It’s not a moritorium. It’s not a freeze. It’s simply a request for a Holiday ceasefire, a chance for our community to collectively take a deep breath and consider what it has wrought. Eighteen organizations (the Chai, life, for my tribe) will come together at 10 a.m., Monday, 17 December, to ask, can we stop the madness?

If you think we need to get a grip, please join them Monday at 3884 East 112th Street, the home of Tina Williams, a homeowner facing foreclosure.

From Bill Callahan:

A coalition of community advocates will call on Sheriff Gerald McFaul and lending institutions to observe a 60 day foreclosure holiday to allow vulnerable borrowers time to get the help they need. The coalition will deliver an open letter to Sheriff McFaul calling for his leadership in stemming the tide of foreclosures that threatens to overwhelm many neighborhoods in Cuyahoga County. A 60-day moratorium on foreclosures of occupied houses would allow many of the affected homeowners time to work with housing counselors and their lenders to find ways to stay in their homes.

Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland
Empowering & Strengthening Ohio’s People
Cleveland ACORN
Cleveland Housing Network
Cleveland Tenants Organization
Neighborhood Progress, Inc.
Cleveland Neighborhood Development Coalition
Housing Research and Advocacy Center
Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
Community Housing Solutions
Heights Community Congress
Housing Advocates, Inc.
Collinwood and Nottingham Villages Development Corporation
Ashbury Community Services
Spanish American Committee
Greater Cleveland NAACP
Commission on Catholic Community Action
Northeast Ohio Coalition on the Homeless

How secure do you feel in your present financial situation?

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

1839 UB story: To bury the dead

1750 Husted trusts blogs to be adequate background check…

1028 Husted trusts blogs to be adequate background check…

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is To buy, or not to buy, that is the question.

SPC Beaird: 100 days until I am home./100 days until I can have a tasty, cold beer./100 days until I can see the face of a woman and not think it is a rare sight./100 days until I don’t have to bring a gun and wear body armor and a helmet each time I go “out”./100 days until I can travel down a road without wondering if a culvert, pothole, parked car, or pile of…

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.

SMART ASS ANSWER No. 6: It was mealtime during a long flight. “Would you like dinner?” the flight attendant asked John, seated in front. “What are my choices?” John asked.

When silence is restored, the teacher smiles knowingly at the student, shakes her head and sweetly says, “Well, I guess you’d have to write the exam with your other hand.”

For 99.999… percent of human history, men and women have, whenever possible, married not for love but for security. Whether it was a cow and two pigs or a castle and jewels, it didn’t make any difference. The idea of marrying for love and living in poverty on the Left Bank or that rustic cabin in the wilds is a really recent innovation.

So the story from the Wall Street Journal shouldn’t be news.

According to a survey by Prince & Associates, a Connecticut-based wealth-research firm, the average “price” that men and women demand to marry for money these days is $1.5 million.

Fully two-thirds of women and half of the men said they were “very” or “extremely” willing to marry for money. The answers varied by age: Women in their 30s were the most likely to say they would marry for money (74 percent) while men in their 20s were the least likely (41 percent).

Now, the a better question would be: who willing would you be to marry an physically repulsive person that you thought repugnant if they had money?

What would your price be?

There is no way in which this can be seen as good. Back in 1979 and 1980, Ronald Reagan, the actor, disappeared from the airwaves because running Bedtime For Bonzo at 3 a.m. Sunday morning counted as a political advertisement under the old fairness doctrine (which President Reagan scrapped). Fast forward 26 years.

A leading candidate for the Republican ticket has bought the single largest broadcaster for the Neocon movement.

Yes, I know that this story is nearly a month old, but it doesn’t seem to have escaped out of the wonkosphere yet.

From Clear Channel Communications:

Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a global leader in the out-of-home advertising industry, today announced the execution of a definitive merger agreement with a group led by Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. and Bain Capital Partners, LLC, pursuant to which the group will acquire Clear Channel in a transaction with a total value of approximately $26.7 billion, including the assumption or repayment of approximately $8.0 billion of net debt.

The out-of-home advertising industry? Do you see the word radio in there anywhere?

Regardless, Clear Channel does own 8 percent of the radio stations in the United States. That’s not a large percentage, but significant because Clear Channel broadcasts Rush Limbaugh and other Neocon talk show hosts.

Where does Romney come in? He is one of three founders of Bain Capital Partners.

Do you think Limbaugh and the rest will recuse themselves from talking about the Republican candidates because their boss is running? Is it possible that everytime Limbaugh mentions Romney he’ll append: my employer?

I would expect that Romney will make claims of having locked his involvement with Bain behind a firewall so that his ownership can have nothing to do with the radio stations.

But can you imagine the scenerio where Limbaugh gets behind say Huckabee and Romeny wins by a razor-thin margin? Do you think Limbaugh is fuzzy headed enough to believe in that scenerio that broadcast independence would have no effect on his future employment?

Should a poltical candidate be allowed to buy a media company in this way?

Is it possible that First Lady Laura Bush will emerge as the only good actor in her husbands administration? Despite a twisted desire to see the evil hand of departed advisor Karl Rove in the Laura Bush’s engagement with Myanmar, I’m not taking anything from the first lady. I don’t care why, she’s doing good.

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Nearly two decades of treating Burmese migrants on the Thai border has taught Cynthia Maung, herself a political refugee from military-ruled Burma (Myanmar), to expect the unexpected. Every day brings more migrants to her private clinic – many of whom can’t afford treatment.

On Monday, the unexpected came from an entirely different direction: a hastily arranged teleconference with the White House. At the other end of the link-up was first lady Laura Bush, flanked by her husband’s senior advisers on Asian affairs. She praised Dr. Maung’s work, calling her “an inspiration,” and sent a typically firm message to the Burmese government.

What was her firm message?

Members of the junta have promised to engage in a serious dialogue with democratic representatives of the Burmese people. If [junta leader] Than Shwe and the generals cannot meet these very basic requirements, then it’s time for them to move aside.

Dang, that kind of language about our administration can get you water-boarded. But is it effective?

Analysts say the US has only limited tools to shape political events in Burma, which has courted its energy-hungry neighbors with oil and gas deals. They warn that US sanctions aren’t swaying Burma’s generals, even if they win plaudits from democracy activists. Nor can it be a substitute, say analysts, for diplomatic pressure in Asia and on the UN Security Council, whose special envoy, Mr. Gambari, is due to visit again this month.

“I think her engagement will help keep the spotlight on Burma, since the regime has switched off the lights inside, so to speak,” says Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma Program at the Open Society in New York.

I agree. America’s best tool — moral suasion, or what President Teddy Roosevelt called the Bully Pulpit — has gathered dust for nearly seven years. If her husband isn’t going to use it then I’m fine with First Lady Bush stepping up.

Are you?

My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.

This is a passage I copied from A Poetry Handbook: a Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry. by Mary Oliver

Analysis of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost Poem.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

After lake there is a momentary chasm, a fracture of silence out of which a different kind of electricity flows before the line swings; and The adjective darkest repeats the k once more, two taps of disquietude.

Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: The Time Power System is built on three key concepts: time management is the act of controlling events; congruity represents balance, harmony and appropriateness among the events in your life (a workaholic is a person in a state of incongruity, out of balance in his total life perspective; and concentration of power is the ability to focus on and accomplish your most vital priorities.

I really need help with this story. I’ve found what I think is a poem written on a the blog Fear From Freedom written by May Burma. My initial reaction was that it was pro-government. But then I slowed myself down and reconsidered. I think it’s possible that the translation into English may be part of my problem.

The only country plagued by LEFTIES!

Lefties always bar Burma from embracing capitalism
Aung San and comrades were lefties
Kyaw Nyein and Ba Swe were lefties
(Thanks for their college education, they got smarter than their conservative parents )
Ne Win embraced socialism
(convenient for him )
Burma was a leader of non align movement
We helped Indonesia linerated from Dutch
We had a UN SG U Thant
China did not let Burma join Asean
When CIA trained intelligence in Burma
In Brig Tin Oo’s days
( They gave two apachee helicopters for drug control
they had bee hives cultivation training )
Lefties made Ne Win purged them out
Tin Oo and all his young and bright officers were ousted
When S Korea president Chun came to Burma for promotion of trade
Korea stopped them with bombing
When China changed its policy
the new party chairman Sein Lwin and
socialist party did not want to change
Ne Win and intelligence instigated riots for 88
together with ex Brig Ag Gyi
Lefties joined ASSK and promoted NLD
Ne Win and his party were defeated
They underestimate the hatred of people against army
Activists barred businesses from going to Myanmar
Practicing their power against big nations
Asking help from outsiders
which does not happen till today!!
The whole world is changing to the right and
Burma is still plagued with leftists.
Democracy to be truly formed must be
from the educated mass
When the astrologers and spirit dancers
lost their living in Burma
will be the day we have real democracy.
WHEN WILL THAT BE??

What does eveyone else think?

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Shop Less – Live More: Buy Nothing Day 2007.

Eddie: It is a trying time for the soldiers of our company as another one of our brothers made the ultimate sacrifice, trying to bring peace and freedom to a nation that has not seen such a thing. His platoon was attacked by a faceless, cowardly enemy who will do anything to prevent such a bright future for their country. I was a part of the QRF (Quick Reaction Force)…

Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.

1023 Focus On The Family Saves Christmas!

So far in 2007, 885 American service personnel have give their lives in the civil war in Iraq. To that number at 109 who have tragically chosen, for reasons we may never fully comprehend, to take their own lives. Last month I wrote about suicides by all veterans in 2005, the most recent year for which the data is available.

This morning USAToday reports on active-duty suicides.

A record number of soldiers – 109 – have killed themselves this year, according to Army statistics showing confirmed or suspected suicides.

The highest number of Army suicides recorded since 1990 was 102 in 1992 – a period when the service was 20% larger than today.

Back on 15 August, the Iraq war officially became longer than America’s involvement in World War II.

How much longer must the war continue before we stop this madness?