Conversation with Naomi Klein

A Conversation with Naomi Klein at Big Think. Thanks, to Lady Liberal for this. Naomi Klein is a progressive guru.

Obama v. Hillary in Pa.

I have been contemplating this day, April 22nd for some time. What will happen? Who will win? Hillary of course, but by how much. The late breakers break for Hillary, "bittergate" Hillary's slam on the "activists" and move on.org, Reverend Wright, etc.

Right now the Real Clear poll of polls has Hillary wining with a 6% margin, 49 - 43. approximately. Still with an eight percent margin of undecideds. Many pundits are saying Obama has a ceiling of 43% in the polls which does not bode well for him. "Bittergate" is going to hurt him. Mind you these are all the people seven weeks ago who said he will lose by 20 points in a landslide. Now a six percent margin is a net negative for him. Even if he loses by say 12 points, Hillary only picks up 15 delegates at the most, which he makes back up in North Carolina and a dead heat in Indiana. Where is that narrative?

Regardless, my take is Philadelphia and the suburbs will come out big for Obama and his operations (which magda of the SG was a part of) are legendary right now. I think this picks him up a couple of points. Tie this together with activist gate (because maybe the media does not think it a big deal, but progressives do) Philly breaks huge for him. But, in the end it will not be enough and I am going to predict a large single digit victory. 54 - 45 for Hillary with one percent going somewhere else as it always does. This is a win for Obama as far as I am concerned. At most I think this thing breaks 56-44. At least it can be a four point spread, but I think Hillary will win this thing clearly.

Though, check out the latest Public Policy polling. 49-46 for Obama. Their analysis is pretty succinct: With such a close race the final result tomorrow should hinge on turnout. If there is disproportionately high turnout in the Philadelphia metro area, where Obama has a 58-32 lead, he could pull out a victory. Clinton is dominating throughout pretty much the rest of the state. Go GOTV!

The Waste Culture

I like to read a monthly from São Paulo called Piaui. It has some pretty crazy reports, satire and political commentary. One story in this month's issue is entitled: "Trash is Relative."

Here it is, translated to the best of my abilities:

"The United States? In a recession? This country is blessed! They have no idea what poverty is."

For the Ganaese Desmond Antubam, maintenance man at Port Authority Bus Terminal, or New York's bus station, the best thermometer of American society is not Wall Street, but garbage. Antubam works at the largest bus terminal in the US and the busiest in the world. In operation since 1950, Port Authority takes up to Manhattan city blocks. Every day, 200,000 passengers pass through it. People come and go, and almost every one leaves a trail, generally found in the trash cans. It could be a crumpled up piece of paper, but it also could be clothes, toys, newspapers, magazines, shoes, bicycles, radios, TVs--and all in good condition.

For eighteen years, from Wednesday to Sunday, from 3 in the afternoon until 10 at night, Desmond Antubam empties the cans in the terminal. Between unhurried sips of tea at a Starbucks, he gave us a taste of his experiences.

Last Christmas, at the entrance to the station, Antubam noted a young woman who was talking on her cell phone with her boyfriend. She held a giant wrapped present and a bouquet of flowers, but, from the sound of things, had been forgotten there by the guy on the other end of the line. The conversation heated up, and Wham!, she hung up on the bastard. And, without thinking twice, she threw everything into the can-- the present, flowers, and the phone. Antubam, a good-natured, calm and soft-spoken guy, waited until the end of the tantrum and, slowly approached the woman: "Miss, your cell phone went into the trash."

"Fuck off, you and that asshole! He bought the phone and I'm not going to get it! If he wants to, he can buy another!" And, thus said, she left in a huff.

With extreme serenity, Antubam, fished the cell phone out of the trash and stuffed it in his pocket. The device, which was worth more than $200, wouldn't stop ringing. He ended up answering it, but didn't want to talk to the boyfriend, who kept shouting on the phone. He let it ring for a day, until her decided to return it to the owner, for a reward. He told the guy: 'I saved your cell phone; the flowers and the present are gone.'

For Antubam, waste has its limits. he was born in Accra, the capitol of Ghana, in a family with 9 siblings. His father died when he was 10 years old, which led to the beginning of a life full of hardship. Later on, Antubam would study graphic design and move to Nigeria, a better-off country than Ghana. There, he obtained an American visa, but the intermediary, as if it want't enough that he had been paid $ 1,700 commission, stole his passport. He was able to arrive on American soil via the Bahamas, in 1985.

Antubam married for the first time with an American and got his green card. After two years, they separated and he traveled to Africa, where he met his present wife, today 27 years old. The couple have three children, ranging in age from 10, 4, and 2. The middle child remained in Africa, with his grandparents, due to a technical problem with registration. Due to this problem, Antubam must prove that he is the father and for this has not been able to bring his son to the US. 'Immigration here is very complicated.'

As far as his eldest daughter, he says: "She took a bite out of her bread and threw the rest away. Times like these, I remind her that I paid almost $3,000 to get ehr out of Africa, and not to see her waste bread." The girl retorts like a good American: at school she it told to throw away any leftovers. This public health rule extends to restaurants in the bus terminal. After 9:30 pm, it is Antubam who takes away the hundreds of bags of fresh food discarded by 16 eateries in the station. All of it gets thrown away.

Since the workers are authorized to hold onto anything that's thrown away, he has co-workers who send entire containers full of unused food to Africa. During the summer, sweaty T-shirts go into the trash. Unneeded coats, the same. When it rains, umbrellas ge their turn. sneakers that don't fit in the suitcase? Garbage. A bicycle that can't be taken on the bus? Trash. Parents that give up on carrying the baby stroller leave the burden right there, in the garbage can. At the time of lockers, before 9/11, the harvest was even more plentiful. Bags and bags were forgotten way past the three-moth pickup dealine. After this point, it became trash. One co-worker found a gold necklace that earned him $2,000.

Antubam finishes the tea. Before saying farewell, he takes a moment to give his two cents on today's big issue: 'I would really be happy if a democratice candidate won these elections.' In the New York primaries, his vote went for Obama, but if Hillary survives the Obama wave and gets nominated, he'll vote for her, even though he didn't like seeing her crying on TV: 'Leaders that lead don't cry."

Something is Happening in Philly

Is the tide truly turning? It feels like it to me. This video is a spontaneous march after hearing Obama speak in front of a record 40,000 people. Remarkable. Supposedly, 5,000 people marched through city hall and downtown.

Go Magda, go Alli, go angela. I am with you in spirit, preparing for another maddening week, but also doing some phone banking. I think this outpouring may make something happen truly game changing in Pa. Good luck.


Also, see an audio at the Huffington Post blasting the activists in the Democratic party. This is not news to me. But, I hope it will get the same play as the nontroversy that "bitter gate" did. As I have said I will NEVER vote for her. Include me in the statistics. Go Obama.

I knew it Wouldn't Be Easy

I knew it wouldn't be easy taking the democratic party back from the corporatists who have controlled it since the days of Dukakis. Dukakis was the last of the democrats from the democratic wing of the democratic party until the Clintons moved in...then Gore and Kerry. Obama, despite some clearly warranted criticism is not like those corporatists.

But, last night was astonishing. 45 minutes before these fuckers asked a single question about substance. It was an all out attack on Barack Obama with Hillary Clinton doing her best to "twist the knife" as Barack says. All the blogs are talking about it. We knew the Clintons would not go down with out a fight, but who knew the corporate media (who hates the Clintons) would rather have them than a black man named Barack Obama. Who knew that these fuckers were so afraid of the people?

Last night was disgusting... But...I just found this video on Daily kos and Barack is making light of these fools and doing it well.

Condoleeza Rice Must Go!

A new campaign by Brave New Films. Go to the website and sign the petition.

The message is very simple:

America will not stand for a Secretary of State who approved torture and then misled Congress. We call on the Presidential candidates to ask Secretary of State Rice to resign

On Daily Kos they are asking if ABC will ask a question in the debate tonight. Last week, ABC news broke the torture story wide open and since then, the story has picked up steam online, but besides the Daily Show, the Nation, and Keith Olbermann, there has been a virtual media blackout on this issue since the story broke. Torture approved at the highest levels of government. The Secretary of State chairing meetings deciding how many times to punch, slap, or waterboard people in American custody.

hob'art group exhibit at garden of eden

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to let you know that Hob’art, a cooperative gallery of Hoboken, NJ will be presenting a group art exhibit at Garden of Eden on Sunday afternoon, April 20 from 3pm-6pm. As a co-operative gallery comprised of membership from Hoboken and the surrounding areas, we exist primarily to serve the community by providing a showcase for fine art. For the first time, the Garden of Eden has opened its gates to our membership. From this point forward, Garden of Eden will not be just a venue for great food, but an appealing place of peace, of gathering, of open invitation to view contemporary works by members of hob-art. Come join us and invite your friends for an afternoon of good conversation, a display of outstanding art work and enjoyment.

Michelle Obama on the Colbert Report

This is great. Michelle Obama being first lady may be one of my favorite things about an Obama presidency.



Just a little taste of what you will get if you watch:

Colbert asking her why she would want to be first lady: "You'd never get any sleep because as I understand it the phone keeps ringing at 3am."

Maybe we'll get to meet her when we work in Philly this weekend? Can't hurt to dream can it?

a bird's eye view-- THE AVIAN CODE

just when i thought the joy of reading and books was lost on the younger generation to the tech world of video games, ipods, wii, etc., i realized a good story will always find a home (even if that requires self-publication)! this weekend i picked up a new book, courtesy of my co-worker at legal services. we often talk books but this one is near and dear to his heart. written by his son, brendan when he was just 11 years old, the avian code captures a piece of the wild... from the viewpoint of birds, specifically a peregrine falcon, an osprey, an arctic tern and a swallow-tailed kite.

brendan knows a lot about birds, their diets and migratory patterns... he recently won second place as the young birder of the year 2007 and first place in the writing category from the american birding association.

in his first book, brendan imagines in clever, witty details the society of birds. when their book, the avian code, filled with the laws and rules governing the avian world, is carelessly stolen and discarded by the human children, a band of feathered heroes takes flight to recover it.

a string of close calls and adventures awaits the rescue team... and along the way, they encounter their worst enemies... the humans (hunters, children who trample on nature, TV watchers), a roving gang of cowbirds, and also the evil rogue shrike.

i enjoyed the interesting details about each type of bird, their descriptions, habits and avian vocabulary which are intertwined with the adventure story (the author provides explanatory notes for avian terms). more importantly, brendan addresses the theme of humans versus nature, and how humans treat their environment. whether describing the hunter who shoots the falcon or the children who throw stones & hunt the birds for fun, he brings a voice to the avian world: "maybe someday all people will get brain-washed from television and forget to pollute our lovely environment," hopes katie aka katrina, the prairie falcon who joins the rescue team.

brendan, now 15, remains an avid birdwatcher and expert on avians... what next? avian code: the series... keep writing brendan!

Citizens Twice as Likely to Land in New Jersey Prisons as Legal, Illegal Immigrants

This is not a rebuke of the terrible criminal justice system, but rather a rebuke of folks like that moron who ran for President from Colorado, Tom Tancredo.

U.S. citizens are twice as likely to land in New Jersey's prisons as legal and illegal immigrants, according to new data that counter some of the most widely perceived notions about the link between immigration and crime.

Non-U.S. citizens make up 10 percent of the state's overall population, but just 5 percent of the 22,623 inmates in prison as of July 2007, according to an analysis of New Jersey Department of Corrections and U.S. Census data by The Star-Ledger.

Immigration officials have been "scouring" the prison rolls to find illegal immigrants in prison. This find did not occur. The statistics fall directly in line with several other new studies by sociologists that consistently have found the immigrant incarceration rates equal or lower to that of U.S. citizens. The findings contradict one long-held conception about immigrants and crime.

"I first got into this because I heard all these terrible complaints that immigrants were a big part of the crime problem," said Anne Morrison Piehl, an economics professor at Rutgers University who has researched incarceration rates among immigrants in California.

"When you look at incarceration rates, you find immigrants much less likely than the native born to be incarcerated," Piehl added. "Once you control for the fact that immigrants are generally younger and less educated, then the data you find is even more surprising."

Let's get one thing straight, however, New Jersey as well as other states imprison its citizens at rates that are astronomical. But, the myth that occurred as a result of the Newark slayings is untrue. Undocumented citizens and legal immigrants are not the crime problem that has been protrayed in the press. It is actually despicable what has occurred in the press. Read the rest of the article here.

brazilian lights

our brazilian friend renato sent us this interesting eco-tip...
Here is a video about a clever and ingenuous invention. Light bulbs made out of plastic bottles. They are filled with water and a little bit of bleach (to keep germs away), then the caps are protected with photographic film (to protect them from being dried out by the sun rays), and bingo. Each bottle produces as much light as a 50W bulb. How come we never thought of that before???

Obama Slams His Critics

Chris Mathews always talks about Bill Clinton as the master politician and that is surely true. But, Barack Obama has something Clinton will never have. Clinton made people feel like he gets it, he empathizes, he feels their pain, but he never truly did and just made people feel good all the while making things worse.

Obama gets it for real. In many ways he lived it. And to underestimate this person is to make great folly. Let's go after Pennsyvlania. Barack '08

John McCain and Hillary Clinton: the Real Elitists

It is mind boggling to me how Barack Obama is portrayed as an elitist by John McCain and Hillary Clinton. This is like Alice in Wonderland. I hope the people of PA. see through this. If you have not heard this yet, Obama remarked to a question that folks in Pa. are bitter because of government. Here is the full text:

"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them.

"And they fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not," he went on. "And it's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

"Everybody just ascribes it to 'white working-class . . . don't want to vote for the black guy,' " Obama said at the fundraiser.

"Here's how it is: In a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. They feel so betrayed by government that when they hear a pitch that is premised on not being cynical about government, then a part of them just doesn't buy it. And when it's delivered by -- it's true that when it's delivered by a 46-year-old black man named Barack Obama, then that adds another layer of skepticism."

Somehow McCain and Clinton are painting Obama looking down at Pa. voters and as an elitist. McCain and Clinton (I tie these two real elitists together) are of the same stripe, they don't get what working class voters go through and how hard it is to live fucking paycheck to paycheck. Obama, by his comments (and being raised by a single mom) does get it. And this exploitation of the working class voter to vote against their economic interests is as old as the country. I hope Obama succeeds here.

See CNN reporters who see it for what it is. Good for all of them.

The One Booming Economy: New Jersey Prisons

From the Asbury Park Press:

In New Jersey's booming prison economy, there are winners and losers. Inmates face financial ruin and state taxpayers lose, too — about $41,000 per year, per inmate. Prison entrepreneurs, for whom each inmate is a government-subsidized business opportunity, are the big winners.

Growing nationally by 3.4 percent a year for the past 10 years, federal, state and local prisons hold 2.3 million inmates — one half of whom are nonviolent and small-time drug law offenders.

In New Jersey the prison population has remained steady, but has not risen. Here are the staggering numbers: New Jersey's annual taxpayer contribution for state prisons and local jails, $1.9 billion in 2005 and rising, keeps the prison market hot. Here is how that money is used to exploit the losers and enrich the winners.

Public jobs: Of the 720,000 state and local corrections employees in the U.S. in 2005, 16,934 worked in New Jersey guarding 46,411 inmates. That means for every three new inmates locked up in New Jersey, one new corrections job follows. That is good news for job seekers but bad news for the three inmates who actually create each new job.

Private profiteers: A new book by Tara Herivel and Paul Wright, "Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration," tells how the prison gravy train works. In addition to supplying food, clothing and medical care, private companies profit in other, less visible, ways.

Exclusive phone service agreements went to firms offering price-gouging rates and large payments to operators of prisons. In the 1990s, 90 percent of the correctional systems nationwide received a percentage of these telephone profits. By 2000, the share going to the prisons ranged from 44 percent in California to 60 percent in New York.

Prisoners, of all people in the country, have the greatest need to rely on collect calls, especially to stay in touch with their families. What excuse is there for price-gouging these families, many of whom are already suffering the loss of a breadwinner?

More than 2,626 prisoners in New Jersey and more than 85,000 inmates nationally are held in private, for-profit facilities. To sell their services in state capitals, we learn in another chapter that "Corporations with a stake in the expansion of private prisons invested $3.3 million in candidates for state office and state political parties in 44 states over the 2002-04 election cycle."

On top of that, these companies support the American Legislative Exchange Council, an influential behind-the-scenes interest group working with state legislators to pass tougher sentencing laws that will increase prison populations.

Cheap labor: While U.S. laws prohibit importing products made by prisoners in other countries, Gordon Lafer, a University of Oregon professor, reports that about 80,000 U.S. inmates work in 30 states where laws permit private firms to use convict labor. In Ohio, for example, a Honda supplier pays prison workers $2 per hour. These private firms do not pay for vacations, sick leave or overtime and workers can be dropped at will.

Liberty for sale: According to a recent New York Times article, bail bondsmen occupy a unique, for-profit niche in the American justice system. In all states except Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon and Wisconsin, to avoid going directly to jail an accused person must pay a bondsman a non-refundable fee — often 10 percent of the bond — even if he or she appears for all court proceedings. In some states, the bondsman is even permitted to hunt down and capture a client who fails to appear in court, breaking into homes without a warrant, if necessary.

What can be done to end this tax-subsidized prison gravy train? First, the laws and policies made in Trenton must stop filling state prisons with nonviolent drug users who should be in drug-treatment facilities, not prisons. Second, the lawmakers must stop passing ever-longer, one-size-fits-all mandatory minimum sentences that only tie the hands of courtroom judges and needlessly fill our prisons.

Until then, prison profiteers will continue to exploit New Jersey inmates and citizens in whose name the state prisons are built and operated.

Ronald Fraser writes on public policy issues for the DKT Liberty Project, a Washington-based civil liberties organization.

Clintons and Colombia

What was this?

McCain Supports the Troops?

From think progress:

McCain’s support of “significant educational benefits” is ironic, considering that he is still “hedging on whether he will support a ‘GI Bill for the 21st Century,’” as Jon Soltz and Gen. Wesley Clark note in today’s LA Times. That bill, sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), would help fund higher education for service members who had served in active duty since 9/11. Will the media ever call McCain on his flip flops and contradictions?

“As de facto leader of the party, McCain could signal to other Republicans to sign on to the bill and assure passage,” Soltz and Clark note. VoteVets and BraveNewFilms has released a video on the new GI Bill and McCain.

jersey junot wins the pulitzer prize!

still haven't read the brief wondrous life of oscar wao that takes place in various locales of jersey including paterson and the rutgers campus???? what are you waiting for? it's officially one of my top 5 books...

junot diaz, jersey boy and rutgers alum, has won the pulitzer prize for fiction... read more about junot on the rutgers website and alumni news page. for more details about his childhood in old bridge, his recent "rome" prize and other thrilling details, see yesterday's star ledger article.

here's a snippet for our jersey readers:

New Jersey, a state worth discussing. Though much of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao takes place at Rutgers and in the Dominican Republic, a variety of New Jersey spots, from the Woodbridge Center mall to Wildwood, also get the Díaz treatment. “The same way I wanted to document the lives of my friends that nobody seemed to care about, that no one seemed to notice,” he says, “I also wanted to document a state which is the place where I learned to be human, to be an adult. That landscape helped shape my perceptions, my opinions, my vision of the world. It launched me into the world. On top of that, you feel like no one’s doing it, and you think, well, no competition.” No competition? What about Philip Roth? What about Díaz’s contemporary, Tom Perrotta? “It’s not that it’s not being done,” Díaz notes, “or hasn’t been done, it’s just that there’s so much more work to do. It’s a state worth discussing.”

camp phoenix, afghanistan

two photos from my cousin robert, stationed recently at camp phoenix in afghanistan

(near kabul) where he is gearing up for his mission.

Bill Buckner Comes Home

I watched this on ESPN yesterday and had tears in my eyes for this man. What he went threw as a Red Sox "goat" and could never set foot in Boston or Fenway. And anyone who watched this game, a thousand times for me knows he did not lose the game for the Sox, many players already helped lose it including Schiraldi, Stanley, Gedman, etc. It was a team collapse and the media placed the blame on Buckner. Sad. But, the fans welcomed him yesterday.


Anyone who doesn't think players feel pain just watch this video. 22 years in exile. I apologize for the fans of Boston.

Challenger Newell Calls Sheldon Silver on his "Back Room" Dealings

I received this in my mailbox today. I wondered last night what Sheldon Silver's challenger (the SG friend Paul Newell) would say about Silver's shutting down the democratic process over a bill that is clearly in the best interests of the city. I didn't have to wait long, this message was waiting in my email box. Good stuff:

Challenger Paul Newell Criticizes Sheldon Silver's Congestion Dodge

Today, Paul Newell, Sheldon Silver's challenger in this year's 64th Assembly District Democratic Primary, criticized Silver's backroom dealings denying accountable government to New Yorkers, saying "Sheldon Silver's failure to even schedule a vote on congestion pricing shows his contempt for both the democratic process and concerns of Lower Manhattanites."

Newell continued to criticize Silver's deceptive approach. "New Yorkers deserve a legislature that openly debates issues rather than quietly killing them behind closed doors. After 32 years in Albany, Sheldon Silver's culture of failure denies accountability and representation to 19 million New Yorkers, and stifles innovative policy solutions. Congestion Pricing is too important an issue to be swept under the rug by Sheldon Silver".

Silver's secretive pre-emption of any vote on the issue comes on the heels of his refusing to disclose his highly suspicious side income with a powerful NY law firm. "Silver's continuing trend of secrecy and his subversion of the voter's right to have their leaders actually lead had caused too much damage to our state," Newell added.

Congestion pricing is of vital concern to Lower Manhattan. Newell pointed out that the 64th Assembly District includes the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, with the Holland Tunnel just a few blocks away, saying "There is no community in New York State more directly impacted by traffic congestion than ours".

Only 2.3% of Lower Manhattanites drive to work and the vast majority of Downtowners use public transportation. These riders stood to gain from congestion pricing with urgently needed improvements at the Brooklyn Bridge, Whitehall Street, East Broadway, Bowery, Grand Street and South Ferry subway stations and increased service on the M15 bus line.

Noting that all three Lower Manhattan City Councilmember supported the home rule message, Paul Newell asked why Silver is so out of step with the district's needs. "It's clear that Silver views his constituency as the caucus in Albany and not the people of Lower Manhattan What is the point of being represented by the Speaker when he fails to stand up for our vital concerns?".

###
Campaign for New York's Future AD 64 fact sheet: http://www.e-benchmarks.com/congestion/factsheets/mh/silver64.pdf

Daily News on Asthma zones 6/17/2007 - http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2007/06/17/2007-06-17_citys_worst_asthma_zones_sniffed_out.html

Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the Pratt Center for Community Development on AD 64 - http://www.tstc.org/reports/cpsheets/NYCassembly_factsheet_district%2064.pdf

NY Post 2/29/08 on Silver's side income- http://www.nypost.com/seven/02292008/news/regionalnews/silver_picks_crony_for_judge_panel_99783.htm