So, I took a little break from my blog because...well...I'm lazy. But, at any rate, I came back on today.
Anyway, I won't have a great deal to say today, except to point out that we're so far in the shithole as far as money goes that at least one city in Michigan can't even pay its electric bill so they've resorted to ripping out street lights.
And the Republicans still won't allow a tax increase to get through.
Showing posts with label Local. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Local. Show all posts
Friday, November 4, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Valley Wall
I was reading an article on BBC.com about Occupy Wall Street and this caught my eye:
But there are a few things I do remember. I remember hearing about how that winter was a badly wet one and how the constant freezing and thawing of ice and snow made it hard to stay dry. I remember hearing about how the soldiers had to hurry to construct log cabins to keep from freezing to death and how frost bite was a problem even with shelter. Food was scarce and came at irregular intervals for both soldiers and their horses. I remember hearing about how disease was rampant in the camp from the close quarters and found a nice breeding ground in the soldier's dirty uniforms. They shivered and starved all through the while continuing to fight the British. These were soldiers who had so much that was asked of them that a risk of mutiny was a very real possibility. In a letter to the President of Congress, George Washington wrote in part:
Washington managed to hold his army together and with better training from Major General Baron von Steuben and better food provided by Baker General Christopher Ludwick, he was able to not only keep his army together through the winter but was able to turn back the British and win a major victory.
The problems that face the Occupy Wall Street protestors are different, but no less real and these are problems of both civilization as well as the elements. It's going to be a cold winter for them, but that is not the worst thing they face. The enemy they face is the status quo, and the operatives of the status quo won't attack them with muskets and ambushes, they're more insidious. As reported by the LATimes;
OWS is facing a different war with different rules; rules set up to put the advantage to those who hold power and the only people who can hold power are those who either are members of the 1% or people who are supported by the 1%. Unlike the officials in Oakland, a lot of cities have decided to leave the protestors alone because, as the SeattlePI points out;
They know that society today is very, very different than the society that bred the soldiers who suffered through the events at Valley Forge 234 - 233 years ago. We're a society that can find relative warmth during the bitter cold and we're not used to the hardships that were so common among the American colonies. The type of common work has shifted from very labor intensive to fairly automated and repetitive. The people who have the best chance at a long campaign are the soldiers and veterans who've been trained to have the discipline needed to see themselves through the extreme weather. And, to top it off, OWS doesn't have a George Washington, Friedrich von Steuben or Christopher Ludwick to help see them through and boost their morale.
Occupy Wall Street is, indeed, facing their own Valley Forge moment; and with the absence of an inspiring figurehead the only thing the protestors can rely on to see them through is how badly they want things to change and how badly they want the status quo to fall.
But what the protestors will need to keep in mind is that, while the Continental Army had George Washington to lead them; during Valley Forge they were poorly trained to the point of being little better than the militias that supplemented them. They were citizens with muskets, but they suffered, fought and stood their ground because they believed in what they were doing.
Occupy Wall Street can do the same thing just as well.
I had to reflect on the validity of that statement for a little while. I've been out of school for a long time now and the History Channel is more interested in informing me about UFOs in the Mona Lisa and how Hitler really worshiped the occult to spend any real time on it. I haven't been to a public school since my mid-teens, so my knowledge of the events at Valley Forge are fuzzy at best.On the US East Coast, many of those taking part in Occupy protests are preparing for an unseasonally cold storm due to hit this weekend.
As much as 10in (25cm) of snow is expected in some areas on Saturday, with between two and four inches forecast for New York City.
Protesters are raising money and floating ideas for how to cope as the temperature drops.
Suggestions reportedly include stockpiling donated coats and blankets, trying to find more secure tents and turning to possible indoor locations.
"Everyone's been calling it our Valley Forge moment," Michael McCarthy, a former Navy medic in Providence, Rhode Island, told the Associated Press news agency, referring to a harsh winter during the American War of Independence.
But there are a few things I do remember. I remember hearing about how that winter was a badly wet one and how the constant freezing and thawing of ice and snow made it hard to stay dry. I remember hearing about how the soldiers had to hurry to construct log cabins to keep from freezing to death and how frost bite was a problem even with shelter. Food was scarce and came at irregular intervals for both soldiers and their horses. I remember hearing about how disease was rampant in the camp from the close quarters and found a nice breeding ground in the soldier's dirty uniforms. They shivered and starved all through the while continuing to fight the British. These were soldiers who had so much that was asked of them that a risk of mutiny was a very real possibility. In a letter to the President of Congress, George Washington wrote in part:
"Sir: Full as I was in my representation of matters in the Commys. departmt. yesterday, fresh, and more powerful reasons oblige me to add, that I am now convinced, beyond a doubt that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place in that line, this Army must inevitably be reduced to one or other of these three things. Starve, dissolve, or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence in the best manner they can; rest assured Sir this is not an exaggerated picture,"
Washington managed to hold his army together and with better training from Major General Baron von Steuben and better food provided by Baker General Christopher Ludwick, he was able to not only keep his army together through the winter but was able to turn back the British and win a major victory.
The problems that face the Occupy Wall Street protestors are different, but no less real and these are problems of both civilization as well as the elements. It's going to be a cold winter for them, but that is not the worst thing they face. The enemy they face is the status quo, and the operatives of the status quo won't attack them with muskets and ambushes, they're more insidious. As reported by the LATimes;
It's also clear they don't want the demonstrators to get too comfortable.
City fire and police officials on Friday confiscated gas tanks and half a dozen generators being used for electricity in the makeshift kitchen and for media equipment. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had declared them a safety hazard. Organizers were baffled; they said fire marshals had inspected the park the day before and hadn't mentioned any violations.
"It's strange that this happens on the first really cold morning," said Bill Dobbs, a volunteer with the press operation. But rather than prompt calls for further rebellion — plans already were underway Friday for an action targeting Midtown banks — organizers said they would ask for the generators back. Several protesters said cooperating with the city at this point in the season seemed important.
OWS is facing a different war with different rules; rules set up to put the advantage to those who hold power and the only people who can hold power are those who either are members of the 1% or people who are supported by the 1%. Unlike the officials in Oakland, a lot of cities have decided to leave the protestors alone because, as the SeattlePI points out;
But other cities have rejected aggressive tactics, at least so far, some of them because they want to avoid the violence seen in Oakland or, as some have speculated, because they are expecting the protests to wither anyway with the onset of cold weather.
They know that society today is very, very different than the society that bred the soldiers who suffered through the events at Valley Forge 234 - 233 years ago. We're a society that can find relative warmth during the bitter cold and we're not used to the hardships that were so common among the American colonies. The type of common work has shifted from very labor intensive to fairly automated and repetitive. The people who have the best chance at a long campaign are the soldiers and veterans who've been trained to have the discipline needed to see themselves through the extreme weather. And, to top it off, OWS doesn't have a George Washington, Friedrich von Steuben or Christopher Ludwick to help see them through and boost their morale.
Occupy Wall Street is, indeed, facing their own Valley Forge moment; and with the absence of an inspiring figurehead the only thing the protestors can rely on to see them through is how badly they want things to change and how badly they want the status quo to fall.
But what the protestors will need to keep in mind is that, while the Continental Army had George Washington to lead them; during Valley Forge they were poorly trained to the point of being little better than the militias that supplemented them. They were citizens with muskets, but they suffered, fought and stood their ground because they believed in what they were doing.
Occupy Wall Street can do the same thing just as well.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Florida's Welfare Drug Testing Halted
A law in Florida would have required anyone on welfare to submit to drug testing. The law, however, was blocked by a Federal judge.
Gov. Rick Scott, who signed the measure into law on May 31, touted it as a way to ensure taxpayer money isn’t “wasted” on those who use drugs. “Hopefully more people will focus on not using illegal drugs,” he said then.But, in her order, Scriven issued a scathing assessment of the state’s argument in favor of the drug tests, saying the state failed to prove “special needs” as to why it should conduct such searches without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, as the law requires.
“If invoking an interest in preventing public funds from potentially being used to fund drug use were the only requirement to establish a special need,” Scriven wrote, “the state could impose drug testing as an eligibility requirement for every beneficiary of every government program. Such blanket intrusions cannot be countenanced under the Fourth Amendment.”
This is one of those things you'd expect the people who crafted the law to maybe give some thought to before drafting and passing it. Maybe, just maybe, being poor isn't reason enough to force needy people to piss into a cup.
But then again, that is the kind of mentality that views being impoverished as a crime. This is what they spend your tax dollars on.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Brad and the Future of Occupy Wall Street
A very dear person to me linked me to a post by The Infamous Brad. In this post he examines the history of political protests and what that history may show for the future of Occupy Wall Street. A lot of good points were raised about the differences between the protests that worked in the past and what the focus is of the current Occupy Wall Street protests. And while I readily acknowledge the validity of the points raised, I have to disagree with the overall sentiment that the Occupiers are going about things the wrong way and that they're going to fail because of it.
This conclusion is drawn from the history of the Wobblies, better known as the Industrial Workers of the World. The IWW was most active around the Industrial Revolution though they are still an organized active union. The way that the Wobblies got the right to strike was by busing around to protest sites and giving so many numbers to the protests there that the cops couldn't jail them all. Without dedication and sacrifice like that, the article says, OWS is going to fail. Unless all the protestors support the main OWS body in New York by donating time, money or more protestors and not being so spread out over the USA that the numbers are easily dealt with, OWS will fail. That is the part I disagree with.
The protests over in Greece started around the 5th of May in 2010 for many of the same reasons that OWS has sprung up and, to my surprise, they're still going on, over a year later. When I first heard about the riots, I supported them in their cause but beyond that, it was just something going on far, far away. When I hear about protests going on in New York, be it OWS or the various antiwar protests from Bush's era, I'd support them too, but it was still this far removed thing so none of it was actually real to me. Even when OWS protests sprung up in Boston and Philly, I was surprised, but it was still this thing happening in distant lands.
What changed that was when I found out that OWS had finally reached the bastion of conservative ideology known as Oklahoma City. Suddenly, the protests weren't some far removed thing in distant lands; they had landed right into my backyard. I got to see people so disgruntled, so upset with the status quo that they were going to camp out in protest through bitter cold nights, rain, hail and a very near miss with a Tornado cell-cloud. They want change that badly.
Something that wasn't around back in the days of the Industrial Revolution was, obviously, the internet. The internet is a wonderful thing and something we largely take for granted, as evidenced by the article Infamous Brad wrote. The internet makes instant, wireless communication possible; not just text and voice communication, but also images and video. Ever see a movie set in the '40's or '50's, a big news story would break and you'd see reporters beating each other with severed limbs to be the first into the row of phone booths to call their editor?
It's funny, but transported to the 2000's and those same reporters won't be clawing their way to the phone booths; they'll be on their laptops, iPhones or Blackberries to let their editor know the scoop, the only determining factor in how fast the story gets out is by who has the quickest fingers. But with the advent of social networking, such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Skype and whatever else you can think up, you won't even need reporters anymore. Anyone with a camera phone can break a story happening anywhere in the world. We now have phones with 12-megapixel digital cameras built into them. It is now within the power of every John Q out there to be the first to report a revolutionary protest or post topless photos of himself on Craigslist so his can cheat on his wife.
One of the ideas behind the Wobblies' strategy was to gain public awareness for their cause to bring about change. But while they had to rely on the good graces of the Old Media to get their message out to the masses, we now have the internet.
So far, instead of dwindling, we've seen OWS spread to Europe, the Tundra and Antarctica. There are stirs being felt in India and Putin has Russia scrambling to stave off protests there while China has put a gag order on it's media regarding OWS content.
I'm not sure how far OWS will go when all is said and done, but even if it does fade out, it will have made people and governments take notice that the status quo is on shaky ground. It has spread to levels the IWW of the Industrial Revolution could have only dreamed of and over a third of America supports them.
This conclusion is drawn from the history of the Wobblies, better known as the Industrial Workers of the World. The IWW was most active around the Industrial Revolution though they are still an organized active union. The way that the Wobblies got the right to strike was by busing around to protest sites and giving so many numbers to the protests there that the cops couldn't jail them all. Without dedication and sacrifice like that, the article says, OWS is going to fail. Unless all the protestors support the main OWS body in New York by donating time, money or more protestors and not being so spread out over the USA that the numbers are easily dealt with, OWS will fail. That is the part I disagree with.
The protests over in Greece started around the 5th of May in 2010 for many of the same reasons that OWS has sprung up and, to my surprise, they're still going on, over a year later. When I first heard about the riots, I supported them in their cause but beyond that, it was just something going on far, far away. When I hear about protests going on in New York, be it OWS or the various antiwar protests from Bush's era, I'd support them too, but it was still this far removed thing so none of it was actually real to me. Even when OWS protests sprung up in Boston and Philly, I was surprised, but it was still this thing happening in distant lands.
What changed that was when I found out that OWS had finally reached the bastion of conservative ideology known as Oklahoma City. Suddenly, the protests weren't some far removed thing in distant lands; they had landed right into my backyard. I got to see people so disgruntled, so upset with the status quo that they were going to camp out in protest through bitter cold nights, rain, hail and a very near miss with a Tornado cell-cloud. They want change that badly.
Something that wasn't around back in the days of the Industrial Revolution was, obviously, the internet. The internet is a wonderful thing and something we largely take for granted, as evidenced by the article Infamous Brad wrote. The internet makes instant, wireless communication possible; not just text and voice communication, but also images and video. Ever see a movie set in the '40's or '50's, a big news story would break and you'd see reporters beating each other with severed limbs to be the first into the row of phone booths to call their editor?
It's funny, but transported to the 2000's and those same reporters won't be clawing their way to the phone booths; they'll be on their laptops, iPhones or Blackberries to let their editor know the scoop, the only determining factor in how fast the story gets out is by who has the quickest fingers. But with the advent of social networking, such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Skype and whatever else you can think up, you won't even need reporters anymore. Anyone with a camera phone can break a story happening anywhere in the world. We now have phones with 12-megapixel digital cameras built into them. It is now within the power of every John Q out there to be the first to report a revolutionary protest or post topless photos of himself on Craigslist so his can cheat on his wife.
One of the ideas behind the Wobblies' strategy was to gain public awareness for their cause to bring about change. But while they had to rely on the good graces of the Old Media to get their message out to the masses, we now have the internet.
So far, instead of dwindling, we've seen OWS spread to Europe, the Tundra and Antarctica. There are stirs being felt in India and Putin has Russia scrambling to stave off protests there while China has put a gag order on it's media regarding OWS content.
I'm not sure how far OWS will go when all is said and done, but even if it does fade out, it will have made people and governments take notice that the status quo is on shaky ground. It has spread to levels the IWW of the Industrial Revolution could have only dreamed of and over a third of America supports them.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Fair Lessons
On the last day of the Oklahoma State Fair my father came into possession of some tickets for free admission. Neither of us were really enthusiastic about going, considering how much it seems to have gone down hill; it's become less and less a fair and more and more like going to a new car and portable building show. However, I did learn one interesting thing today and I think it's a lesson that says a lot about America in general.
If you can eat it, we'll fry it and put it on a stick.
If you can eat it, we'll fry it and put it on a stick.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Self Defense or Murder
Jerome Ersland, the pharmacist convicted of killing an attempted robber after he'd already shot the kid and rendered him unconscious, has been sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. It seems this has a lot of people in a tissy who say that he was justified to defend himself. I would agree with that, were he actually defending himself. But let's look at the facts of this matter.
I could write a long essay on the morality and legality of this, but when the old saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words then you have to wonder how many words is a rather graphic security camera's video worth?
- Two suspects entered his store and attempted to rob it.
- One of the suspects had a pistol and was threatening Ersland and his staff.
- Ersland defended his staff and wounded the second suspect in the process with a shot to the head.
- The headshot was not fatal.
- Ersland then chased the armed suspect from the store, firing two more shots as the kid ran.
- Ersland returned to his store and retrieved a second firearm.
- Ersland then went to the subdued, unconscious and unarmed suspect and shot him five times in the chest.
I could write a long essay on the morality and legality of this, but when the old saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words then you have to wonder how many words is a rather graphic security camera's video worth?
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Florida and the 19th Amendment
Wow. Florida, thank you for making Oklahoma seem a little less fucked in the head.
According to the Angry Black Lady Chronicles via the Miami Herald, the Florida legislature introduced HB 1355. They claim it's to help strengthen election laws but if you actually care enough to take a little peek at the text of the bill, you'll find a couple of interesting tid-bits, such as:
Why would they have that little part in the bill if it wasn't to try and screw potential voters. This part really isn't that new, considering I believe Illinois has tried this at least once before (according to at least one bit of anecdotal evidence, I recall reading something more reliable a while back, but I can't seem to find it). Another part that is rather disturbing is:
Cast your minds back to Florida's 2000 Elections and tell me this is a good idea. You'll get a cookie if you can do it with a straight face. But the part of this that rubs against the 19th Amendment is this:
They have singled out women for a law that restricts their ability to vote based on their gender and martial status. Don't believe me? Read the Nineteenth Amendment for yourself and paw attention to it.
Shall not be denied or abridged. That is exactly what this law does and it is a flagrant violation of the Constitution. But, honestly, from what I have seen of the Republicans in the last two years, I can't really say I'm surprised. Their ability to piss all over the Constitution is unmatched by any other political party.
According to the Angry Black Lady Chronicles via the Miami Herald, the Florida legislature introduced HB 1355. They claim it's to help strengthen election laws but if you actually care enough to take a little peek at the text of the bill, you'll find a couple of interesting tid-bits, such as:
Any voter who has moved and shows up at a polling site with evidence of the new address would also be forced to use a provisional ballot even though county elections supervisors now have access to a statewide voter database, created back in 2003, that can easily confirm a voter’s change of name or address.
Why would they have that little part in the bill if it wasn't to try and screw potential voters. This part really isn't that new, considering I believe Illinois has tried this at least once before (according to at least one bit of anecdotal evidence, I recall reading something more reliable a while back, but I can't seem to find it). Another part that is rather disturbing is:
Volunteers, who now can help resolve legal issues for individual voters at the polls, would be restricted because the bill lumps “legal advice” into the definition of solicitation and prohibits it within 100 feet of a voting line.
Cast your minds back to Florida's 2000 Elections and tell me this is a good idea. You'll get a cookie if you can do it with a straight face. But the part of this that rubs against the 19th Amendment is this:
A newly married woman wanting to vote on Election Day would no longer be allowed to show elections officials at the polls documentation with her name change to vote on that day. Instead, she would be forced to use a provisional ballot, which likely will mean that vote won’t be counted. In 2008, half the provisional ballots in Florida were thrown out, making it hard to contest.
They have singled out women for a law that restricts their ability to vote based on their gender and martial status. Don't believe me? Read the Nineteenth Amendment for yourself and paw attention to it.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Shall not be denied or abridged. That is exactly what this law does and it is a flagrant violation of the Constitution. But, honestly, from what I have seen of the Republicans in the last two years, I can't really say I'm surprised. Their ability to piss all over the Constitution is unmatched by any other political party.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
New Blog, Same Old Story
I've been reading this and that and seeing all sorts of things going on in the world of the political and, because I am one of those quirky Americans who has balls enough to call himself a Liberal, I thought I would go and post my thoughts and rants and all that fun type of stuff. But, then again, I've also remembered that being Liberal doesn't mean I'm always politically correct.
Now, let us turn to local news here in Oklahoma...please, save the groans until later. You'll need them.
From Tulsa World News comes an article nicely titled Oklahoma House OKs Additional Restrictions on Abortion. Oh yes, let the good times roll. I think what I am going to do is ignore HB 1888 (interesting number, it seems to be the year the Okie Republicans want to drag us back to) and the part of HB 1888 that will pretty much ban abortion after 20 weeks and instead, I shall focus on SB 547.
SB 547 bans "elective abortion" from being covered under the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act. What is "elective abortion" you may ask? Interestingly, it is defined in SB 547 as "anything other than to prevent the death of the mother."
That's right, folks. See, with SB 547, if a young girl is raped by, oh say, her brother and ends up pregnant, then her parents will have to go out and buy a much more expensive private insurance plan in order for her to abort it, or her parents (or the girl herself) will have to foot the total of the bill. There is no exception for rape or incest under SB 547.
What a bastion of morality, this place known as Oklahoma.
Now, let us turn to local news here in Oklahoma...please, save the groans until later. You'll need them.
From Tulsa World News comes an article nicely titled Oklahoma House OKs Additional Restrictions on Abortion. Oh yes, let the good times roll. I think what I am going to do is ignore HB 1888 (interesting number, it seems to be the year the Okie Republicans want to drag us back to) and the part of HB 1888 that will pretty much ban abortion after 20 weeks and instead, I shall focus on SB 547.
SB 547 bans "elective abortion" from being covered under the Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act. What is "elective abortion" you may ask? Interestingly, it is defined in SB 547 as "anything other than to prevent the death of the mother."
That's right, folks. See, with SB 547, if a young girl is raped by, oh say, her brother and ends up pregnant, then her parents will have to go out and buy a much more expensive private insurance plan in order for her to abort it, or her parents (or the girl herself) will have to foot the total of the bill. There is no exception for rape or incest under SB 547.
What a bastion of morality, this place known as Oklahoma.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)