Buried deep inside Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s 144-page union-busting bill:

Notwithstanding ss. 13.48 (14) (am) and 16.705 (1), the department may sell any state-owned heating, cooling, and power plant or may contract with a private entity for the operation of any such plant, with or without solicitation of bids, for any amount that the department determines to be in the best interest of the state. Notwithstanding ss. 196.49 and 196.80, no approval or certification of the public service commission is necessary for a public utility to purchase, or contract for the operation of, such a plant, and any such purchase is considered to be in the public interest and to comply with the criteria for certification of a project under s. 196.49 (3) (b).

Emphasis mine.

Via Sherry Chandler…

0731: How to save time following the news: Tip #1

Read Becoming a Writer, by Dorothea Brande. Then do what it says, including the tasks you think are impossible. You will particularly hate the advice to write first thing in the morning, but if you can manage it, it might well be the best thing you ever do for yourself. This book is about becoming a writer from the inside out. Many later advice manuals derive from it. You don’t really need any others, though if you want to boost your confidence, “how to” books seldom do any harm. You can kick-start a whole book with some little writing exercise. Hilary Mantel

Ten rules for writing fiction from The Guardian.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

I’m clearing my calendar and taking a day without pay. You?

From Jobs With Justice:

For the past weeks we have seen students, workers, faith and community come together and prevent attacks to the public sector across the country. These attacks are threatening the basic structures of our society, including the right to an education and the right to full and fair employment. It is time to take action and demand a stop to the cuts!

Student Labor Action Project, a project between USSA and Jobs with Justice, is calling for a national day of action on March 2nd to defend the public sector.

State budget cuts to higher education are being made in states across the country and workers face cuts to pay, healthcare and pensions. Many of the workers on college campuses are caught in the crisis of both attacks to the public sector.

Join us on March 2nd to demand that the attacks on the public sector are stopped immediately. It’s time to:

Protect the vital public services our community needs, and the jobs of the people who deliver those services;

Ensure that higher education remains affordable and accessible to all;

Call for our elected leaders to recognize the emergency and take bold action to create new jobs that will put people back to work, rebuild our country’s infrastructure, and re-invest in higher education; and

Support workers seeking a job with justice, a living wage, the right to organize a union, a fair contract and a voice at work.

Never before has USSA, SLAP, and Jobs with Justice all come together for a single call to action. The vital importance of fighting the pandemic attacks on public education and workers required that each to unite with one voice in action.

Jobs with Justice and SLAP encourages all students concerned about state of public workers and the American public education system to stand up and fight back!

Take a page out of the Wisconsin play book and organize a rally or march at your state capitol building demonstrating public support for workers.

Educate your peers about the recent attacks on the public sector and how community members can get involved in the effort to stop them.

Host a call-in day where students call members of the House of Representatives and the Senate and demand federal investment in public workers.

Whatever you do, let Jobs with Justice and SLAP help promote and strengthen your organizing by uplifting your campus’ or community’s actions through new media. Together, we can create an urgent national message that moves policy makers and the public to promote public need, public workers, and our public higher education system.

Are you revolted enough yet?

Are you serious about this? Then get an accountant. Hilary Mantel

Ten rules for writing fiction from The Guardian.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

MYANMAR/BURMA — The phrase telegraphing his punches originally refereed to boxers whose body language alerted opponents to where the next blow was intended and, like the WikiLeaks cables, it is an anachronism. In the 21st century we don’t use telegraphs or cables but we do tweet. Too much political transparency, when dictatorial regimes are involved, is not a good idea.

From The Irrawaddy:

“Since last year, we have trained over 120 laborers from the countryside on how to use the Internet,” said Ko Win, a middle-aged political activist in Rangoon. “I taught them how to use Gmail and Gtalk, though I myself have yet to learn how to use Facebook and Twitter.”

Ko Win said that he hopes some of these students will become politically active and revolt against Burma’s military rulers.

“We hope we can use the Internet to initiate an uprising this summer like those that took place in Tunisia and Egypt,” he said. “Because we cannot rely on the leadership of the mainstream opposition to topple the regime.”

Ko Win, who for security reasons does not want his full name identified, said he and his friends used their own money to give students free Internet lessons in Rangoon Internet cafés.

Many other Burmese activists are also excited by the nationwide uprisings in North Africa that have already ousted two entrenched dictators. But some have said that to use the Internet to organize and rally a political protest in Burma, they must overcome challenges such as the country’s slow Internet speed, the junta’s restrictions on Internet access and the small number of Internet users in the country of nearly 60 million people.

Not that Myanmar’s military dictators are stupid or even ignorant, but I don’t see the advantage of hoisting a big red flag over one of your biggest tools if you’re planning a revolution.

Do what you can to make this a good morning, Myanmar.

Remember writing doesn’t love you. It doesn’t care. Nevertheless, it can behave with remarkable generosity. Speak well of it, encourage others, pass it on. Al Kennedy

Ten rules for writing fiction from The Guardian.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Remember you love writing. It wouldn’t be worth it if you didn’t. If the love fades, do what you need to and get it back. Al Kennedy

Ten rules for writing fiction from The Guardian.

Found in my electronic chapbook.From My Chapbook,Ten Rules For Writing Fiction,Fiction,Writing,Al Kennedy

Roldo Bartimole writes:

People surely believe that Cleveland has shrunk. It has diminished in more ways than mere loss of population. The Census figures soon will tell us how much.

Do we realize just how it has diminished? For what reason?

Institutions as the Plain Dealer and the Greater Cleveland Partnership have really, really shrunk the city. It’s their vision that’s the problem.

They do not recognize the city’s normal old legal borders. Nor do they seem to recognize or care about the part of Cleveland where its people live.

They want to set new boundaries. Convenient lines for their purposes.

Here’s how I see it: The City of Cleveland to these people now is bounded by Lake Erie to the north, Carnegie Avenue to the south, and the banks of the Cuyahoga River to the west and about East 4th Street to the east. That’s about it. It has real, really shrunk.

Much less to worry or care about.

That’s all that’s left to their Cleveland now. The rest is invisible.

How can I tell? I can tell because that’s where all the resources of the city seem to flow. The newest ornament: a $550,000 skate park. Put it downtown, they say.

Why not? That’s as far as they can or want to see.

“But good for the serious-minded mayor,” praises a PD editorial, “for wanting to enliven the city’s core and its waterfronts as a way to revitalize downtown.” It makes for a more “inviting downtown.”

Is that what makes a “serious-minded mayor” these days? A $550,000 gift to downtown. Not in a neighborhood.

Are we still “revitalizing” downtown? How much revitalizing does it need from government? How much public money needs to flow to this small enclave? How many centuries will this take? Please, give us a hint.

Really, there is more to Cleveland, Mr. and Ms. Editorial Writer. I know you want people to feel good about Cleveland. But feel good “news” isn’t enough. It doesn’t solve problems. And have we got problems.

You can’t have a golden core surrounded by a rotted exterior. It won’t work.

To be honest, I should mention a satellite of downtown: University Circle – around our cultural and medical institutions. It’s an exception to the “downtown only” rule.

These two small enclaves are where the concentration of media attention goes these days. As does so much of the city’s scarce public investments rush.

It’s an elixir that gives a fast high but not a lasting one.

The concentration of resources on downtown is KILLING the rest of what used to be Cleveland. It is starving the peopled city of dire needs. But who cares?

Not much attention goes to the rest of the city – the part, oddly enough, where most of the Cleveland people live. They might as well live in Pittsburgh. Or Miami, for all our leaders seem to care.

Oh, a smidgen of attention is given to some neighborhoods. Tremont’s restaurants and retail. Same goes for the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood where funding from foundations and the city has made it a go-to place. These places are not nourished because Cleveland people go there.

All these go-to places cater more to visitors than to those who live in the city.

Why is that so?

In good part, it is because the media – which essentially is the Plain Dealer in this town – hardly recognizes the rest of the city. It draws our attention to what it perceives as the city. It draws our attention to the go-to places of people with money to spend.

When I was at the PD in the late 1960s the attention of the editors, thus the attentiveness of the coverage, had a wider view than today. Attention was demanded. The times and the city were more explosive, you see. Its people were less passive and more edgy. There were violent reactions to long neglect.

The editors were nervous. What was going on out there? Who are these angry people and what do they want?

I was assigned some of this reporting at the PD in the mid-1960s. The PD showed so much interest that many of the articles were given a special tag and a prominent display. The loosely defined series of articles on urban issues filled a full page. It was displayed on a back page for better viewing. It had a fixed headline: “The Changing City.”

We know less of our city and its people now than we did then.

I suggest that the Plain Dealer begin to cover the city, not just the downtown and the cultural/medical center.

Let’s allow the glitz to make its own mark. Let’s give voice to the voiceless out there.

It’s time to tell the story of what happened to the people of Cleveland who live outside what Joe Roman believes is Cleveland.

It’s time to get outside, PD editors and reporters. It’s time to see what happened to that Changed City. It’s time to see what is left and worth saving. People are still there. Attention must be paid. Or someday attention will be demanded.

Time to balance the coverage. Give some attention. Or you may wake up some day and find attention is demanded.

If it can happen in Middle East dictatorships it even can happen in Cleveland Ohio.

From my dad, of course…

From 1730 today until 1830 Monday, I will be off-line. There will be no new posts during this time, nor will I be checking email. Go for a walk. Have coffee with a friend. Read a book.. Appreciate all that is your family.

Write. No amount of self-inflicted misery, altered states, black pullovers or being publicly obnoxious will ever add up to your being a writer. Writers write. On you go. Al Kennedy

Ten rules for writing fiction from The Guardian.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Ralphy:

The debate going on in this country right now is absurd. “We’re broke” is the mantra and so we have to funnel more money to the top 10% with no industrial policy in place to encourage them to invest it here and we’ve got to attack the culture of “entitlement” to drive more of the middle class into poverty. It all reveals a stunning cynicism and a message of “No, We Can’t.” The irony is that people like Gingrich admire China and won’t be satisfied until Americans accept their fate as economic serfs. Don’t get me started. I’m disgusted.” Bob Erwin