21 November 2009
21 November 2009
VOTE FOR JILL… AGAIN…
1011 by Jeff HessIt would be nice if I got more than a t-shirt out of all this shilling.
21 November 2009
YOU FUCKERS GAVE ME BAD ADVICE…
1003 by Jeff Hess21 November 2009
MY COMMENTS…
0950 by Jeff Hess21 November 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff Hess
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.
No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. — Mark Twain (1866)
Warning: never trust an Internet quote without checking something other than Google. I’m willing to bet that less than 10 percent of these are real or accurate.
21 November 2009
FROM MY (NANORWIMO) CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
There is no more important component of fiction than dialogue. The words your characters speak to one another do more to convey their nuances to the reader than any words you can employ yourself to sketch them. Dialogue advances and defines plot, renders complicated developments fathomable, and permits fiction to raise its voice, speaking, not merely to the mind but the ear as well. p. 198
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
I wrote 1,375 words yesterday morning and my total word count is now 40,010.
20 November 2009
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff Hess
In a vote by the United Nations 192-nation Third Committee, which focuses on human rights issues, North Korea and Myanmar were condemed for widespread and human rights violations. Sort of. The vote on North Korea was 97 yea, 19 nea and 65 abstentions. On Myanmar the vote was 92 yea, 26 nea and, again, 65 absentions.
That means that on the Myanmar vote, 92 member nations voted to condem actions of the State Peace and Development Council, aka, Myanmar’s military dictators, but 91 chose to either not condemn the generals or fiddle about with themselves. That’s hardly a solid vote.
From Reuters:
Envoys from developing nations that rights groups have also accused of having poor human rights records — including China, Russia, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Egypt and Zimbabwe — told the committee that they generally reject such resolutions because they oppose singling out specific countries.
Myanmar’s U.N. envoy Than Swe rejected the resolution on his country, which said the assembly “strongly condemns the ongoing systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Myanmar.”
It also voiced “grave concern” at the recent trial and sentencing to further house arrest of Myanmar’s opposition leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and urged the military junta to release her and all other political prisoners.
Than Swe said the resolution is “glaringly deficient” and little more than “another means to maintain pressure on Myanmar in tandem with sanctions.”
The message seems to be that if you can’t say something nice (or really nasty about the United States or Israel) you shouldn’t say anything at all.
And on the subject of documentary film awards:
Orphans of Burma’s Cyclone, made by two anonymous journalists who risked 30-year jail terms to film the lives of children left without parents by last year’s natural disaster, won the features award.
The Burmese film was the work of two cameramen from the media organisation Democratic Voice of Burma – known only as “Z” and “T” – who secretly followed eight orphans struggling to rebuild their lives after the devastation wrought by Cyclone Nargis.
Six months after filming the documentary, T was arrested, and last week, after four months in jail, he was told he would be charged with the new offence of filming without government permission.
The film was shot on location in Burma between May 2008 and March 2009 for the Oxford-based production company Quicksilver Media.
“Despite all the dangers, they still created a film narrative,” said the judges for the awards, which celebrate the work of freelance newsgatherers around the world. “It was a journey for each of the individual families – and you went on that journey with them.”
And, and, Burma VJ is on the long list of nominations for an Oscar in the Best Documentary category.
20 November 2009
20 November 2009
WHAT THEY SAY…
0938 by Jeff HessAfter a long and difficult debate on health care, The Stupak/Pitts Amendment passed The House 240 to 194 with 64 Democrats breaking from the party platform to add an amendment to the bill further restricting legal abortion. The move was underhanded, disgusting and unforgivable to the women in the pro-choice movement because it took the all important health care bill we so desperately need and turned it into a political football. The trick used is called “a poison pill”; an attempt to add inflammatory last minute language to bring down a good bill.
Betrayal. Pure and simple. Sixty percent of the women in this country vote democratic, and do so because they believe in the party platform; a platform that includes comprehensive women”s rights, not as a mere third rail, but as a major tenant of the overall concept of human rights. And these women are pissed.
And…
Political commentator and newly elected Pepper Pike City Councilwoman Jill Miller Zimon is very concerned about the ramifications of this legislation, citing how important this health care legislation will be for so many people. Yet in spite of that, as a pro-choice Democratic woman she stands firmly behind the 41 women in the House who have signed a statement vowing to vote down the bill if the Stupak/Pitts language is not removed.
“We DO need to pass the health care bill,” Zimon said, “but healthcare for all of us, and that includes our senior citizens, men, and women, not just select constituencies.”
20 November 2009
20 November 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI 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.
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you! — Pericles (430 B.C.)
Warning: never trust an Internet quote without checking something other than Google. I’m willing to bet that less than 10 percent of these are real or accurate.
20 November 2009
FROM MY (NANORWIMO) CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
We cannot control how the reader will receive our fictional message, nor should we be able as writers to assert such control. The best we can do, I believe, is write carefully and as honestly as we can and let the reader make of our work what he will. If we write well, enough people will get enough of the message. p. 196
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
I wrote 952 words yesterday morning and my total word count is now 39,624.
19 November 2009
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff HessWhile President Barack Hussein Obama’s visit to South East Asia and meeting with Myanmar’s Senior General Than Shwe did not result in any dramatic breaking of political logjams, it does appear that it may have given rise to the possibility of an unprecedented meeting between Shwe and oppossition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
From the Voice Of America:
Detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has requested a meeting with the chief of the country’s ruling military.
The Nobel peace laureate wrote a letter to the military government on November 11 asking to meet reclusive Senior General Than Shwe.
On Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama offered Burma the prospect of better ties with Washington if it pursues democratic reform and frees political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Unfortunately T didn’t win the Rory Peck Award this evening, but I intend to keep my eye on his unfolding story as much as possible.
19 November 2009
19 November 2009
ROLDO RIGHTS…
1230 by Jeff HessCuyahoga County has paid MMPI another $1,240,799 in addition to the monthly fees of $333,333.33, according to figures from the County Auditor”s department.
The monthly fees have cost County taxpayers some $2.3 million to MMPI. As I noted earlier, MMPI collects this each month as a fee and give no details of spending for the monthly check. The added $1.2 million went for other tasks performed for or by MMPI.
In addition, the County itself has spent $611,801 of the sales tax monies collected since January 2008. The total collected as of the end of October was $74,454,985.70.
The breakdown of the County”s expenditures is $61,517 in salary, $9,839 in benefits and $540,365 Continue Reading »
19 November 2009
MY COMMENTS…
0957 by Jeff Hess19 November 2009
19 November 2009
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI 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.
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. — Voltaire (1764)
Warning: never trust an Internet quote without checking something other than Google. I’m willing to bet that less than 10 percent of these are real or accurate.
19 November 2009
FROM MY (NANORWIMO) CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
The best surprise endings don”t merely surprise the reader. In addition they force him to reevaluate everything that has preceded them, so that he views the actions and the characters in a different light. p. 188
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
I wrote 3,028 words yesterday morning and my total word count is now 38,672.
18 November 2009
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff HessIn our attention to presidents, prime ministers and emperors, it is too easy to miss the actions of those with no titles. The common citizen does not get to claim the title of Nobel Laureate. Those in the trenches seldom get a meeting with those who wield power. They takes the risks and suffers the consequences.
From the New Zealand Herald:
If a shocking documentary about the fate of Myanmar’s cyclone orphans wins a prestigious video-journalism award in London tomorrow night, it will be some time before one of the men who shot it gets a chance to celebrate.
Six months after shooting on the film was completed, the cameraman known only as T was arrested coming out of an internet café in Yangon and taken to the city’s Insein prison.
Last week, after four months in jail, he was told he would be charged with the new offence of filming without government permission, which carries a minimum jail sentence of 10 years.
The Rory Peck awards are given annually to freelance video cameramen and documentary makers who run the sort of risks which Peck, who was shot dead while filming the siege of the Russian parliament in 1993, took every day.
In Myanmar – formerly known as Burma – the challenges are rather different. The risks of getting shot or bombed while filming in the peaceable, agrarian Irrawaddy delta south of Rangoon are low. But, in other respects, this must be one of the most dangerous assignments in the world.
In any revolution, it is the leaders who capture the headlines while people like T do the work.
