Roldo Bartimole writes:

East Cleveland Mayor Eric Brewer eviscerates Issue 6 promoters and their promoter, the Pee Dee, our morning voice from Corporate Headquarters.

Hard to disagree. Read it yourself:

Statement from Mayor Eric J. Brewer regarding Issue 6
October 25, 2009 – City of East Cleveland

“The hell with the Plain Dealer”s opinion. Vote NO on Issue 6.”

Bill Mason has presided over the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office since 1998 and it’s been the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI investigating all the corruption that’s taken place in county since he’s held office. Mason didn’t prosecute Emmanuel Onunwor, he counted him as a friend. He didn’t prosecute Nate Gray, he counted him as a political donor. I’m still waiting for Continue Reading »

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.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn’t that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart-warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

I myself am pretty much of an intuitive writer. I try to write the sort of book I would want to read if I hadn”t happened to have written it myself. The more I write to please myself, the more likelihood there is that I”ll please other people in the process. But when I deliberately set out to please other readers, I usually turn out an inferior book. So I”d advise you to write the book your own way. Give it your best shot and then when you”ve finished worry about finding somebody who likes it enough to publish it. p. 33

From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.

News from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Thailand that Myanmar might ease the detention of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi sounds like good news, but given the track record of the State Peace and Development Council, i.e, military dictators of Myanmar, my cynical self is on high alert.

From AFP:

Myanmar’s prime minister told Asian counterparts Saturday that the ruling junta could relax the conditions of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention, a Japanese official said.

The Nobel Peace laureate had “softened” her attitude towards the military regime since her house arrest was extended in August for a further 18 months, the official quoted Myanmar premier Thein Sein as saying.

But while Thein Sein announced at a regional summit in Thailand that Myanmar also wants elections next year to be “inclusive”, he would not say if Suu Kyi would be allowed to participate, the official said.

“(Myanmar’s government) believes that Aung San Suu Kyi seems to have softened her attitude towards the authorities,” Japanese delegation spokesman Kazuo Kodama quoted Thein Sein as telling leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China, Japan and South Korea.

Kodama said that the Myanmar regime “thinks if Aung San Suu Kyi maintains a good attitude it is possible that the Myanmar authorities will relax the current measures.

“The Myanmar government is… making preparations to make (next year’s) election (an) inclusive election. The Myanmar government would like to ensure all the stakeholders will take part in such a process.”

That and $2.45 will get you a caramel latte.

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.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

“In a very real sense, the writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself and to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings satisfaction, is a curious anticlimax.” Alfred Kazin. p. 181

From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.

Even as they meet to consider the creation of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, five members of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations, including Myanmar, have rejected requests by civil society groups in their respective countries to meet with national leaders attending the current summit.

From Bernama:

The governments of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore have rejected members of civil groups from their respective countries at the 15th ASEAN Summit here.

Debby Stothard, of the Alternative ASEAN Network, said they were informed by the Thai Foreign Ministry at 11 p.m. yesterday that the leaders would not meet the five people nominated by the civil groups.

“Some governments like Singapore have even replaced the nominees with their own representatives,” she said as the summit kicked off at the Dusit Thani Hotel in the seaside resort here Friday.

Particularly troubling is the trend evident in the move.

The dialogue between the 10 ASEAN Leaders and civil society groups was introduced during the 14th ASEAN Summit held here last February.

The first meeting itself was embroiled in controversy after leaders of Myanmar and Cambodia refused to meet the representatives from their respective countries.

Myanmar, of course, remains consistent.

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.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

“Read John Kremer”s 1,001 Ways to Market Your Books and keep the press”s publicity people alerted to what you have planned.” p. 171

From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.

More good news out of Washington D.C. concerning President Barack Hussein Obama’s administration’s interest in Myanmar. At a hearing Wednesday morning, State Department Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell told Congressional members that he would lead a team to Myanmar in the next few weeks.

From Reuters:

“We intend to go to Burma in the next few weeks for a fact-finding mission,” Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. He gave no dates or details.

“During our trip, we will talk to the Burmese government, representatives of the ethnic nationalities and the democratic opposition including the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi and others,” he testified in a hearing.

Campbell earlier met with Myanmar’s minister of science, technology and labor, the highest level contact with the government since in nine years.

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.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I’ve not been told.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

“For a good step-by-step plan on how to write a book proposal, read Michael Larson”s How to Write a Book Proposal.” p. 170

From Living The Writer’s Life: by Eric Maisel.

The awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Hussein Obama has been the subject of confusion and derision, but events in Myanmar may offer some insight to the committee’s thinking. President Obama is changing the international game and €35 million in relief seed money may be one sign of the shift.

From The Financial Times:

The European Union has announced an expansion of its aid programme to Burma, reinforcing a western trend towards engagement with the country.

The EU has pledged €35m towards a fund called LIFT – the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust fund – a sum they hope that other donors, including Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark will eventually increase the total to some €100m.

For years, the west tried to isolate the Burmese regime in an attempt to force it to improve its dismal human rights record and move towards democracy, but the sanctions and the calls for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi created little change inside the country.

A hint earlier this year that the United States was rethinking its hard-line isolationism has provoked a cascade of new policies. The move gathered momentum last month when Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said that although they were leaving their sanctions regime in place, it would be accompanied by talks with the generals who run Burma.

Could the West finally abandon the failed policies of isolation for engagement? Will the dictators of the world respond before their people can respond for them?

1605: Rich Cordray has a Russell Hughlock problem

1311: Good Thinks.

Mano Singham writes:

I learned a new word from [Capitalism: A Love Story]: plutonomy. It is a word coined in a secret internal Citigroup document in 2005 to describe a country that is defined by massive income and wealth inequality and it is only what the wealthy do that matters to the economy. The memo says that this is what the US has become, in which the top 1% of people have more wealth that the bottom 95%. In such an economy, the needs of the bottom 95% can be ignored because they do not influence anything. This is why we now see the stock markets rebounding and the news media cheering as if things are great, although unemployment is growing, people are increasingly in debt, and foreclosures keep coming thick and fast. Moore says that ordinary people are treated like the peasants in the final stages of the Roman empire, kept amused by spectacles of no value to distract us from the decay that is all around us. And yes, as I learned from the film, we are thought of, literally, as peasants by the plutocracy

So, should we take a cue from The Kingdom of Id!

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.

Please note that I have been lax over recent months in cross-posting stories from The Writing On The Wal. What follows are my 10 most recent posts there. You can read more in our archives.

BUNDLE UP… THE ECONOMY STILL SUCKS… Can you say, combo? How about supersize? Well, try bundle. That”s a strategy that Walmart is using to convince shoppers to spend more and save less (by definition, money gone from your wallet is not money saved) by creating bundles of products. Keep reading…

OH HELL FIRE, JUST LET WALMART DO IT, II… On Monday I linked to Part I of Dr. Patricia Yarberry Allen”s arguments for turning our nation”s health care over to Walmart. Yesterday she published Part II of her argument. The Just-Let-Walmart-Do-It approach didn”t get any stronger. Keep reading…

HEY BOB… YOU HIDIN” THE COUPON BOOKS…? I”ve seen Walmart coupons in flyers, in the mail and online, but I didn”t know that the company handed out coupon books, reportedly at the (gawd knows why) photo center. At least the most recent book is nothing to write home about. Keep reading…

LIVE BY WALMART… DIE BY WALMART… As the stockholders of Nutrisystem know, getting into Walmart is a very big deal for your company and your company”s financial future. But in no relationship does, or can, Walmart give a shit about its vendors, it always serves only its stockholders. Keep reading…

CELEBRATING A FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY… Jonathan and I write about Walmart week in and week out, but one of the phenomenon that I”ve noticed over the years (yes years) that we”ve been doing this is how often I find posts about Walmart in blogs that have nothing to do with the Bentonvile Behemoth. Keep reading…

HOW MANY STORES…? HOW MANY HOURS…? The very brief note from the Selma, Alabama, Times Journal concerning the change in hours at a Walmart, specially as the company prepares for its most important sales season, raises several questions in my mind, not the least of which is: Keep reading…

WALMART SHAFTING SARAH PALIN… Now I recognize that Walmart executives did not sit around some conference table and nefariously plot how best to rip off the former governor of Alaska, but I find a certain perverse pleasure in knowing that that is, in some small way what is going to happen. Keep reading…

DO YOU LOVE WALMART…? Last week I wrote about the preponderance of non-Walmart-related blogs finding fault with the Bentonvile Behemoth. Yesterday I found one more, but it made me think that my sampling is probably skewed because of my prejudice. So I”m making an offer. Keep reading…

DON”T WORRY, WALMART WON”T GO CRAZY… When the left hand and the right hand don”t talk to each other, unintended consequences arise. Last week Walmart instituted a price war with Amazon that is shaking publishing. Price wars scare investors because reduced revenues mean reduced dividends. Keep reading…

FOREIGN STUDENTS BUSSED TO WALMART… Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, was known during my Ohio University days as the seat of all-things Greek and Preppy, the city of pink and lime green Izod sweaters, duck shoes and circle pins and the home of Mandy Pepperidge, Greg Marmalard, Babs Jansen and… Keep reading…

GOOD ON YOU, WALMART… I really do like writing about good Walmart news and I was surprised to find that Walmart was on the side of Al Sharpton and his organization the National Action Network in protests resulting by statements made by radio entertainer Rush Limbaugh. Keep reading…