The only part of the Julian Assange story that surprises me is that he’s still breathing.

From Anti-War:

Anyone who doubts the unmitigated evil of the US government and its international enablers has only to look at the disgraceful persecution of Julian Assange to see Washington’s brazen malevolence in full flower. As the WikiLeaks web site continues to release daily examples of US incompetence, bullying, venality, and corruption, the response from the Imperial City has been a coordinated campaign of lies, smears, and what can only be described as utter filth.

This outpouring of satanic bile has been disgorged onto the front pages of the world’s newspapers in retaliation for the “crime” of revealing the everyday machinations and cynical maneuverings of the US government as it rampages, loots, and murders its way across the face of the earth. In doing so, Assange and WikiLeaks have violated the first principle of the new world order, which is that they (the governments of the world) have every right to know what we’re saying in the privacy of our own homes: in our emails, our phone conversations, and anywhere else we (falsely) believe we’re free from prying eyes and ears. However, we have no right to know what they are doing, in our name – with our tax dollars – and to believe otherwise is “treason.”

Under ordinary rules, I would call Raimondo’s screed shrill and over-the-top. Present conditions are far from ordinary however, and I have to say his response is reasonable and measured.

Via Mano Singham…

From Cleveland Jobs With Justice:

A Call to Action for Rite Aid Workers

What: Local event for the National Day of Action for Dignity and Respect
Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Time: 11:00 AM
Place: Public Square, SW Quadrant (Across from Tower City)

On Dec. 15th, Rite Aid workers and their unions will stand up to fight back against management’s attack on their living standards and rights on the job. JOIN US!

Over the last few years, executives at Rite Aid have made bad business decisions that caused serious financial problems at the nation’s third largest drug store chain. Instead of working with employees to move forward in a challenging environment, Rite Aid executives are trying to make the company’s loyal and hard-working employees pay for management’s mistakes.

Rite Aid just increased its CEO’s total compensation to $4.5 million, but…

• In Cleveland OH, Rite Aid management has declared that on December 1, it will impose a concessionary contract, drastically increasing the cost of health insurance to workers;

• In Lancaster CA, management is also trying to shift the burden of rising health costs to workers;

• In Rome NY, management is closing union facilities where workers have a real voice on the job and shifting work to non-union facilities; and

• Across the country, management is not living up to its commitments and is refusing to bargain fairly.

Rite Aid workers will lead actions at stores from the following unions: United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 (PA) and Local 880 (OH); and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 26 (CA). With support from the AFL-CIO, United Students Against Sweatshops and Jobs with Justice, we call on all union supporters, community and student allies to participate in a National Day of Action on December 15.

Why is there no new Mother Jones?

From she who writes like she talks:

Three Republican County Councilmen Can Meet Secretly Whenever They Want.

Now, I wonder why that is? Hmmm?

Sic’m Jill.

From my dad, of course…

MYANMAR/BURMA — There was a time when I thought movies and documentaries had the power to engender or even force social and political change. I’m now convinced by events over the past 30 years or so that the very passive nature of film, along with the the artificial closure of the raising of the house lights, renders them little more than circuses to keep the masses docile.

So I’m not enthusiastic about Dans La Lumiere (Into The Light, a title that made me laugh given the name of Myanmar’s military dictator’s official propaganda newspaper: The New Light of Myanmar).

From Monsters & Critics:

Location shooting for a biographical movie about democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi is wrapping up this week as French filmmakers use Thailand to stand in for Myanmar, news reports said Wednesday.

Malaysian-born actress Michelle Yeoh, who won worldwide fame starring in the James-Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and the kung-fu movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, plays Suu Kyi and follows her more than two-decade-long struggle against Myanmar’s military regime.

While location shooting was underway in Thailand, Yeoh, 48, travelled to neighbouring Myanmar, also known as Burma, and visited Suu Kyi, 65, and members of her National League for Democracy, according to Radio Free Asia’s Burmese service.

The film won’t do any harm, but I just don’t see it helping.

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

The plan to starve government is much older than President Ronald Reagan, going back at least to the early ’60s.

From Anastasia Pantsios:

On the candidate level, there’s a problem for African-Americans that may be even more intractable than the one women face. You can appoint a black candidate; you can put one on a ticket as a running mate. But they can’t win state wide on their own. In 2006, when Democrats swept almost all the statewide offices, the only one they didn’t win was the auditor’s office: their candidate, Barbara Sykes, was black. While all Democrats lost this year, the one who did the worst was treasurer Kevin Boyce, who has done a stellar job in office and was running against a corrupt, unaccomplished empty suit of a candidate who ran false, bigoted commercials and was called out on them by most of the state’s media. It didn’t matter.

I’m not sure what you do about this. The Democratic Party obviously should not stop slating black candidates. But how can they win? This was brought up to me by a young black politician I interviewed for a story recently, who was taking a hard, realistic look at his own future and that of his peers. Where can they go after being elected to a local office somewhere in Cuyahoga County? It’s a dilemma. But you obviously don’t start to tackle the problem by treating the black candidates on your ticket as afterthoughts, and you certainly don’t make voters and workers feel as if you’re not paying attention to how they’re treated.

Ken Blackwell did well enough, right? What did he have that was so special?

From Mano Singham:

So, as I predicted, Barack Obama and the Democrats have, with much handwringing about how sad they are to do this but had no choice, given the oligarchy all that they want, and more.

Is President Barack Hussein Obama fated to be the last Democratic Party presidential candidate I’ll ever vote for?

From my dad, of course…

Little Larry attended a horse auction with his father. He watched as his father moved from horse to horse, running his hands up and down the horse’s legs and rump, and chest.

After a few minutes, Larry asked, “Dad, why are you doing that?”

His father replied, “Because when I’m buying horses, I have to make sure that they are healthy and in good shape before I buy.”

Larry, looking worried, said, “Dad, I think the UPS guy wants to buy Mom”

MYANMAR/BURMA — No weapon, once made available, can ever truly be removed from all military arsenals, unless its manufacture is so secret that only the weapons designer is capable of making a concept real. We continue to relearn this as the world’s nuclear club grows.

Anti-personnel land mines, first deployed hundreds of years ago came into the modern era, like many military innovations, in our own Civil War. In the following 150 years, they became a mainline defensive weapon for entrenched infantry as a way of slowing advancing enemy troops. In the last 50 years, however, mines have become primarily a terror weapon, spread indiscriminately and deployed against civilian as well as military targets.

In 1999, the Ottawa Treaty, signed by 155 nations and ratified by 153, banned the stockpiling and deployment of land mines. Those not signing the treaty include Myanmar and the United States. While there is no chance that Myanmar’s military dictators, whether they dress in military uniforms or business suits, will sign on to the ban, the United States should.

From Desmond Tutu and Jody Williams:

Along with 14 of our brother and sister Nobel Peace laureates – including democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma – we have written to fellow laureate President Obama to urge him to bring the United States into the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Many of the Nobel Peace laureates have long expressed concern at the humanitarian impact of antipersonnel mines and have worked for their eradication.

Last week more than 100 governments, as well as civil society organizations and U.N. agencies, were in Geneva for their 10th-annual assessment of the successes of the Mine Ban Treaty, as well as the remaining challenges for the total elimination of antipersonnel landmines.

Universalizing the treaty – getting all countries to come on board – remains one of those challenges. Despite the fact that 156 countries are party to the treaty, the United States still has not taken the final step and joined. We say “final step” because we have followed the situation and recognize that the U.S. government has, for almost two decades, essentially adhered to the treaty.

We commend the fact that the United States is not known to have used antipersonnel mines since the first Gulf War in 1991. It became the first country in the world to unilaterally ban exports of the weapon in 1992. The country has not produced antipersonnel mines since 1997, and has already destroyed many millions of its stockpiled mines. For almost 20 years, the United States has also been the largest funder of global mine clearance and victim assistance programs.

Almost one year ago, the Obama administration announced that it was undertaking a review of U.S. policy on antipersonnel landmines, and it should be coming to a conclusion soon.

The United States has no reason that I can see to not sign the treaty. We’re not exporting mines and we’re not using them in Afghanistan or Iraq. It’s time to sign, and ratify, the treaty.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/06/3236186/president-obama-join-the-mine.html#ixzz17QcgM1zi

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

My friend Dan Mouthrop and I are engaged in a converation on Facebook regarding Gloria Millners piece in this morning’s Plain Dealer.

Dan wrote:

A great piece from the PD. A simple reminder.

I responded:

Shalom Dan,

Except, that’s not what they said.

When it comes to local government, the PD just isn’t to be trusted.

B’shalom,

Jeff

Dan wrote back:

Jeff, she’s quoting from the same thing plunderbund is, just quoting more of it. they did commit to transparency. Do you think they are delivering? Is there a more transparent way they could do the business they’re engaged in?

Dan was right, Brian Hester at Plunderbund had made his arguments much weaker by not quoting the full text from Millner’s article. I thought however, that that flaw did not negate Hester’s central point and I attempted to fill in a few of the spaces.

Shalom Dan,

First, you’re right. Brian did a poor job on Plunderbund by not including those parts of the questionnaires provided by the then five candidates for office.

Having said that, I’m underwhelmed by Millner’s arguments and reinforced in my reasons nearly 20 years ago to stop reading the Plain Dealer.

First, the Plain Dealer headline is, if judged by the content of the story, incorrect. Of the six Democrats at the meeting, only five answered the PD’s questionnaire and in by doing so provided grist for Gloria Millner’s piece. Pernel Jones, for whatever reasons, did not.

Second, Millner wrote, but does not appear to have followed through on, the key point here in her lede: “…it seems that some of those elected on Nov. 2 don’t know what the [transparency] means.”

I would ask Millner two questions: first, what does she think the word means in this context; and second, did she put the question to the six and ask them to compare their definition to their own?

Four of the County Councilmembers reference transparency in their response to the PD’s question: “What is the most important action county government can take to restore the public’s confidence after more than two years of news about widespread corruption?”

Those responses are as follows:

Julian Rogers – “The government should operate in a completely transparent and open manner;”

Dale Miller – “We also need… open and transparent government that people can believe in;”

Sunny Simon – “Establish transparency policies and standards to include web cam coverage of council meetings and open meeting practices;” and

Dan Brady – “The most important action this new government can take to restore the public’s confidence is to be transparent.”

The fifth councilmember used the t-word in response to the question: “What would be the first thing you would do upon taking office?”
C. Ellen Connally – “…work to create a government that stands for transparency and integrity.”

Did these five people violate their campaign statements related to transparency by caucusing last Friday? I don’t think so. Contrary to what the Plain Dealer reported on Friday, the six Democrats did not “chose C. Ellen Connally as council president.” Rather they caucused and agreed among themselves that in January, when all members of the council vote for president and vice president, they will cast their six votes, a clear majority, for Connally for president of council and Dale Miller for vice president.

Yes, I’m splitting hairs here, but it’s an important hair to split.

When government officials make decisions that then are never considered in the full light of day or, at best, given perfunctory votes, then I would say the principle of transparency is violated. I don’t see that that is what has happened here.

The Republican minority led by County Councilmember Dave Greenspan, with the full editorial support of the PD, is crying foul because it realizes how ineffectual it is likely to be in a county dominated by Democrats.

Unless we are willing to contemplate government where every utterance by elected officials is immediately recorded and broadcast on the Internet, then private conversations, alliances and deal making will be part of the process.

All of this noise has much more to do with the failure of the planners behind Issue 6 to implement their plan – Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald has made it clear that he feels no obligation to adopt those plans – than it does with politicians speaking off the record.

B’shalom,

Jeff

What do you think transparency should mean in this context?

From my dad, of course…

Larry’s kindergarten class was on a field trip to their local police station where they saw pictures tacked to a bulletin board of the 10 most wanted criminals. One of the youngsters pointed to a picture and asked if it really was the photo of a wanted person.

“Yes,” said the policeman. “The detectives want very badly to capture him.”

Larry asked,”Why didn’t you keep him when you took his picture?”

MYANMAR/BURMA — I make no secret that I think there is no peaceful solution for the people of Myanmar. The State Peace and Development Council (aka, the nation’s military dictators) whether dressed in military or business uniforms, will not relinquish control unless they are trapped in the palace, captured, tried and executed.

Myanmar’s ethnic peoples understand this and each has fielded regular and irregular forces to combat the general’s military forces. Now, in direct contradiction of other’s views that Myanmar’s youth are disaffected and uninterested in revolution, a student army is joining the fight under the command of a break away faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army fighting in Myanmar’s eastern region.

From the Democratic Voice of Burma:

A Burmese student army that rose to prominence following the 1988 uprising is preparing to fight alongside Karen troops in the volatile eastern state.

The decision was confirmed today by a senior official in the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front who asked to remain anonymous. The group, which at its peak had more than 10,000 troops, will join sides with a breakaway faction of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army as fighting against Burmese forces continues close to the Thai border.

I remain puzzled at how a sham election that no one believed in has become such a catalyst, but I am happy that it has.

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