Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Nearly One In Nine Federal Judgeships Are Now Vacant

These vacancies amount to another heavy tax burden on the Poor/Middle/Working Classes.  Remember, when our courts are so over burdened, delays cost the taxpayers as well as the cost in human suffering.  But what about the Ruling Class?  Is their justice delayed? 
Where did we ever get the silly notion that the majority rules?  If that were true then the Super Rich would be the ones being denied services, losing their jobs, being evicted from their homes, having their libraries shut down, being sent to over crowded jails for smoking pot, crowded into dirty under staffed nursing homes to finish out their miserable lives and all the other indignities the majority now puts up with. 
 
Carl
 
 
********

Nearly One In Nine Federal Judgeships Are Now Vacant

By Ian Millhiser

December 25th, 2010 at 9:28 pm

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/12/25/judgeships-vacant/


The Senate adjourned earlier this week, even though it confirmed only half
of the 38 judicial nominees awaiting a vote on the Senate floor.  And the
overwhelming majority of the blocked nominees cleared the Senate Judiciary
Committee without a single negative vote.



This failure to confirm even many of the most uncontroversial nominees is
the culmination of a concerted GOP strategy to delay as many of President
Obama's judges as much as possible , and it leaves Obama with fewer judges
confirmed than any recent president:



judicial_noms



The Senate's failure to even hold a vote on these nominees leaves the
federal judiciary with record vacancies--approximately one in nine federal
judgeships are now vacant.



Notably, three of these vacancies are on just one court.  Of the four active
judgeships on the United States District Court for the Central District of
Illinois,



three are presently vacant , leaving the court's chief judge as its only
active member.  Two of President Obama's nominees to this court, James
Shadid and Sue Myerscough, were unanimously approved by the Judiciary
Committee for this excessively overburdened court.  Yet none of Obama's
nominees to the Central District of Illinois received a vote in the 111th
Congress.



This failure to confirm anyone to this Illinois court may be the most
reckless legacy of the right's obstruction of Obama's judges, but it isn't
even the most absurd.  One of the president's blocked nominees, District of
Oregon nominee Marco Hernandez, was previously nominated for the exact same
job by President George W.  Bush .  Somehow, now that he's an Obama nominee,
the GOP has suddenly decided to throw up roadblocks before his confirmation.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Paterson worries about leaving NY state

Subject: Re: [acb-l] Paterson worries about leaving NY state
John believes that Governor Paterson has made such a negative impression regarding his compatency as a blind man, that employers will be turned off toward hiring blind people.  I responded as follows:

 
John,
Again we disagree.  I say it once more.  Articles such as any that have been written about the out going governor have no influence on anything except the bottom of the Bird Cage. 
I have hired many people over the years, interviewing dozens and dozens of hopeful applicants.  Despite all sorts of negative articles I'd read about Blacks, Gays, Women, Native Americans, Jews, Muslims, Blind People, or Viet Namese, I determined my hiring based on interview scores and resumes. 
While I am as impacted by stereotypes as the next guy, I do my best to be aware of such biases when looking for the right person for a particular job. 
Of course I am not some really smart, rich, wheeler and dealer hiring high power top executive types.  I just hired run of the mill government workers.  You know, the kind we all love to trash as lazy no goodniks. 
Look John, I've been in the rehab business for over 35 years.  During that time I have really impressed a very few folk, angered many more, been acclaimed as better than sliced bread and Damned as Satan's Spawn. 
But in all of that I doubt I have impacted the Universal Blind Stereotype one tiny bit. 
In the scheme of things no single one of us is all that powerful.  But collectively, like as members of the ACB, we can make inroads. 
But even then it is painfully slow. 
 
Curious Carl
 

not a happy christmas story

 
Attention all citizens! 
Could your library services be next?  State and local governments, despiret to find cuts to balance huge budget deficits are coming to your neighborhood soon! 
And they're not just seeking out the blind. 
Curious Carl
 

Study recommends downsizing Philly library for the blind

 

By Vernon Clark

 

Inquirer Staff Writer

 

After more than a century in Philadelphia, the nation's oldest library for the blind is facing the potential loss of most of its materials and services

to its Pittsburgh counterpart.

 

A state-commissioned study has recommended that the Philadelphia Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped be significantly downsized - at a savings

of about $600,000 a year for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which funds it.

 

Although the principal heir would be the Carnegie Library for the Blind, the study also suggests moving Philadelphia's Braille collection - at 95,000 titles

one of the country's largest - to Iowa.

 

The commonwealth's two libraries "are duplicating efforts, incurring unnecessary costs, and increasing the complexity" of usage for their patrons, the draft

report said. It also described the library's four-story building at 919 Walnut St. as a "difficult environment in which to work" and warned of lease costs

rising 7 percent annually in the next decade.

 

Predictably, with an estimated one-third of the state's 393,000 visually impaired residents living in the five Southeastern Pennsylvania counties, the study

has run into a wall of outrage.

 

The critics include the Free Library of Philadelphia, which has overseen the Center City institution since the 1930s; a state legislator whose district

encompasses it; advocates for the blind; and the users themselves, who walk in or call to order mailed materials at an average rate of 300 a day.

 

"Here in a city where Benjamin Franklin first came up with the idea of a lending library . . . here is where they are going to take it away from blind people?"

asked James Antonacci, president of the National Federation of the Blind of Pennsylvania. He dismissed the savings as "a minuscule percentage of the state

budget."

 

Siobhan Reardon, director of the Free Library, assailed the study as rife with "inadequacies."

 

"The financials they are using, the data they are using - we're refuting all of it," she said.

 

The budget for the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh libraries is $2.7 million, down from $2.9 million last year. But it was not the dismal state budget so much

as the digital age that prompted the Education Department to order the study, said spokesman Steve Weitzman.

 

"We determined there was a need to transform this model" of a library for the blind, he said. An Arizona-based consulting firm was hired to take a closer

look, leading to the dire conclusions about Philadelphia.

 

What began in the 1880s as a small private collection - the Pennsylvania Home Teaching Society and Free Circulating Library for the Blind - offers conventional

Braille and large-print books and magazines, cassette tapes, and players. But there are also scribe videos, with narrations of what is happening onscreen,

computer work stations, and a recording studio.

 

The sea change, however, has been digital.

 

A few years ago, the National Library Service for the Blind - a branch of the Library of Congress and supplier of materials to libraries for the visually

impaired - began moving from tapes to digital recordings.

 

The Philadelphia library has followed suit, sending out thousands of digital players and books in an mp3 format that prevents copying. (The U.S. Postal

Service provides free mailing of materials for the blind.)

 

"The response [from users] has been very favorable," said Hedra Packman, director of library services for the Free Library.

 

So favorable, she said, that when the National Library Service did not meet the demand for digital recordings, the staff at 919 Walnut began making its

own, downloading materials from the Washington website and buying cartridges at $7 each.

 

Packman called the process "immensely staff-intensive . . . because not only are we sending out all the machines and materials, we are learning how to download

at the same time."

 

The study by Community Services Analysis has suggested retaining only about a half-dozen paid staff positions and cutting nearly 30, in addition to relocating

"digital books, older cassette media, large-print materials, descriptive videos, and disks" to the Carnegie Library. Although the Pittsburgh building is

older, the report says, it is more physically sound, with more space for expansion of collections.

 

The report also calls for the transfer of the Braille collection to the Iowa Library for the Blind in Des Moines - a scenario that Weitzman said was not

expected to survive into the next draft, to be presented in January.

 

"It's not over yet," he said. "The next administration [of Gov.-elect Tom Corbett] can accept [the recommendations] in part or they can reject them in part."

 

Christy Lynch, who has been blind for 15 years as the result of a rare eye disease, is hoping the Philadelphia library will be spared.

 

A student from Riverton, Lynch, 33, is pursuing a college degree online, and uses the library about three times a week, doing research and volunteering.

It is not only a critical resource, she said, but a place where she can connect with other blind people in the area.

 

"We would be really upset if the budget is cut and services moved away," said Lynch, who sings with the Philadelphia Pops. "I understand that things need

to be cut, but this [library] is a necessity."

 

State Rep. Michael H. O'Brien, a Democrat whose district includes the library, wrote in protest to Thomas E. Gluck, Pennsylvania's acting education secretary.

He criticized the study as "slipshod and lame," and pointed out that two key advocacy groups, the National Federation for the Blind of Pennsylvania and

the Pennsylvania Council for the Blind, had not been consulted.

Study recommends downsizing Philly library for the blind

 

In an interview, O'Brien praised the Philadelphia library.

 

Eviscerating it would be "a strike to the quality of life for the blind and visually impaired" throughout the region, he said. "It's just unacceptable."

 

Contact staff writer Vernon Clark at 215-854-5717 or

vclark@phillynews.com.

 

 

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20101225_Study_recommends_downsizing_Philly_library_for_the_blind.html?page=2&c=y

not a happy camper

Subject: not a happy camper
 
 
Following is a word of warning to anyone considering becoming "self employed" and contracting with the State of Washington. 
Curious Carl

Hi Kim,
Hope you had a very Merry Christmas.  Did your pay check come through in a timely manner? 
Ours is still not here(it's Christmas morning as I write). 
Do not think that I am pointing an angry finger at you.  I am not.  I understand what overwork looks like, having been a government employee for many years.  But I am angry at a system that values its contractors so little that their pay check can come along whenever. 
We are bound to a fat contract that protects the System seven ways to Sunday, but gives Damn little consideration to the folks slaving in the trenches.  And I am not blind to the fact that this same System holds you and other lowly employees in the same contempt.  But at least as a state employee, I always received my pay check on the same day each month. 
I know you already know what I am about to say, but for the record contract workers put out all of their own money up front to do the work of the State.  So by December 25, we are waiting for reimbursement of money spent beginning November 1.  This is a sweet deal for the State, but very unfair to the field hands. 
I could go on for some distance but I feel my temper settling down so I will go and fix my bowl of gruel and sip thin tea. 
Merry Christmas! 
 
Carl Jarvis, Director
Peninsula Rehabilitation Services
2510 Snow Creek Road
Quilcene, WA 98376
phone: 360-765-4239
fax: 360-765-5053
 

Blind folks lose library services. How about the rich?


Once again the blind are being tossed to the wolves.  In the name of efficiency and cost conservation we are losing the ability to actually have physical brick and mortar libraries.  Oh well, we Americans must make sacrifices in the Fight Against Terror.  Now let's see, the Ruling Class will lose how many of their libraries? 
Curious Carl
 

He walks! He talks! He's blind!

So who makes the most negative impact on our blind image? 
Jade Ewen's poor blind parents  or Governor Paterson? 
I submit that it is neither of them, nor any other individual popping up in the Media. 
It is the Media that we should be jumping all over. 
They just love to do the sloppy, sentimental, poor blind, story. 
You know as well as I do that for every stumbling, slobbering sightless Soul, or bumbling blind buffoon  that is showcased by the Media, we could trot out a dozen positive, self reliant, independent role models.  Look, the Media is in the business of making money.  They show the public what it wants to see, or what the Ruling Class happens to be pushing this week.  But that's another rant for another day. 
So the Media is not going to show the public some average blind schlup going about his/her business in an average sort of way. 
Why does a blind man make bigger news when he climbs Mount Everest?  Not because he climbed the mountain.  Lots of skilled climbers have achieved that distinction with barely a ripple in the Media.  But this man is Blind.  Blind.  Blind is the word that sells the story.  Think of it folks, a Blind Man climbed a ladder!  A Blind Man tied his shoe strings!  The story sells because of what the public believes about blindness.  It is not about the man.  It is not a story about a singer caring for her helpless parents, or a governor worrying about his next job.  It is all about our historical blind stereotype. 
Here in my state of Washington, I have been in and out of the public eye for many years.  And for most of those years I have considered myself to be a fairly decent blind role model.  No reporter has ever sought me out, saying "Carl, you lead a pretty normal life.  We'd like to showcase you as an example of how the average blind person goes about living life."  The only times I have been mentioned in the Media have been as the Angry Blind Activist, or the Blind spokesman.  And very honestly I would go some distance to avoid being featured in an article.  Too many times I read my own words twisted by some reporter who was so stupefied by the fact that a blind man could actually speak, that he just wrote down what he wanted me to have said. 
The only reason anyone would write about my life is to oo and ah over the amazing blind man who clears his own trails and cuts down his own firewood and actually can wash windows and vacuum the floor and do the laundry.  Wow folks, ain't it something?  He walks, he talks, he's a blind man!  And it's so brave of this poor simple blind man to go on with his sad, lonely life, etc., etc., etc. 
Face it.  It's a bigger fight than most of us want to believe.  But the only way to make inroads into this deeply ingrained blind stereotype is through collective action.  Let's quit worrying over the folks being trotted out by the Media, and let's figure out how we are going to showcase ourselves in a more positive image. 
 
Curious Carl
 

Saturday, December 25, 2010

shedding a bit of light on an old myth

So you Believers all think Santa Claus(AKA, Saint Nicholas) zips around the entire world in one crazy night? 
Not so!  Sorry.  I hate to burst your little fantasy, but Santa Claus, despite stories to the contrary,  never did make the trip in one night. 
Here's how I know. 
My mother was born on Christmas Day, 1911.  She married a man who worked hard for a living and loved to sleep in any chance he got.  This included Christmas Day. 
We had a family council, I am told, and we decided that we would keep Christmas Day free of all labor so that Mother could have time for herself on her birthday.  This meant that our big Christmas dinner was on Christmas Eve.  This same family council agreed, I am told, that in order to allow Dad to sleep in, we would exchange Christmas presents  following our Christmas Eve dinner.  .  Because we were poor and because the price of Christmas trees went way down if you waited until the last minute to buy one, we actually purchased our Christmas tree late on Christmas Eve Day.  The price usually dropped from 50 cents down to 25 cents after about 5:00 PM.  One year the selection was so poor that we talked the man out of two trees for the price of one.  Dad cut the best bows off one tree, drilled holes in vacant spots  on the other tree and wired them in.  It was one good looking tree.  We trimmed it just before our festivities.  The tree stood in all it's glory for exactly one week, coming down New Year's Day, which is my kid sister's birthday. 
But in all of this, my two sisters and I believed in Santa Claus.  We knew the poem, T'was the Night Before Christmas, by heart.  Yet somehow we knew that our gifts came from Santa Claus. 
There could be no other rational answer. 
Santa Claus, despite the story he sent out to the world, snuck out the afternoon of Christmas Eve Day and made certain that we were not forgotten. 
And that's the truth! 
 
Curious Carl

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Paterson worries about leaving NY state

Governor Paterson is not going to impact our blind stereotype one way or the other.  Even if people look at him and say, "How noble and brave", or "what a totally incompetent fool".  It will not budge the public stereotype one inch( or centimeter if you're Canadian). 
The base line is the stereotype.  We make our judgments on it.  So whether folks see Paterson, or you or me, as wonderful or incompetent never puts a dent in their basic belief that blindness is a major tragedy which leaves all suffers as inferior to the sighted public. 
If they don't believe this, why would they go to great lengths to praise a fellow who just managed to tie his own shoe string? 
Of course calling a blind fellow like Paterson a fool and dependent is not a reflection on people's base stereotype.  It is confirmation of what they thought of Paterson the man.  And they use blindness because it's the most handy club to whack him with. 
I would submit that even if all blind people suddenly became super blind, the public attitude would remain the same. 
Here's my final shot at this subject.  Suppose your neighbor is mentally challenged.  Yet he has been carefully trained to clean his house, mow his lawn, pick up the trash, go to his job at the work shop and smile and greet you every time you pass one another.  For all practical purposes this neighbor is "normal".  But how do you really feel about him?  Do you see him as your equal, or as a high achiever.  Someone to be admired. 
We have a deep prejudice toward people who are mentally challenged, and it impacts our interaction and our belief about who they are, no matter how we try to get past it.  The same is true of our blind stereotype.  
Curious Carl
 
----- Original Message -----
From: John Heim
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 9:01 AM
Subject: Re: [acb-l] Paterson worries about leaving NY state

Oh, I think you are very much mistaken about Governor Paterson not giving us
a black eye.

When people  think of it at all, they are going to assume he was fairly
typical for a blind person. Its a kind of "been there, done that" thing.
They are going to think they've seen what a blind governor is like. Didn't
we already have a blind governor once? Look how that turned out.

If you could press people on it, they'd probably even admit that they have
no reason to believe that Governor Paterson is typical. But that kind of
logic just doesn't matter. Its just not the way the human nind works.
Instead, it collects stereotypes and ignores exceptions. You can see it with
racism. There have been lots of studies that show that when people who are
racist are confronted with people who defy the stereotypes they just figure
those people are the exceptions. A racist can even have a friend of another
race and continue to believe the racial stereotypes because he just thinks
"they're all like that except his friend".

I've seen this myself firsthand with blindness. Many of my sighted friends
still insist they'd kill themselves if they went blind. So I ask them, "How
in the world can you think its so bad being blind when you know how full my
life is? They say, "Well, you're special." That I might be a fairly average
blind guy is impossible for them to grasp. And every thing Governor Paterson
confirms it.

Well, not everything. Not the womanizing. That part probably is a problem
for most people. But I'm guessing that most people account for it by
thinking of him as a lecherous old man. That a blind person might be
sexually attractive probably doesn't fit.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Jarvis" <carjar82@gmail.com>
To: "Eric Calhoun" <eric@pmpmail.com>; <acb-l@acb.org>
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 7:17 PM
Subject: Re: [acb-l] Paterson worries about leaving NY state


> Actually Eric, my spin on this is that Paterson was doomed because he was
> not playing ball with the right people.  He may not have been the sort of
> leader that his predecessor had been, although to his credit he wasn't
> spending his time with high priced hookers, but he was blocked by a very
> hostile legislature.
> While I shed no tears over his departure, I do not think he gave blind
> people a bad rap at all.  He is probably seen by the general public as
> rather special.  And since many of his blind detractors are folks who
> would
> tear Jesus Christ apart if He returned to earth as a Blind Savior, I don't
> listen to their cries either.
> And finally, most state governors are not looking so hot these days,
> through
> no particular fault of their own.  States are in Free Fall and when they
> hit
> bottom we will all be in the pit together.
>
> Carl Jarvis
>


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


> _______________________________________________
> acb-l mailing list
> acb-l@acb.org
> http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-l
>

_______________________________________________
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Monday, December 20, 2010

Let the Trashings Begin

Let the Trashings Begin. 
 
One of my coworkers at the Department of Services for the Blind, a wise Black woman, observed, "Whenever a blind person makes good or stands out, the rest of you publicly tear them down with negative criticism".  She went on to say that Blacks are not above being critical of their successful members, but they do it within their own community.  "We present a unified front to the rest of the public", she said.  Perhaps this is true about the Black community, I am no expert there, but it is pretty much right on when it comes to us blind people.  Unless your name is Erik Weihenmayer and you just clambored down from Mount Everest, you most likely were fair game whenever you stuck your head above ground level.  Anytime one of my blind coworkers received a promotion the break room was a buzz with caustic comments by the blind employees.  And it made no difference who else was in the room. 
A friend of mine who had been Region 10 RSA Commissioner until the office was closed, was hired as an assistant director at the Department of Services for the Blind.  Blinded by RP, she had been a successful attorney in the private sector prior to her appointment as Commissioner.  You would suppose that the blind community would cheer the appointment of one of our own to this significant position.  Instead she was trashed at every turn.  It was whispered that because she was NFB, she was a political appointment.  It was even hinted that she and the DSB director "had a thing going".  Blind staff within the agency, some angry that they'd been passed over, balked at working with her.  She became isolated, depressed and imobilized.  Finally she returned to private law where she is very successful and very much removed from the blind community. 
As I moved up the ranks and became director of the adult training center, and later assistant director for field services, I certainly had my detractors.  I suspect that I withstood the assaults because I'd built up a strong support team over the years, blind and sighted. 
But we were always far less critical of sighted people than of our own.  It might be that we didn't expect as much from the sighted folks.  And probably we demanded far too much from our own.  We seemed to say, "If you dare to rise above the rest of us you'd Damn well better be perfect or we'll tear you down." 
We looked for our blind leaders to be all that we couldn't be. 
At some level we are unable to celebrate our fellow blind's success. 
Is this a characteristic of any oppressed minority group?  Or have we blind people been conditioned by public attitudes to believe that we really can't be successful to a point where we are unable to accept the success of one of our members? 
As soon as a blind man became governor of New York state we began the trashing.  Oh sure, there were some efforts at recognizing the magnitude of Paterson's ackommplishment.  But then it began.  He didn't have Braille skills.  He didn't use a cane.  He didn't associate with blind people.  On and on the nay sayers went. 
One thing about negative attacks on a persons character is that it is self fullfilling.  We never turn away from the negative and look for anything positive to say, until they're dead.  We examine every word from their lips, every lift of an eye brow.  We read negative meanings into what they eat, who they talk to, how they smile, and on and on until there is no way that they can be successful. 
And when they crash and burn we say, "See, I told you they were highly over rated". 
Perhaps we need to begin a serious campaign to say positive stuff about one another every time we start to do the bad mouth routine. 
It could work. 
 
Curious Carl

Paterson worries about leaving NY state governorship

I cry for many, many blind people I know personally.  Older folks who are about to lose their homes, their hard earned savings, their basic health care, their independence.  I have no tears for Governor Paterson.  He was a sham Liberal and failed to rise to the support of common New Yorkers.  He served his Masters well, and they kicked him in the face for all his efforts.  Perhaps the governor will learn from this humbling experience, but I doubt it. 
 
Curious Carl
***********
Subject: Paterson worries about leaving NY state governor's office, and
inability to find job because he's blind


NY Times: Paterson's Exit Presents Worry With Each Step
By MICHAEL BARBARO
He worries about how he will make a living. He wonders whether people will
value him once he is out of office.

But when he thinks about the future, David A. Paterson, the legally blind
governor of New York, is most unsettled by something more elementary: how to
cross the street.

For years, a small army of state employees has done for Mr. Paterson what
his predecessors did for themselves: they read him the newspaper, guided him
up stairs and around corners, fixed his collar when it was sticking up, and
even grabbed a quart of milk for him at the supermarket.

"If I go into a grocery store, the state police come in with me," he said.
"It's kind of like, hey, Governor, just tell us what you need and we'll get
it for you. And, I know I have to adjust."

Many politicians who leave office struggle to adapt to civilian life, with
its everyday letdowns and indignities - the sudden absence of solicitous
aides and gun-toting bodyguards, jam-packed schedules and an ever-ringing
telephone. But for Mr. Paterson, who can see nothing out of his left eye and
only color and large objects out of his right, the transition will be
extraordinary: after three decades in government, he must now relearn the
basic routines and rituals of living on his own.

In a wide-ranging interview, he spoke candidly, and at times emotionally,
about how he was grappling with - and, in some cases, dreading - that
change, saying he planned to enroll at a school for the blind that he last
attended when he was 3 years old.

"I know it can be done," Mr. Paterson said, "but it's just the anticipation
of it that gives me anxiety."

He also admitted to some concern about money and losing the lucrative perks
that come with his post. He is looking for work in the business and academic
worlds but has no job lined up, a fact that seemed to slightly nag at him.

He has sought the advice of former President Bill Clinton and former Govs.
George E. Pataki and Mario M. Cuomo about how to cope with the loss of title
and stature. Most of what they tell him boils down to this: "It gets
easier."

He acknowledged previously unknown strains on his family that accompanied
his elevation to governor, especially on his teenage son, who has hated
almost every minute of his father's tenure. At one point, Mr. Paterson said,
he even told the boy he was sorry for becoming the state's chief executive.

He divulged the ways he had been teasing the incoming governor, Andrew M.
Cuomo, since his victory in November. And he offered a mediocre assessment
of his own skills as a manager, giving himself a B-minus over the last four
years. He said he had been reluctant to pack up the governor's mansion and
his own office, once gently scolding a staff member for rushing him out.
(His last day is Dec. 31.)

But looming over the interview was Mr. Paterson's obvious unease about what
awaits him. He conceded that he had put off confronting his new reality: he
has yet to schedule with his 22-year-old daughter a long-promised practice
run on Harlem's sidewalks, subways and streets.

When Mr. Paterson was a boy, his parents were determined that he not be
treated as disabled. Defying his doctors' advice, he never learned Braille,
used a Seeing Eye dog or walked with a cane. Instead, he adapted: he
memorized the city's subway system by listening to the conductors'
announcements, learned to follow the lead of strangers at crosswalks, and
developed a system for catching cabs that would keep him from mistakenly
boarding a passenger car.

The system was not perfect.

He recalled an incident a few years ago when, as a state senator, he hailed
what he thought was a taxi in Manhattan. At the end of the ride, the driver
refused to take his fare. When Mr. Paterson pressed him, the man explained:
'I am not driving a taxi. I just saw you on the street and thought you might
need a ride.' "

His survival skills atrophied when he became lieutenant governor in 2007 -
and governor a year later after Eliot Spitzer resigned amid scandal.
Suddenly, he was chief executive of the state, with a huge security detail
and a domestic staff at the governor's mansion.

"The reality is that I had a pretty good sense of my own independence. But
over the last four years," he said, "I haven't been on the subway. I haven't
crossed a street by myself. Haven't gone into a restaurant by myself."

Mr. Paterson, 56, said he planned to attend classes at Helen Keller Services
for the Blind and, if finances permitted it, hire a full-time aide to help
guide him for the first year, in part to deal with strangers he expects will
still approach him.

"It would probably be good for me to travel with somebody, because, who
knows, I may have more pardon requests," he said mischievously.

Though he did not rule out running for office again someday, Mr. Paterson,
who has earned $179,000 a year as governor, said he was eager to earn a
bigger salary in the private sector. That would allow him to put his son
through college and to replicate, at least in some ways, the comfortable
life he has grown accustomed to.

"You have a false income when you're governor, because you live in the
executive mansion," he said, ticking off the perks: free meals, free
transportation, free staff. "And, so, if you computed that out to a salary,
it's probably twice the governor's salary."

He confirmed that he had met with administrators at New York University and
Touro College to discuss taking teaching positions. He has spoken with
executives at a local talk radio station, WOR, about becoming a substitute
host. So far, though, he has not hammered out any contracts. In the
meantime, he has filled out paperwork to begin collecting a state pension.
(With 27 years, he can collect about $80,000 annually.)

"I am worried about money, because I am not a billionaire, in case you
hadn't heard," he said.

His advisers - old friends, current aides and former chief executives - have
encouraged him to think big. Mr. Clinton, for instance, asked him to
consider running a foundation in Harlem that would employ youngsters and cut
energy costs by painting the roofs of buildings white to reflect sunlight.

"You want me to make all the roofs in Harlem white?" Mr. Paterson recalled
asking Mr. Clinton inside the former president's office on 125th Street. Mr.
Clinton nodded. "Don't you think Harlem has become white enough?" Mr.
Paterson asked him.

Over the last few weeks, he has conducted a distinctly Paterson-esque
farewell tour across the state, much of it over local AM radio, dispensing
frank and funny observations about himself and his colleagues. He has
compared the news media in New York to the corruption-riddled Tammany Hall,
and declared that the quality of lawmakers in Albany has plunged over the
last two decades. "I am sorry to say this," he added, impishly.

He even made light of his own multiple run-ins with state prosecutors and
ethics investigators, telling the audience at a Bronx school the other night
that when he saw all the people in their seats, he figured he had walked
into a grand jury room.

He had only good things to say about his predecessor and his successor.
Asked how he planned to welcome Mr. Cuomo, he has said he had already swept
one big obstacle out of the governor-elect's path: he made sure the faulty
outlet above the sink in the master bedroom of the governor's mansion got
fixed.

"I said, 'This is important stuff, Andrew,' " he recalled. "'You don't know
what it's like when you need to plug something in, like an electric razor,
and you can't.' "

He even weighed in on Mr. Spitzer's show on CNN, which has suffered in the
ratings and has led to a debate about whether his co-host, Kathleen Parker,
has been unduly sidelined by the ex-governor. If anything, Mr. Paterson
opined, the show needs to revolve more around Mr. Spitzer to showcase his
brilliance.

He said he was looking forward to having a more normal family life,
recounting the difficulties his wife and his son faced once he became
governor.

"I don't think anything about me being governor ever looked like it made him
happy," he said about the boy, Alex, now 16. Asked how it made him feel as a
father, he responded: "Very guilty."

He and his wife, Michelle, grew so frustrated by tabloid photographers'
trying to shoot pictures of them as they vacationed poolside at a friend's
house in the Hamptons that they grabbed the family camera and took pictures
of the paparazzi, who they said were trespassing.

"While we found that funny, and it's a great story to tell," he said, "the
reality is it was very hard to sit back and say, 'So how have you been?'
Because you are both under this constant pressure."

Reflecting on his tenure, he paused for several seconds.

"Some things went well, some things went not so well," he said. "It was a
privilege. It was an honor. I would serve. I would do it again."

Still, he could not resist a joke, cheekily recalling the suddenness with
which he landed in the governor's office.

"I would like two weeks' notice next time," he said.

hats off to the teacher who takes time to teach

Hopefully everyone reading this is either a parent, a teacher or a lover of people. 
As such we have a responsibility to provide guidance and training to the next generation.  The more we involve ourselves in the process, the finer the results.  I grew up in a time when spanking, whipping, slapping, shaking by the hair and screaming were accepted methods of training children.  Once the beating ceased we knew never to do "that" again, whatever "that" was.  No one explained anything.  We were expected to know.  And what kind of a world did we create out of this upbringing?  Just look about you.  Illegal wars, a nation that accepts torture, under another name, and violence as a way of life. 
I know, you're going to say, "Not me!  I'm not that way."  Okay, I'll grant you a "get out of jail" card if you'll tell me just what you are doing to stop the violence that has become more and more a way of American Life.  Just simple things like watching a TV program or movie where the theme is sexual violence.  And trust me this is so prevalent that it slips past us much of the time, Do you just shake your head?  Or do you take time to inform the sponsors and network that this is no longer an acceptable theme. 
Do you attend public meetings, PTA meetings, political meetings and rallies in order to speak out on critical issues?  Or do you sit back and simply say, "The world's going to Hell in a hand basket". 
I tip my hat, or baseball cap, to the teacher who understands the value of making the time to talk to students who break the rules, making certain that the student really gets beyond the punishment and understands the lesson. 
We have seen for many generations just what force and violence create.  Submission and hatred and ultimate rebellion.  I think we may be seeing that rebellion in our youth today. 
Cathy and I made the time to interact with our children.  We explained that physical punishment only teaches that when you are big you get to beat on your children.  We played together, worked together and discussed the consequences of misconduct. Of course the children call it, "Dad's long, long lectures". 
But they all are raising up children in the same manner.  So I know it can be done. 
And that is why I stand up and cheer for that teacher who takes the time to talk to her students who break the rules.  A corner may be turned.  A child may go into adulthood  remembering that lesson. 
 
Curious Carl

Sunday, December 19, 2010

the little man who wasn't there...

The Little Man Who Wasn't There...
 
It's surreal.  You are in a group of people and yet they are not there at all.  They talk in your direction, nodding and smiling, but if you could see, their fingers are busy under the table edge, tapping out one conversation after another.  So now it is possible to be totally rude without having to be obvious about it. 
Our Thanksgiving family gathering is a fine example.  My 30 year old grandson's cell phone continuously rang.  But he never answered it.  I thought he never answered it.  I thought he was politely ignoring the many calls, although I felt that if it were my phone I'd put it on silent ring or shut it off out of deference to my family. 
But no, he wasn't ignoring these many calls.  He was quietly texting one after another.  Dumb me.  I wondered why he would say, "Huh?" to many of the comments directed toward him.  "Huh?"  So we'd repeat whatever it was and he would give a brief comment and then return to being silent.  I thought it was connected to his having dumped his girl friend, the mother of his son, our great grandson.  He told us that they just didn't have anything in common.  "She isn't interested in my work or anything I do or want to do", he complains.  Hell!  How would he know!  You can't have meaningful relationships while pecking away on that little bobble from the Dark Side. 
I love my grandson.  And for the most part he is a bright, hard working fun fellow.  Or he used to be all of that.  But now he is distant, part of a group without being part of it.  Somewhere else even when he is here.  It's just plain rude.  But it's what young people are doing these days. 
Well next year I'll be ready.  All guns, boots and cell phones will be checked at the door. 
Frankly I'd rather not see family members if they just travel all that way to come here to not be present. 
 
Curious Carl
********
 
Go For It!
 
I'll probably never shrivel up and disappear, but I do not plan to begin to try running with the herd. 
When you come into my office I will not allow others to barge in and demand to take some of your time.  My phone service will catch incoming calls and I will give you 100% of my attention while you are there.  Multi tasking has its place, but not when I am engaged with you.  You are the most important person of the moment. 
A funny thought suddenly flashed through my head, because I just discovered that my brain actually does multi task even while I'm writing to you, but anyway, the funniest thought just came to me.  I see two folks embraced in love making, each one with a cell phone texting someone else. 
Oh well, it would replace watching Johnny Carson during those late night intimacies. 
So if that's your thing, Go for it!. 
 
Curious Carl

the Spirit of Jesus

For the most part I try to stay out of discussions over Jesus and what He might do if He were here  today.  Jesus doesn't need the support of an old Agnostic when he has God backing Him. 
But when Jim McDermott and Bill O'Reilly begin invoking the name of Jesus Christ, well I just can't stand it any longer. 
First of all, setting all else aside for the moment, Christmas is that time when people around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus and all that followed this event.  Christmas embraces the Spirit of giving.  so right away we can rule out Bill O'Reilly.  Unless you want to count feeding lies and heaping contempt as a sort of giving. 
As for Jim McDermott, why hide behind Jesus as a reason for congress to actually serve the American People, all year around, not just at Christmas time. 
Why oh why can't we deal in the real world?  No, we have to invoke Fairy Tales and Make Believe in order to convince one another to behave in a humane manner. 
For the record, Jesus was not born on December 25. 
Still, it doesn't matter what day Christians select to publicly rejoice His birth.  The real problem is that Christians are not celebrating His birth 365 days each year.  Many can barely make it for an hour each Sunday. 
Has America ever been a Christian nation?  Then how is it that we have dozens of different churches, each professing to be the "True Christian Church" fighting among themselves.  Why can't Jesus make His point clear among those claiming to be His followers? 
Many people say, "If Jesus came back today He would...", you fill in the blank.  But the truth is that Jesus' Spirit has never gone away.  The same people who knew Him way back then are the same sort of folks who know His Spirit today.  And the same people who pontificated(Bill O'Reilly and Jim McDermott) are the same pompous, sneering, condescending, bejeweled Asses strutting about today. 
 
Curious Carl
 

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Freedom of Speech or Freedom to Think?

Freedom of Speech or Freedom to Think
 
We talk a great deal about our precious Freedom of Speech, and certainly the Internet has given wings to our voices.  Simply by pressing my fingertips to these little keys my words go out across the entire nation and even throughout the world. 
Several years ago I posted a short piece I'd written entitled Imagine.  What a delight it was to hear from people in Australia, New Zeeland, Germany, Hungry the UK and Norway.  Nothing from China, sad to say. 
As fast as we press the Send key our words shoot out into space, landing everywhere.  Compare that to the weeks it took for the news of Abe Lincolns assassination to work its way across America. 
And so we are now free to say anything we wish to say, and we can back it up with videos.  We can tell the truth, as we see it, or we can lie through our teeth and doctor pictures to go along. 
Instant, unlimited Freedom of Speech.  Who would have imagined it!  But this freedom carries responsibilities.  At least it should, if we want to hold onto it. 
First and foremost we must be ready to stand up and defend our right to this open world wide forum.  We must remember that just as long as Corporate forces see the ability to steal our precious internet out from our very fingers and turn a few billion dollars, we will need to remain vigilant.  And that means we will need to stand guard just as long as we have powerful corporations vacuuming up the Land. 
In addition we must school ourselves to be as honest in our postings as we can be.  For some of us this is a challenge.  I love to embellish.  What's a good story if it can't be stretched just a teeny bit, or tweeked to make it even more enjoyable.  Or twisted to sell a point.  But there are some who simply lie.  Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and some fools are bound to believe you.  Now that can seem like real power.  Of course it will ultimately undermine and destroy our ability to use this wonderful, open channel. 
So our final challenge is to begin to practice that other Freedom.  A Freedom we don't talk much about, but it is every bit as important as our Freedom of Speech.  It is our Freedom to Think!  That's right Folks.  We can actually use our brain independently without having to be told what to think or how to think it.  Of course it is more difficult than it appears.  We have been told how to think from the time mommy first slapped our little hands and said, "No, no!"  We have been conditioned to think in certain ways by our teachers, by our peer groups, by our drill sargeant, by our bosses and by the Corporate Media that pounds into our brains daily. 
Rather than exercising our Freedom to Think, we practice what I call, "Brain Jerk Reaction."  Stuff pours into our eyes and ears and we react.  When we get enough stuff up there in our dome we sit about nodding and posturing at one another believing we are actually thinking.  But we are simply processing garbage that has been stuffed into us. 
Excercising our Freedom to Think takes hard work and lots of practice.  We actually have to begin to question the piles of goo inside our heads. 
It can be as simple as questioning the most basic statements.  When my eldest daughter was about 4 years old she asked me, "Daddy, why is the sky blue?"  Some dads might have said, "Because God made it blue."  That would have given her an answer and she might have been satisfied.  But it would have been an nonanswer.  Instead, I said "Let's look up the answer in our trusty encyclopedia."  And so we did, just as you can do.  And we learned the answer.  Of course she never did ask, "Daddy, why is the grass green?"  I have been accused of being far too wordy with my children.  A charge which comes mostly from my children and my wife. 
But back to my example.  If I had been raised to believe that the sky is blue because God made it that way, then I may never question or think outside that little confining box. 
To learn to exercise my Freedom to Think, I must begin exercising my brain just as I do the rest of my body. 
It is hard work but well worth the effort.  Because it is our greatest weapon against those who would control and oppress us.  They cannot control someone who is exercising their Right to Think. 
But enough of this prattle, it's time to go exercise. 
 
Curious Carl

Friday, December 17, 2010

"yes we can" but will we?


Don't get too worked up.  Remember, the words were, "yes we can!", no one ever said, "Yes we Will!!!" 
Curious Carl
 

"...the facts lose." - Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman got that right, "...the facts lose." 
As Chester Riley used to say on the old radio/TV sitcom, The Life of Riley, "My head is made up.  Don't confuse me with facts." 
I would propose that we pass a law to order all Republicans to have this slogan tattooed on their foreheads. 
 
Curious Carl
 
 

Wall Street Whitewash
By PAUL KRUGMAN
When the financial crisis struck, many people - myself included - considered
it a teachable moment. Above all, we expected the crisis to remind everyone
why banks need to be effectively regulated.

How naïve we were. We should have realized that the modern Republican Party
is utterly dedicated to the Reaganite slogan that government is always the
problem, never the solution. And, therefore, we should have realized that
party loyalists, confronted with facts that don't fit the slogan, would
adjust the facts.

Which brings me to the case of the collapsing crisis commission.

The bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was established by law to
"examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and
economic crisis in the United States." The hope was that it would be a
modern version of the Pecora investigation of the 1930s, which documented
Wall Street abuses and helped pave the way for financial reform.

Instead, however, the commission has broken down along partisan lines,
unable to agree on even the most basic points.

It's not as if the story of the crisis is particularly obscure. First, there
was a widely spread housing bubble, not just in the United States, but in
Ireland, Spain, and other countries as well. This bubble was inflated by
irresponsible lending, made possible both by bank deregulation and the
failure to extend regulation to "shadow banks," which weren't covered by
traditional regulation but nonetheless engaged in banking activities and
created bank-type risks.

Then the bubble burst, with hugely disruptive consequences. It turned out
that Wall Street had created a web of interconnection nobody understood, so
that the failure of Lehman Brothers, a medium-size investment bank, could
threaten to take down the whole world financial system.

It's a straightforward story, but a story that the Republican members of the
commission don't want told. Literally.

Last week, reports Shahien Nasiripour of The Huffington Post, all four
Republicans on the commission voted to exclude the following terms from the
report: "deregulation," "shadow banking," "interconnection," and, yes, "Wall
Street."

When Democratic members refused to go along with this insistence that the
story of Hamlet be told without the prince, the Republicans went ahead and
issued their own report, which did, indeed, avoid using any of the banned
terms.

That report is all of nine pages long, with few facts and hardly any
numbers. Beyond that, it tells a story that has been widely and repeatedly
debunked - without responding at all to the debunkers.

In the world according to the G.O.P. commissioners, it's all the fault of
government do-gooders, who used various levers - especially Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored loan-guarantee agencies - to promote
loans to low-income borrowers. Wall Street - I mean, the private sector -
erred only to the extent that it got suckered into going along with this
government-created bubble.

It's hard to overstate how wrongheaded all of this is. For one thing, as I've
already noted, the housing bubble was international - and Fannie and Freddie
weren't guaranteeing mortgages in Latvia. Nor were they guaranteeing loans
in commercial real estate, which also experienced a huge bubble.

Beyond that, the timing shows that private players weren't suckered into a
government-created bubble. It was the other way around. During the peak
years of housing inflation, Fannie and Freddie were pushed to the sidelines;
they only got into dubious lending late in the game, as they tried to regain
market share.

But the G.O.P. commissioners are just doing their job, which is to sustain
the conservative narrative. And a narrative that absolves the banks of any
wrongdoing, that places all the blame on meddling politicians, is especially
important now that Republicans are about to take over the House.

Last week, Spencer Bachus, the incoming G.O.P. chairman of the House
Financial Services Committee, told The Birmingham News that "in Washington,
the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that
Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks."

He later tried to walk the remark back, but there's no question that he and
his colleagues will do everything they can to block effective regulation of
the people and institutions responsible for the economic nightmare of recent
years. So they need a cover story saying that it was all the government's
fault.

In the end, those of us who expected the crisis to provide a teachable
moment were right, but not in the way we expected. Never mind relearning the
case for bank regulation; what we learned, instead, is what happens when an
ideology backed by vast wealth and immense power confronts inconvenient
facts. And the answer is, the facts lose.




More in Opinion (3 of 18 articles)
Op-Ed Columnist: Bigger Is Easier
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mopping up

Subject: Re: What's Behind the GOP's War Against NPR?

 
Remember, the conservatives used to accuse all media, TV networks, radio networks and newspapers of being part of the "Liberal Media".  They hammered and yammered until they drove all of the middle of the road media further and further right.  Left wing media, whatever that was, now became the middle of the road.  But it is still called radical, subversive and Nazi-like. 
So now the final attack is on NPR.  Poor NPR.  It can't even bring itself to be known as National Public Radio any longer.  Anyway, once the Right wing conservatives have finished with NPR they will turn their attention to mopping up such journalists as Amy Goodman. 
 
Curious Carl
 
 

it's always about the money

Subject: Re: Where Does Billionaire Monopolist Bill Gates Get Off Saying BiggerClass Size and Fewer Teachers Is the Education Solution?

It's always about the money.  For the Empire Builders there is no profit in educating the masses.  The fact of the matter is that the Empire Builders honestly believe that they do not need any of us anymore. 
They are busy moving their factories and business headquarters overseas.  They have discovered the starving, desperate people who are eager to serve them and to be loyal workers. 
The Great American Experiment, the Middle Class provided the resources and talent upon which the Empire Builders drew and grew.  For a time it looked like a sort of mutual appreciation society.  The Empire Builders praised the Middle Class for its ingenuity and work ethics, and the Middle Class dreamed of moving up the ladder into the Land of the Empire Builders. 
Underwriting it all was the unsung Working Class.  Looked down on by the Middle Class and unknown to the Empire Builders, they kept the factories running, built the bridges and highways, hauled off the garbage and did all of the menial work including harvesting the crops that fed the Middle Class and Empire Builders.  They were so invisible that no one noticed or cared that many of them crept across the border and set up house keeping illegally. 
Instead of reaching out to the Middle Class, the Empire Builders stole from them and spat in their faces.  "We can hire cheaper labor to do everything you do," they sneered. 
It was as if the clock had suddenly struck midnight and the carriages were turning back into pumpkins and all the finery had become rags. 
Of course the Empire Builders have planted the seeds of their own destruction 
 The question remains, are rank and file Americans able to prepare to build a better world when the sling finds its mark and the giant crashes to the valley floor. 
 
Curious Carl
 

old memories still linger in Rainier Valley

Growing up in Seattle during the 40's and 50's, we had no major league team.  So I dreamed of actually sitting in the Cleveland stands when Bobby Feller pitched.  Ted Williams was my all-time most favorite player, but New York(the team we all loved to hate) was always star studded and hard not to follow.  Until Brooklyn and New York Giants thumbed their noses at their loyal fans and belatedly took the advise of Horace Greeley,(some would argue it was John B. L. Soule), who said, "Go West young man, go West!", and totally destroyed the triple A Pacific Coast League, by plopping down in San Francisco and Los Angeles.  
  The Pacific Coast League should have had the foresight to declare themselves a third major league, but baseball politics kept it from happening until it was too late. 
So I rooted for teams that had my favorites playing for them.  Ron Santo(Cubbies), Sammy White(Red Sox), Jungle Jim Riviera(White Sox), were just a few who come to mind. 
Some of the greats played ball in the Coast League, either as they were coming up or down from the Majors.  Satch Paige, the greatest of all baseball pitchers bar none, played half a season for the Seattle Rainiers prior to returning to Kansas City sometime in the 50's.  I eagerly paid my 50 cents to sit in the left field bleachers and cheer on this giant of a baseball legend. 
And we had our own colorful characters, fellows who were almost good enough to "go up" but never quite made it.  Hot shot little Schuster the Rooster who would delight the kids in the left field bleachers by leaping up, grabbing the fence and crowing after an exceptionally fine play.  Or, Kewpie Dick Barret, a decent enough pitcher with a head exactly like the cute little doll.  Seattle boasted managers with names like, Roger Hornsby, Freddie Hutchinson and JoJo White. 
But all of that went away when the boys from the Big Apple decided to do like Johnny Appleseed and spread their seed to the West Coast. 
Later Seattle had a brief one year plunge into the Majors, with the ill fated Pilots.  This was strictly a money making scheme pulled off by the Soriano Brothers.  No plans for a major league field, the team took over the falling down Sick's Stadium, home of the Rainiers, and put in one wonderful season.  Even though I'd become totally blind, there I sat in my old left field bleacher seat yelling my head off on opening day.  We went to at least a dozen games and finally believed we'd hit the big time. 
It was a short ride.  One year and the team was off to Milwaukee. 
But the memories still linger around Rainier Valley.  I swear that whenever I walk past the place where the old ball yard sat, I can hear the stomping of many young feet on those old splintery bleacher benches.  And Leo Lasson saying, "Back, back, back, and it's over the fence". 
 
Curious Carl
 
 
 

like lambs to the slaughter...

 
Baa, Baa, Baa! 
Like lambs to the slaughter, we blindly follow the Pied Pipers of the Corporate Drug Industry and Blood Sucking Health Profiteers. 
While fellow Americans die, we shrug and say, "Well, we still have the best medical care in the world". 
The evidence against that is far too great to print here, but it doesn't matter because we are being charmed by the smoke and mirrors, and by the billions of dollars, blown into our faces by these uncaring Health Pirates. 
We're being ripped off left and right.  The War Games that are never going to protect Americans from Terror, in part because the real Terrorists live among us, and the health providers who provide nothing, but take all they can suck from our dying bones, are not driven by concern for our well being.  They are part of that great cancer called Greed that is consuming everything in sight. 
We must demand a new government.  A government that really protects All it's people, not just the Ruling Class, and provides basic health care to All its people, not just to those with lots of money, and ensures that no citizen will live in poverty or die in foul, stinking warehouses for the old used up folks, and free education for All our children, and free child care for working mothers and working couples. 
It's long past time that we, the people paying the bills, demanded our fair share. 
 
Curious Carl
 

What We Learn From WikiLeaks

The article below is interesting reading. 
Funny how many of us justify our positions based on where our pay check and our future promotions come from. 
For example, I have long been opposed to state government contracting work that should be provided by state employees.  But after all the pros and cons have settled, it is cheaper to contract than to add FTE's to the public employee roles. 
But here I am, contracting with the state to provide a service that once was provided by a state employee.  And I am now preparing documents and information packets to take to our legislature in an attempt to defend the very system I do not personally support.  I can justify it by saying, "If we lose our contract money we will no longer be able to provide services to older blind and vision impaired folks".  But at the same time I am fighting to maintain my own level of living.  Should I be defending contract work, or should I be fighting for state government to shoulder its responsibility and hire enough workers to do the job, with proper benefits and the ability for these workers to join the state employees union? 
If I were the young Carl Jarvis with nothing to lose, I'd be storming the legislative halls demanding more FTE's.  But old Carl Jarvis has a very personal stake in this game. 
And the very same is true with the many journalists who are quick to tell us just how wonderfully well our government is doing in foreign  diplomacy.  They are not about to bite the hand that feeds them. 
 
Curious Carl
******
 
Media Advisory:
What We Learn From WikiLeaks
Media paint flattering picture of U.S. diplomacy

12/16/10

In U.S. elite media, the main revelation of the *WikiLeaks* diplomatic
cables is that the U.S. government conducts its foreign policy in a largely
admirable fashion.

Fareed Zakaria, *Time *(12/2/10):

"The WikiLeaks documents, by contrast [to the Pentagon Papers], show
Washington pursuing privately pretty much the policies it has articulated
publicly. Whether on Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan or North Korea, the cables
confirm what we know to be U.S. foreign policy. And often this foreign
policy is concerned with broader regional security, not narrow American
interests. Ambassadors are not caught pushing other countries in order to
make deals secretly to strengthen the U.S., but rather to solve festering
problems."


David Sanger, *New York Times* (12/5/10):

"While WikiLeaks made the trove available with the intention of exposing
United States duplicity, what struck many readers was that American
diplomacy looked rather impressive. The day-by-day record showed diplomats
trying their hardest behind closed doors to defuse some of the world's
thorniest conflicts, but also assembling a Plan B."

David Brooks, *New York Times* (11/30/10):

"Despite the imaginings of people like Assange, the conversation revealed in
the cables is not devious and nefarious. The private conversation is similar
to the public conversation, except maybe more admirable."

*New York Times* editorial (11/30/10):

"But what struck us, and reassured us, about the latest trove of classified
documents released by WikiLeaks was the absence of any real skullduggery.
After years of revelations about the Bush administration's abuses--including
the use of torture and kidnappings--much of the Obama administration's
diplomatic wheeling and dealing is appropriate and, at times, downright
skillful."

Christopher Dickey and Andrew Bast, *Newsweek* (12/13/10):

"One of the great ironies of the latest WikiLeaks dump, in fact, is that the
industrial quantities of pilfered State Department documents actually show
American diplomats doing their jobs the way diplomats should, and doing them
very well indeed. When the cables detail corruption at the top of the Afghan
government, the Saudi king's desire to be rid of the Iranian threat, the
personality quirks of European leaders or the state of the Russian
mafiacracy, the reporting is very much in line with what the press has
already told the public. There's no big disconnect about the facts; no
evidence--in the recent cables at least--that the United States government
is trying to deceive the public or itself."

Bob Garfield, *NPR*'s *On the Media* (12/3/10):

"The stories so far have been revealing but unsurprising, it seems to me,
and not especially indicting. It's made me wonder whether WikiLeaks is a
legitimate whistleblower in this case or just a looter. Has Julian Assange
shed light here with the release of 253,000 cables or has he just smashed a
very big store window?"

Anne Applebaum, *Washington Post* (12/7/10):

"By now, I think we have learned that Julian Assange, the founder of
WikiLeaks, has vast ambitions. Among them is the end of American government
as we know it. On his website he describes the leaked U.S. diplomatic cables
in dramatic and sinister terms, evoking the lost ideals of George Washington
and claiming that they demonstrate a profound gap between the United States'
"public persona and what it says behind closed doors." Alas, the cables
don't live up to that promise. On the contrary--as others have noted--they
show that U.S. diplomats pursue pretty much the same goals in private as
they do in public, albeit using more caustic language."

These conclusions represent an extraordinarily narrow reading of the
*WikiLeaks* cables, of which about 1,000 have been released (contrary to
constant media claims that the website has already released 250,000 cables).
Some of the more explosive revelations, unflattering to U.S. policymakers,
have received less attention in U.S. corporate media. Among the revelations
that, by any sensible reading, show U.S. diplomatic efforts of considerable
concern:

--The U.S. attempted to prevent German authorities from acting on arrest
warrants against 13 CIA officers who were instrumental in the abduction and
subsequent torture of German citizen Khaled El-Masri (Scott Horton, *
Harpers*.org, 11/29/10 [ http://harpers.org/archive/2010/11/hbc-90007831 ];
*New York Times*, 12/9/10 [
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/09/world/europe/09wikileaks-elmasri.html ]).

--The U.S. worked to obstruct Spanish government investigations into the
killing of a Spanish journalist in Iraq by U.S. forces, the use of Spanish
airfields for the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program and torture of
Spanish detainees at Guantánamo (*El Pais*, 12/2/10; Scott Horton,
*Harpers*.org, 12/1/10 [ http://harpers.org/archive/2010/12/hbc-90007836 ]).

--*WikiLeaks* coverage has often emphasized that Yemeni president Ali
Abdullah Saleh reassured U.S. officials that he would claim U.S. military
airstrikes in his country were the work of Yemeni forces. But as Justin
Elliot pointed out (*Salon*, 12/7/10 [
http://www.salon.com/news/wikileaks/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/12/07/wikileaks_show_state_official_lied ]
), the United States has long denied carrying out airstrikes in the country
at all. The secret attacks have killed scores of civilians.

--According to the cables, U.S. Special Forces are actively conducting
operations inside Pakistan, despite repeated government denials (Jeremy
Scahill, *Nation*, 12/1/10 [
http://www.thenation.com/blog/156765/not-so-secret-anymore-us-war-pakistan ]).

--The U.S. ambassador to Honduras concluded that the 2009 removal of
president Manuel Zelaya was indeed a coup, and that backers of this action
provided no compelling evidence to support their legal claims (Robert
Naiman, Just Foreign Policy, 11/29/10 [
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/774 ]). Despite the conclusions
reached in the cable, official U.S. statements remained ambiguous. If the
Obama administration had reached the same conclusion in public as was made
in the cable, the outcome of the coup might have been very different.

--The U.S. secured a secret agreement with Britain to allow U.S. bases on
British soil to stockpile cluster bombs, circumventing a treaty signed by
Britain. The U.S. also discouraged other countries from working to ban the
weapons, which have devastating effects on civilian populations (*Guardian*,
12/1/10 [
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cables-cluster-bombs-britain ]
).

--The U.S. engaged in an array of tactics to undermine opposition to U.S.
climate change policies, including bribes and surveillance (*Guardian*,
12/3/10 [
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-us-manipulated-climate-accord ]
).

--U.S. diplomats in Georgia were uncritical of that country's claims about
Russian interference, a dispute that eventually led to a brief war (*New
York Times*, 12/2/10 [
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/world/europe/02wikileaks-georgia.html ]).
U.S. officials "appeared to set aside skepticism and embrace Georgian
versions of important and disputed events....as the region slipped toward
war, sources outside the Georgian government were played down or not
included in important cables. Official Georgian versions of events were
passed to Washington largely unchallenged."

--U.S. officials put forward sketchy intelligence as proof that Iran had
secured 19 long-range missiles from North Korea--claims that were treated as
fact by the *New York Times*, which subsequently walked back its credulous
reporting (FAIR Activism Update, 12/3/10 [
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4209 ])


All of these examples--an incomplete tally of the important revelations in
the cables thus far--would suggest that there is plenty in the *WikiLeaks*
releases that does not reflect particularly well on U.S. policymakers.

In its "Note to Readers" explaining their decision to publish stories about
the cables, the *New York Times* (11/29/10) told readers that "the documents
serve an important public interest, illuminating the goals, successes,
compromises and frustrations of American diplomacy."

The paper went on:

"But the more important reason to publish these articles is that the cables
tell the unvarnished story of how the government makes its biggest
decisions, the decisions that cost the country most heavily in lives and
money. They shed light on the motivations--and, in some cases, duplicity--of
allies on the receiving end of American courtship and foreign aid. They
illuminate the diplomacy surrounding two current wars and several countries,
like Pakistan and Yemen, where American military involvement is growing."

The "duplicity" of other countries can be illuminated by the cables, while
the U.S.'s secret wars are evidence of "diplomacy." That principle would
seem to be guiding the way many U.S. outlets are interpretating the
*WikiLeaks* revelations.


**We Support WikiLeaks--Sign the Petition! [
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/592/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5343


Feel free to respond to FAIR ( fair@fair.org ). We can't reply to
everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate
documented examples of media bias or censorship.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Once upon a time, long, long ago...

Subject: Once upon a time, long, long ago...

Once upon a time, long, long ago, and far, far away in Never Never Land,
telephones were few and far between.  Usually they were mounted on the kitchen wall or sat ponderously on a desk or drawing table in the den.  Few folks had private lines, two and four party were the most common.  But in the back country where my grand folks lived, ten party lines still ruled the day.  We children had to ask permission to use the telephone and we knew that we had best be quick about it.  Mother had a little three minute hour glass for timing eggs.  She'd turn it up when we dialed the phone and we were to bring it back to her before the last of the sand had run its course. 
When we were away from home we usually carried a nickel tucked in our pocket in order to call home if we were going to be late.  But we'd better have a really good reason for being late.  It was no problem finding a telephone.  Pay phones were on every major street corner and in most stores. 
So how, you may ask, did we "stay in touch" when we had no cell phone or Snaggle Tooth or HiPod or Gizzmos dangling from our belt or around our necks? 
Why, we just walked up to our friends front door and knocked or rang the bell.  Pop!  Out someone would come with big smiles and invite us in.  With good friends we would just walk in the kitchen door and yodel. 
Yes, strange as it now sounds, we actually talked face to face.  And we touched, too!  Wrestling, holding hands, hugging and when no one was looking we even kissed. 
We sat, a bunch of us, on the living room floor spinning old platters on the tinny phonograph, singing at the top of our voices, because we knew all the words to all the tunes. 
We gathered at the malt shop and sucked up sodas and laughed and hollered and carried on without a single phone interrupting us.  We actually looked each other in the eye and never once had to text anyone or rush home to check our computer email. 
How did we exist?  I'll tell you how.  We were happier and not rushing about trying to stay in touch with dozens of imaginary friends.  Our friends lived right nearby.  And if they moved, we wrote things called letters. 
 
Curious Carl
 

cell phones


Although at 75, I'm still working pretty much full time, I am in a business where my clients do not feel the need to text me.  Mainly because they are mostly older than me and have even less desire for the glitzy new bobbles craved by our younger generation. 
I even hear that couples are getting married via electronic gadgets.  Now I'm waiting to see what the babies will look like. 
 
Curious Carl
 

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Obama's doing what he thinks is right; and it's killing us


Two years seems long enough to determine the metal of a man in a job as critical as that of president.  In my state we gave a new employee a year during which we could terminate their employment if we felt they were not taking hold. 
But after two years we can pretty much tell that the man who campaigned for the job is not the man who should be doing the work.  While Obama would make someone a great PR man, he has sold out the Middle Class and Working Class over and over through pointless compromises. 
Our hope that he would stand tall for the People has proven to be as foolish as waiting for Santa Clause when you have no chimney.  How many progressive people has Obama placed in leadership roles?  Right.  So let's not waste any more time weeping for the man or hoping that somehow he'll become a fighter.  He is doing what he believes is the right thing to do.  And it's killing us. 
 
Carl Jarvis
 
 
 

Grimm Fairy Tale

Subject: Re: Cables Describe Scale of Afghan Corruption as Overwhelming
 
Our illegal wars are already a Grim Fairy Tale(pun intended). 
 
Curious Carl
 

gluttony and the good life


What you say is exactly right on, John. 
The problem is that we've been conditioned not to listen.  Somehow we have been led by the Pied Piper of Lust, gluttony  and Greed into believing that if we just try harder or buy the lucky lottery ticket, we can rise into that Promised Land of Excessive Luxury. 
This must be the underlying answer.  Otherwise why would we close our minds to a system that allows some of our members to receive so much more for their efforts than the rest of us? 
The professional athlete who signs a ten million dollar contract.  "Hey!" we say, "If he can get it, what's wrong with that?"  The billionaire who takes a natural resource such as oil, and sells it back to us at huge profit and then cons us into taxing ourselves to build a stadium named after his corporation, in order to allow that athlete and his team to play.  And we get to pay big bucks to attend the game!  And we act as if this is just fine and dandy. 
Okay, President Sarah Palin it is. 
 
Curious Carl
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: John Heim
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 6:47 AM
Subject: Re: [acb-l] Flat Tax? [WAS] Re: Social Security

Yeah, this is the point I like to make when people talk about the flat tax
rate. People tend to think a flat tax would be fair if only we could really
get everyone to pay the same rate. But that's just not true. Rich people
benefit disproportionately from society.

A guy making $20 million a year lives pretty much the same lifestyle as one
making $40 million. But a guy making $20 thousand a year does not live the
same lifestyle as a guy making $40 thousand. The benefits you get from
living in this great country of ours just don't go up in a straight line.
They taper off considerably at the low end. There is nothing fair about a
guy making $40 thousand a year and a guy making $40 million a year paying
the same percentage of tax on their income. Even if you could manage it, it
wouldn't be fair.

You could tax a guy making $40 million a year at 50% and it wouldn't really
change his life at all. But if you take half the income of a guy making $40
thousand, he's poor.  Now he can't pay his mortgage or pay for his kid's to
go to college, not even the state college.

Social benefits aren't flat and taxes shouldn't be either.