The conversation between Gayperson and myself concerning Tim Russo’s County Council District 7 race continues, but it now appears that I’ve again crossed over a line and got this email yesterday from the Plain Dealer:

Your account has been frozen for 24 hours due to violations of our Community Rules. We do our best to provide our users with a safe, respectful, and engaging online community. We are unable to provide specific details, [emphasis mine, JH] but please review our rules. In 24 hours, we would very much like to have you back!

“Please note: this is an unmoderated account.”

Review I did, but I remain unclear exactly which line I crossed, but their website, their rules.

This morning I reposted my comment.

Another potential voter, Cavsandpolitics, weighed in on Tim this past Tuesday, but because they simply stated their opinion and didn’t feel any need to emblelish — I’ll give them the age error, it could be an honest mistake — what Tim himself has posted, I chose to not respond.

For me this is all about trasparency and a just society.

0651: President Clinton hanging with the US soccer team

When those with money had plates made of pewter, food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Yes, it almost make sense…

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

men she had married and mothered bent
past unbending by her days of labor
that love had led her to. They had to break her
before she would lie down in the coffin.

-from The Grandmother, p. 109

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.

It is much forgotten here in the United States, but the greatest of all rights granted by the first, and most important, Amendment to our Constitution is the right of the people peaceably to assemble. All other rights there are singular. Only the right to peaceably assemble is a collective right that holds the greatest power.

The State Peace and Development Council (aka, Myanmar’s military dictators) fully understands how dangerous to tyrants this right is.

From The Independent:

Political parties seeking to contest elections due to be held in Burma later this year have been told they will not be able to march, chant or say anything during rallies that is judged to have the potential to damage the country’s image.

In a series of guidelines published in state-controlled media, it was also revealed that any party seeking to hold a gathering or rally outside of its own headquarters must seek permission from the authorities at least a week in advance.

And from Asia News:

The Election Commission has declared Burmese songs, marches, flags and slogans in rallies illegal, so as not to “tarnish” the country’s image. The parties that participate in the vote, therefore, may hold public meetings, but only with permission, with one week in advance notice and only if they abide by the strict rules imposed on campaigning, including “silent rallies”. Meanwhile, the Asian Human Rights Commission denounces the arrest of a Buddhist Monk for anti-government activities.

The gagged rallies are part of a 14-point directive released by the Commission, which regulates the registration of parties and the arrangements for conducting the vote. The government has not yet officially named the day when the elections are to be held. To participate, parties must submit at least 1,000 members enrolled on the lists within the next 90 days.

Perhaps it is time to simply call for a Vote No campaign.

When we were peasants, we sometimes could obtain pork, which made us feel quite special. When visitors came over, we would hang up our bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” We would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Yes, it almost make sense…

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

May it abide a poet with as much grace!
For I too am perhaps a little mad,
standing here wet in the drizzle, listening
to the clashing syllables of the water.

-from Meditation In The Spring Rain, p. 106

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.

Drugs drive the economies of much of the resistance to Myanmar’s State Peace and Development Council (aka, the country’s military dictators) because, without recourse to the more lucrative trade, particularly in oil and gas that the SPDC has, the freedom fighters have no way to buy weapons and ammunition.

Expecting the repression to increase as the nation steps closer to the faux election that might happen in the fall, the rebels are ramping up production of their cash crop.

From The Guardian:

Elections promised for Burma this year have sparked an explosion in drug trafficking into Thailand, as rebel armies, fearful of a final, pre-poll crackdown by the ruling junta, trade heroin and amphetamines for guns.

For decades rebel armies, most notably the Wa State Army, have financed their fight against the oppressive Burma junta by running drugs over the border, from where they are trafficked all over the world.

A decade ago the Golden Triangle between Thailand, Burma and Laos supplied half the world’s heroin. Afghanistan now produces more, but drug barons in Burma have turned to manufacturing massive quantities of amphetamines and methamphetamines – which can be produced cheaply in small, hidden laboratories, without the need for acres of exposed land.

Now Burma’s illicit drug trade and the country’s flawed electoral process appear set to collide. The Burmese junta has promised elections sometime this year, probably in October, though few in the international community expect them to be free or fair. The ruling generals have vowed to bring the rebel armies under their command, and turn them into border guard forces, before the polls are held.

This is not Mexico or South America, however, the freedom fighters are closer to our revolutionaries than President Ronald Reagan’s moral equivalents ever were. This is not about protecting a drug trade, it’s about protecting their people.

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

DALEY RESORTS TO AD HOMINEN ATTACKS… A frustrated, angry and increasingly desperate Mayor Richard M. Daley is left with only ad hominen attacks on suburban-living reporters as he flails about grasping for reasons why he can’t get a second Walmart build in his city. Just how close do you have to live, Mayor? Keep reading…

COULD WALMART POSSIBLY BE THIS STUPID…? This could be a hoax or a really sick joke. I do not want to believe that any supervisor at Walmart could possibly be so brain dead as to purposely put the company in the path of yet another multi-million dollar lawsuit. But it is what it is. Keep reading…

NO SURPRISE HERE… Of course Walmart objects to any environmental or green technology that actually raises its costs. Just as it kicked its Buy American campaign to the curb when it need to save money, so too will Walmart reject any environmental effort that doesn’t save it money. Keep reading…

WALMART LOVES ITS SUPPLIERS TO DEATH… In yet another case of Walmart kicking its suppliers to the curb — why should Walmart care, there’s always another supplier around the corner — Walmart’s decision to give sales a temporary boost by slashing the price of name-brand sodas is killing Cotts. Keep reading…

RIGHT’S LOVE OF WALMART WANING…? When I find someone speaking out in support of Walmart’s business genius and the miracle of low, low prices, I feel safe putting that person solidly in at least the conservative if not far right category. Clayton E. Cramer is the exception that proves the rules. Keep reading…

IT DID SAY RAISIN, SINGULAR… I buy generics when I can’t tell the difference between the brand name or the store product. I’d say that I’m satisfied about a third of the time. Your experience may vary, but Keith was not pleased when his Great Value raisin bran turned out to be not such a great value. Keep reading…

HOW TIGHT IS THE iPHONE 4 SECURITY…? Communications have broken down before — I recall Harry Potter books going on the stacks early — between Walmart and suppliers who have a hard sell date and now that the iPhone 4 is in the stockroom, techies are salivating over being able to scream First! Keep reading…

ELUSIVE LIKE A WHITE ELEPHANT…? Walmart and techie geekdom has taken a turn down the dirt road with news from a magazine devoted to iStuff — talk about your niche — that Walmart claims to have white iPhone 4s in stock for sale tomorrow. Why does the color matter? Who the feck knows. Keep reading…

In the old days, we cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day we lit the fire and added things to the pot. We ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. We would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

Yes, it almost make sense…

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Those who wait
to change until a crowd agrees
with their opinions will never change.

-from A Letter, p. 102

Found in my electronic chapbook.

From Farming: A Hand Book by Wendell Berry.

Ann Cahill, Europe correspondent for the Irish Examiner hits the nail when she questions the efficacy of international condemnation, sanctions, and bans on investment and importation of goods, when Myanmar has recourse to support and trade with Russia, China and India. The generals are not impressed.

Cahill writes:

Rated the most corrupt country in the world using child soldiers, sex slaves for its army, forced labour and a major exporter of heroin, it survives because it has supporters.

These include Russia and its neighbours China and India who have forced UN condemnations to be watered down. They pursue their trade interests as Russia helps with their nuclear reactor, China supplies arms and there are claims that North Korea is helping to develop nuclear weapons.

A gasfield, due to come on stream in two year’s time, doubtless will make the country even more attractive.

In the meantime, the ruling military dictators spend less than any other country in the world on the health of its 56 million citizens, maintain the 12th largest active army in the world, and has built a new capital city with eight lane highways and flyovers – and no traffic.

The world is not ready for another war, even a small regional one. But, when all measures of change fail, repeatedly, is it time to say we’re impotent?