Month: January 2010

Having a rough day? Watch this:

(via Think Progress)

Update [2010-1-29 14:48:44 by Man Eegee]: CSPAN now has the entire Q&A session on its site

Tony Blair is being forced to answer questions before the British Inquiry into the Iraq War and you can watch his testimony live on CSPAN. What’s amusing is that Blair is trying to argue that in the cabinet meeting where they decided to help invade Iraq, the question of its legality was just one part of the consideration about whether it was “the right thing to do.” In other words, it was possible to be the right thing to do even though it was patently illegal. I think that’s a ripe area for debate. For example, our intervention in Kosovo wasn’t authorized by the United Nations Security Council because the Russians sided with the Serbs. So, how do you distinguish between Kosovo and Iraq in a legal sense? Or should you?

Perhaps a better question is why the Brits feel comfortable holding Blair and his government accountable for their actions while it’s unthinkable that any such thing would happen to Bush, Cheney, and their decision makers. Why is that?

Here is some very good news on the economy.

Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009,
(that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.2 percent.

I think this means that the recession is officially over because we now have had two straight quarters with economic growth. Of course, there are other considerations that factor into the definition of a recession, but 5.7% is a big number. With any luck, the unemployment numbers will start going down shortly.

Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

A recent article in the New York Times highlights the critical role that agriculture will play in rebuilding Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 2010.

Food security is not a new problem in Haiti, and development organizations such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme, as well as nongovernmental organizations like Heifer International and Oxfam, have been forced to halt food programs in the country as these groups themselves attempt to recover from the disaster.

Before the quake, FAO alone was implementing 23 food and agriculture projects in Haiti, hoping to improve access to food in the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Prior to the disaster, an estimated 46 percent of Haiti’s population was undernourished, and chronic malnutrition affected 24 percent of children under five.

Right now the most urgent need is to get food and water to millions of people in the capital city of Port au Prince and elsewhere in Haiti. But as the country looks to the future, the need for sustainable sources of food, such as those we are learning about in sub-Saharan Africa, is more important than ever.

In spite of Obama’s historic speech in Cairo early last year finding Israel’s siege “intolerable,” the siege remains intact and deprivations worsened by Israel’s three week attack a year ago continue. At least 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians and roughly 300 children were killed. Israel has since ignored Washington pleas to permit sufficient humanitarian aid and building materials into the Strip.

Now, two Congressmen, Rep. Jim McDermott and Rep. Keith Ellison, have acted to create a letter to President Obama calling attention to the devastating humanitarian impact of Israel’s illegal blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip

54 Members of Congress have signed on, irrespective of possible repercussions from the Israel Lobby, AIPAC, in particular.

This announcement from the Campaign to End the Occupation read,

Unfortunately, it’s not too often that we get the opportunity to thank Members of Congress for doing the right thing.  That’s why it’s so important to do so when they do something that we ask of them.

On January 21, 2010, 54 Representatives sent President Obama a letter that termed Israel’s blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip as “de facto collective punishment” and called on the United States to press Israel “for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza.”

To read the entire text of this “Dear Colleague” letter, organized by Rep. Jim McDermott and Rep. Keith Ellison, and to see the full list of signatories, please CLICK HERE.

A list of the Congressmen signatories is at the end of the letter.

Tonight at 6PM Eastern Time, WWL Radio!!!!!

Gottlieb and I will be alive and in color (or is that off color?) on WWL radio tonight to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective.

Hear the Unreported & Under Reported Headlines stories you should be paying attention to, from US Politics, to the all of the Americas to our South, to the farthest reaches of the Earth.

After the News briefs, our Headline Stories this week are the Two State of the Unions: News of developments in the Security State, and news Of the Spin State… that being the SOTU Address.

Start your weekend off with brain food served with humor. So, grab a cocktail, pull a log up by the fire and join our conversation.

We welcome your calls, to add opinions or questions during any of our segments.

Join Gottlieb and Diane tonight at 6pm EDT on Wild Wild Left Radio, via BlogtalkRadio, for News from the Real Left. No hand-wringing, no PC, just straight talk from reality based politics.

WWL Radio: Free Speech in Practice.

The call in number is 646-929-1264

The live chat link will go live around 5:20.

CHAT LINK:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/FlashChat/Chat.aspx?cohost=y&HostUserURL=DianeG

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Welcome to Friday Foto Flogging, a place to share your photos and photography news. We were inspired by the folks at European Tribune who post a regular Friday Photoblog series to try the same on this side of the virtual Atlantic. We also thought foto folks would enjoy seeing some other websites so each week we’ll introduce a different photo website.

This Week’s Theme: Random. Your choice.
Website(s) of the Week: View Obama had on entering the chamber for the SOTU, taken by White House Photographer Pete Souza. (More images from the SOTU can be found in this flickr set.)

AndiF’s Random Acts of Snow

	Snow and ice create a prehistoric art. (I think it looks like a cave painting. Who cares what you think.) Click image for larger version
	Snow and grass create eyelashes. Click image for larger version
	Snow and turkeys create directional arrows for the world’s most confusing roundabout. Click image for larger version

olivia’s random deer and buck shots

	Click image for larger version
	Click image for larger version
	Click image for larger version

Next Week’s Theme: Walls, fences and fields, h/t to boran2 and wilderness wench.

Info on Posting Photos

When you post your photos, please keep the width at 500 or less for the sake of our Bootribers who are on dial-up. If you want to post clickable thumbnails but aren’t sure how, check out this diary:
Clickable Thumbnails. If you haven’t yet joined a photo-hosting site, here are some to consider: Photobucket, Flickr, ImageShack, and Picasa.

Previous Friday Foto Flogs

FFFs 1-36	Random	Skies	School’s Out
Flowers	Weather	Disrepair	Random
Simplicity	What is it?	Vacation, Staycation	Brown
Sparkle	Random	Purple	Differences
What moves you?	Colors	Random	What is it?
Self-portraits	Up	Where work is done	Transitions
Random	Gates, Doors	Aphorisms and Quotes	Bridges
What is it?

Women are all fond of jewelry, just as men are fond of cars. The jewelry   represents the status and wealth of women. In many occasions, you don’t need to   open your mouth; the jewelry you wear has already spoken for yourself. This is   the very wealth the jewelry demonstrates. At the mention of jewelry, Tiffany is   always the best love for women. Next I would like to introduce something about   Tiffany.

Tiffany, the queen of the jewelry industry, is famous for the diamond and   silver products.

Tiffany Corporation, founded in 1837, firstly gained its fame from the silver   tableware. In 1951, Tiffany produced its first silver 925 ornamentation, which   brought more popularity for the brand. The movie “Tiffany breakfast” whose   leading cast was Audrey Hepburn, which was very popular at that time among the   girls, not just because the leading cast but also for those jewelry in the   movie. It is clear that how famous Tiffany was.

Tiffany is the symbol of American design. It has been prevailing for about   two centuries for its theme of love, beauty, romance and dreams. It fulfills all   the women’s fantasy and desire with luscious beauty and gist of soft and   slander.

The concept of Tiffany is always purposed to design the unparalleled works   since its foundation. The facts have proved that Tiffany can explain the   heartfelt wishes for the lovers, and are fantastic for its unique designs of   stationeries and tableware. Classic design, the definition of the Tiffany works   that means the amazing masterpiece of Tiffany can be passed on from generation   to generation. The Tiffany works never customize the fashion up and down, so it   is never out of date. The brief, distinct lines relate the aloof, unexcitable   perspicuity and heartful elegance. Harmony, scale, and orderliness can all   naturally combine together and demonstrate in every work. The Tiffany works pay   great attention to constant strives for perfection. It can absorb the essence   and inspiration from the natural creations as it is pleased and leave behind the   unnatural parts, and every work reflects the American’s inherent characteristic   of optimism, frank and wisdom.

For its unique collection and memorable values, Tiffany jewelry is very   suitable for presents, engagement jewelry and so on.

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It’s probably silly, but this Sally Quinn piece by Jamison Foser is my favorite kind of blogging. Sally so deserves the mockery. I think it should be put in the party platform that members shalt not party with Sally Quinn. I’m not even really joking. Okay, I am.

Shouldn’t Sarah Palin make some kind of outrageous Tweet or something? People are beginning to forget that she exists.