken towards the Iraqi people," he said. But he added: "Nearer the time, the Iraqi government, the United Nations, the independent election commission and the national assembly will have to engage in a real and hard-headed dialogue to assess the situation."

It is the first time a senior figure in the interim government has acknowledged that the dire security situation in large parts of the country could affect the political process.

Social Security is not a pension fund designed for our personal use.

It is a social safety net.

For example, 914,000 disabled children receive benefits.

What qualifies as permanently disabled ?

HIV infection
Total Blindness
Total Deafness (in some cases)
Cerebral palsy ( in some cases)
Down syndrome
Muscular dystrophy (in some cases)
Mental retardation
Diabetes (with amputation of one foot)
Amputation of two limbs
Amputation of leg at the hip

401K plans aren't going to cut it for these kids, unless the parents are wealthy.

God Bless this ownership society.

4,300 San Francisco hotel workers, at 14 hotels, have been locked out of their jobs since October 13th. The lockout started as a limited strike at four San Francisco hotels, and is related to ongoing negotiations with hotel chains in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The success of the UNITE union in these negotiations will affect future contracts in places across North America. The workers have been visited on the picket line by John Edwards and Jesse Jackson.

San Francisco has traditionally been a strong union town, and what happens to the workers here will end up affecting hotel workers across the country. If corporations can win here, they can win anywhere.

The main issue, as in the recent grocery workers strikes, is health care. Through a variety of ways, hotel employers are trying to foist health care costs onto their workers.

This result of this will mean, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, a monthly health care premium of $ 270 a month by the end of the contract. The current premium is $10 a month. The extra $260 dollars a month means workers will pay an extra $3120 a year in premiums.

The San Francisco UNITE Local 2 is asking people to boycott hotels in San Francisco that are locking out their workers. I've listed the hotels and the corporations involved in the extended copy.

big bay