Back in 2008 I wrote that presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama would be the last chance I would give to the Democratic Party to field a progressive candidate who was citizen-friendly and not business-friendly (the two are mutually exclusive in our present economic system).
As Mano Singham tells us in his newest post, President Barack Hussein Obama is failing that standard and the clock, in my head, is now ticking on whether or not I’ll vote for his re-election and possibly turn my energies to a third-party candidate. Defeating the evil Republican candidate is no longer a sufficient reason to vote Democratic.
I came across these torture memos (thanks to the Progressive Review) just after reading The Translator, a memoir by Daoud Hari who lived through the horrible carnage in Darfur and then worked as an interpreter for western media, in the process getting captured and tortured by the various rebel groups and the government of Sudan. The similarities of what he experienced with the torture practices of the US government were chilling. When are Americans going to realize that they have allowed their government to adopt the practices of some of the worst dictatorships in the world?
Those who voted for Obama thought that he would undo the excesses of Bush-Cheney and restore some moral backbone. The fact that he has expanded and extended those abuses shows clearly that when it comes to civil liberties, Obama and his Democratic Party supporters are hypocrites.
Recent newspaper reports have said that Obama is worried about losing liberal support. Really? What a surprise! But he needn’t worry. As long as people are locked into the mindset that they must support their party at all costs, he is somewhat safe.
And more on this later, but I will not be voting for Lee Fisher for Senator this fall. I could have gotten behind Jennifer Brunner, but Fisher is just an embarrassment. I’ll be voting for Dan La Botz.
Happy — Everyone slowing down to check out the Why Vote Russo? sign on the back of my laptop… Sad — Forgetting my feckin’ camera again…
Update @ 0732:
Happy — Arabica raisin scones as good as I remember… Sad the last of the Arabica troika — Arafreeka on Coventry, Arachica on Shaker Square and Aragreeka on the Case University camnpus] is gone, replaced by the banal The Coffee House At University Circle…]
This morning on the Tim Russo 2010 Coffee House Tour I’ll be drinking espresso at The Coffee House At University Circle at 11300 Juniper Road. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop in, introduce yourself, mention this blog post and the coffee is on me.
MYANMAR/BURMA — Taking a lesson from the Chinese who were careful to seal of Tienanmen Square and herd foreigners, particularly journalists, away from the protests before cutting the lights and rolling in the tanks, Myanmar’s State Peace and Development Council (aka, the military dictators) will impose a waiting period with increased scrutiny on all entry visas beginning 1 September.
Burma will next month stop its newly-introduced visa-on-arrival scheme two months prior to controversial elections.
The move, due to come into play on 1 September, means that foreigners looking to visit the country will have to apply for visas at local embassies, which can take weeks to process and are heavily vetted by Burmese authorities.
The visa-on-arrival scheme was introduced in May this year in an attempt to boost tourist numbers – total tourism arrivals in Burma during the fiscal year 2009-2010 stood at 300,000, up from 255,288 a year earlier. But the sudden change is being widely seen as an attempt by the ruling junta to block foreign media and observers from entering before and during the elections, slated for 7 November.
The country’s Election Commission (EC) has ruled out the possibility of allowing monitors in to observe the voting, while Burma already has some of the world’s strictest media laws and is likely to tighten the clamp on foreign and exiled journalists seen to be critical of the polls.
“We think the real motive for this measure could be to prevent outside reporters and monitors from entering the country ahead of the 7 November elections,” a private tour operator told Reuters.
Burma’s so-called visa ‘blacklist’ is notorious among foreign media, activists and aid workers, with reporters known to be critical of the junta regularly banned from entering.
If you’re forced to hold a fixed election, you don’t want pesky observers watching.
Happy — A large coffee is a whopping 24 ounces… Sad — Chasing all over to find an ATM because Ohio Savings’ ATMs are down this morning.
Sad — Shipley’s does not have free wifi… Happy — An unsecured wifi within range, thank you kind citizen.
Happy — Bright natural light from the east-facing windows and little white tablecloths on the tables… Sad — I forgot to pack my feckin’ camera…
This morning on the Tim Russo 2010 Coffee House Tour I’ll be drinking espresso at Shipley’s Coffee House, 3664 E. 65th, in Slavic Village. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop in, introduce yourself, mention this blog post and the coffee is on me.
Happy — I’m not driving in the rain… Sad — Where the feck is everyone? Am I the only Tim Russo supporter in the feckin’ heart of Tim Russo’s Cuyahoga County Council District Seven power-base who gets up before noon? Move your butts you slackers!
Update @ 0730:
Happy — $1 refills on coffee at the Loop Coffee House… Sad — No butter to put on my cranberry walnut muffin…]
This morning on the Tim Russo 2010 Coffee House Tour I’ll be drinking espresso at Loop Coffee House, 2180 W 11th Street, in Tremont . If you’re in the neighborhood, stop in, introduce yourself, mention this blog post and the coffee is on me.
MYANMAR/BURMA — The more I read about Myanmar and the ruling State Peace and Development Council (aka, the country’s military dictators) the more convinced that the generals must consider the works of George Orwell to be instruction manuals when it comes to selecting names for themselves and their minions.
The SPDC alone is a hoot, but also consider the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army which the generals consider to be an ethnic peace group. OK, they are ethnic, actually a tiny minority of the Kayin and they are a group, and an army in the little “a” kind of way, but Democratic, Peace, Buddhist? I’m not buying it.
An ethnic border guard forces in Myanmar’s south-east command has been formed by the government under its command, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Sunday without naming the peace group which was so done.
A ceremony was held in Paingkyon, Kayin state on Friday to mark the transformation to the frontier forces, attended by Chairman of Mon State Peace and Development Council and South-East Commander Major-General Htet Naing Win.
The event came two days after the ethnic peace group, the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army, was transformed into similar border guard force on Wednesday and that ceremony took place in Myaingkyigoo township of the same Kayin state.
The south-east command border guard forces in Kayin state is believed to be the sixth forces of its kind so far changed from ethnic peace groups by the government after New Democratic Army- Kachin in Kachin State Special Region-1, Kayinni Nationalities People’s Liberation Front in Kayah State Special Region-2, the Kokang Army in Shan State (North) Special Region-1 in the northeast, Shan state-East border guard force and the DKBA in Kayin state since late last year.
Transformation of ethnic peace groups into frontier forces is being carried out by the government in accordance with the 2008 new state constitution which prescribes that all the armed forces in the union are to be under the command of the Defense Services in the light of the upcoming general election.
Even Winston Smith wouldn’t be able to handle this.
I’m down to eight boxes that are not in a closet (I have 10 in the closet right now) and just wanted to share a little photographic love of how my space is looking these days.
This first photo is of my mediation cushion and Go board — game in progress — in the middle of my living room.
When I was a magazine editor I had four horizontal, four-drawer filing cabinets– 64 linear feet — full of news releases, photographs, background material, published stories, tear sheets and notes on the best places to pull a pint in more than 100 cities and towns in the United States. When the municipal edition of Recycling Today folded in 1992, I took much of that home with me and used a great deal of it to help launch Waste News in 1995. In 1999, when I moved out of my house and into my current apartment I tossed about half the files into the recycling dumpster.
Today I have one old-style, green-and-brass filing cabinet that I picked up for $10 and about 19 small banker boxes that I’m committed to reducing to no more than what will fit in three of the drawers of that filing cabinet. In the past I’ve been a dedicated, OK, full-blown anal, filer of papers with hanging folders and manila inserts all carefully labeled. I’m about to embark on another round of filing and realized that my current alphabetical system no longer makes sense in a world where searching a text file takes less than a second.
Here’s what I’m thinking. Each day as I file, I’ll labeled the hanging folder and the manila insert with the date in the form of YYMMDDA, YYMMDDB, YYMMDDC, etc. So the first file that I create today will be labeled: 100822A, the next 100822B and so on. In a text file created using Notepad (how retro is that?) I’ll record the number and a brief description of what I put in the file like this: 100822A Lawrence Block. That means that I will never ever have to erase and relabel a file again. If for some reason I decided to recycle everything in file 100822A, I can just put the empty file hanger and folder on top of the pile to be used next and change the notation in my master folder file.
Because the text file will be the Rosetta Stone to my files, I’ll make quick back-ups to my thumb drive and Google space when I finish a day’s filing.
I think I’ve thought this through. Anybody see any holes?
MYANMAR/BURMA — Two headlines from two newspapers — The Washington Post and the Mail & Guardian — struck me as perfect examples of the chaos that is foreign policy and understanding as regards events in Myanmar. Burma poll holds little promise, declares the Mail & Guardian; Is Burma on the verge of transformation? asks The Washington Post.
No, the stories are not mutually exclusive, they could both be right and they could both be wrong or one each each way. I don’t know. It seems to me however, that understanding Myanmar is like the blind men describing the elephant. The beast is huge an no one journalist’s reach can grab it all. The only objective fact that everyone other than the military dictators themselves can agree on is that they country is run by venal men who care only about their own power, all else is up for interpretation.
From 1730 today until 1830 tomorrow, 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.
The real writer is one who really writes. Talent is an invention like phlogiston after the fact of fire. Work is its own cure. You have to like it better than being loved. —Marge Piercy, For the young who want to in The Moon Is Always Female
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At day’s first light, have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that “I am rising for the work of man.” Must I grumble at setting out to do what I was born for and for the sake of which I have been brought into the world? Is this the purpose of my creation, to lie here under my blankets and keep myself warm? “Ah, but it is a great deal more pleasant!” Was it for pleasure, then, that you were born and not for work? —Marcus Aurelius
Let me respectfully remind you, life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken-- Awaken! This night your days will be diminished by one. Take heed. Do not squander your life. —Zen Evening Gatha
Take an ax to the prison wall. Escape. Walk out like someone suddenly born into color. Do it now. —Rumi, Quietness
