Month: September 2012

Once again, political expediency is put ahead of common sense and respect by the Democratic Party.

“Labor has no place to go.” – Chris Hayes

WHAT WOULD Democrats be without labor? Where would they be?

What would the American middle class look like without unions? Before we met, my own husband was in a situation for many years in Nevada where the threat of unionization in the company where he worked solidified his living wage and benefits.

So, why, in the middle of a union fight in Wisconsin, did Pres. Obama decide to not only sidestep the discussion, but stay well away from offering anything but the most perfunctory support?

Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Democrats in Wisconsin fielded a candidate against Scott Walker who said he wasn’t a union man. Except that wouldn’t stop the President from making the argument about Gov. Scott Walker’s governorship stripping workers of a path to middle class prosperity by gutting collective bargaining. Pres. Obama’s numbers with blue collar workers aren’t exactly great, so it could have benefited every Democrat. Instead all we got from the leader of the Democratic Party as labor went to battle was one tweet.

As a former UAW member raised in a union family, I am insulted by the Democratic Party’s decision to hold their 2012 convention in an anti-union state.

Weak, very weak.

Our so called congresspeople attending the convention, whooping it up and having a great time (on our dime) while we have around twenty million UNemployed/underemployed people is also an insult and frankly, a disaster.

it proves just how out of touch “our” representatives are.

Happy Labor Day??

NOT.

http://www.taylormarsh.com/blog/2012/09/democrats-prepare-to-celebrate-in-anti-union-north-carolina/

The 1944 Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago from July 19-21. Our landing at Normandy began on June 6th. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a little too busy to attend the convention that year, but he did manage to address the convention from a naval base in the Pacific Ocean. You might want to read his remarks because they are quite interesting. Unlike Mitt Romney, FDR did not fail to mention that we were in the middle of a war. In fact, he didn’t even run a traditional campaign.

“I shall not campaign, in the usual sense, for the office. In these days of tragic sorrow, I do not consider it fitting. And besides, in these days of global warfare, I shall not be able to find the time. I shall, however, feel free to report to the people the facts about matters of concern to them and especially to correct any misrepresentations.”

He then went on to explain that quite a lot of planning went into building our armed forces since 1932 and that even more planning went into building a strategy for winning the war. But what he really wanted to talk about was the planning they were doing for the post-war environment.

Some day soon we shall all be able to fly to any other part of the world within twenty-four hours. Oceans will no longer figure as greatly in our physical defense as they have in the past. For our own safety and for our own economic good, therefore -if for no other reason- we must take a leading part in the maintenance of peace and in the increase of trade among all the Nations of the world.

And that is why your Government for many, many months has been laying plans, and studying the problems of the near future—preparing itself to act so that the people of the United States may not suffer hardships after the war, may continue constantly to improve their standards, and may join with other Nations in doing the same. There are even now working toward that end, the best staff in all our history- men and women of all parties and from every part of the Nation. I realize that planning is a word which in some places brings forth sneers. But, for example, before our entry into the war it was planning. which made possible the magnificent organization and equipment of the Army and Navy of the United States which are fighting for us and for our civilization today.

Improvement through planning is the order of the day. Even m military affairs, things do not stand still. An army or a navy trained and equipped and fighting according to a 1932 model would not have been a safe reliance in 1944. And if we are to progress in our civilization, improvement is necessary in other fields—in the physical things that are a part of our daily lives, and also in the concepts of social justice at home and abroad.

Personally, I believe that vision right there is exactly what progressivism looked like when it was ascendant and unashamed of itself. FDR laid out the basic idea behind collective security and universal human rights. He explained why America had to take a lead role in building and pursuing a system that could prevent and resolve conflicts, and protect human life.

We have talked about American Exceptionalism a few times over the years, and I’ve taken a lot of heat from latter-day progressives who think America has been an imperialist bully rather than the true leader of the free world. It’s a complicated topic, but I have always agreed with the basic project. I think we got distracted by a panic about communism that led us to make big mistakes. I think we lost our moral compass a bit under the leadership of John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen. We let a narrow corporate interest trump a more overarching interest in promoting self-determination and representative government. But, overall, I think the best evidence that we were right to pursue the project is that the rest of the world has now matured to the point that the vast majority of it is at peace, trading relatively freely, and more committed to representative government, international institutions and international law than we are.

We built that.

But now people are looking at us with our troops deployed in dozens of countries around the globe and our drone strikes and our presidential candidates who carry on their campaigns as if we are not even at war, and many of them are thinking that we’re out of control. I think Obama got the peace prize because the world wants him to dial it back, and he is doing it slowly. We need to continue dialing it back, and we certainly do not want to return to the Bush/Cheney way of doing things. But we also need other nations to step up and do more to secure the peace. They are politically mature enough to handle it.

Just because America should do less on the international stage doesn’t mean that there isn’t legitimate work to do. Who is going to liberate a Kuwait or defend a Benghazi if America won’t do it?

I’m with Clint Eastwood. We should leave Afghanistan tomorrow. But is the rest of the world going to stand around after we do that and passively watch while Pakistan uses Afghanistan as a launching pad to strike India, and maybe even America, again?

Finally, if the world community can’t do it together, it will either be America or another hegemonic state like China and Russia. Do you think they’ve done the best job of internalizing FDR’s post-war vision?

I don’t. I wouldn’t trust them to maintain a just peace or do a better job of arbitrating disputes. We’re not perfect, but I don’t see anyone else better who is willing and capable to do the job.

That’s part of the reason I was so offended by the Bush administration. They not only ran things poorly, but they surrendered the moral high ground needed to earn people’s respect and trust.

As a country, we only get so many mulligans. And, remember, it was U.S. foreign policy under Bill Clinton that inspired bin-Laden to attack us in Africa, in Yemen, and eventually right here in the United States. That doesn’t mean those attacks were in any way justified, but you ought to know when your actions are putting our citizens’ lives at risk. You ought to minimize that kind of blowback. Don’t do things that antagonize people unless you absolutely have to.

I think we need to wind this empire down, not because it was a bad idea, but because the idea wasn’t to be an empire. The idea was to build a world where countries can agree not to fight each other and we have the tools to resolve conflict without war. That’s something the neo-conservatives not only do not understand but with which they totally disagree. They think the point is to maintain “the sense that the world order is ultimately backed by the U.S.”

If we have fallen short, it’s because too often we have allowed our foreign policy to be perverted away from FDR’s vision to a vision in which U.S. corporate interests come first.

Rapepublicans, rich angry men yelling at empty chairs got you down?  Just ease on down your local river. It’s medicinal!

Yes, you CAN get two 12 ft Old Town kayaks on top of a Honda Civic 2 door.

Few weeks ago, after over 15 years of not smoking, I decided to gift myself with an Old Town (made in America) kayak.  It cost me the equivalent of 15 cartons of cigarettes.  I’ve been doing yoga for over a year now which has gained me some more mobility in my chest and shoulders and both my doctor and my Yogi told me to go work out on the river.

Kayaking has been very healing in many ways.  You don’t run across many who don’t love Mother Earth when you’re on a river.  You truly can’t fight water.  You have to work with it.  Allow it.  Be it.

It’s not just working my chest, shoulders… it’s meditation.  I’ve been doing TM for a year now and I had never realized before that I had no idea how to breathe.  Yes, breathe.  

I’ve found that breath is like Peace.  You can’t have it if you try to hold on to it.  Most of the stuff we “have” isn’t even worth having.  None of it really is needed.  We fill up our homes with so much crap as we do our own bodies.

You can’t have Peace if you try to hold on to it.  It’s like your breath.  Try holding on to it.  Trust me, you will fail trying to greedily hold on to it.  

Let Go.
Allow.
Receive.
Have.
Let Go.

I felt that if I “Let Go” I wouldn’t be useful in any movement let alone the much needed Peace Movement.  But slowly, I’ve been holding my breath in numerous forms.  Anger. Doubt. Frustration. I’m just now learning that I can be angry but only in a healthy way.  I have to have balance in my life.  I’ve had some illnesses and surgeries that have slowed me down.  At first I was ANGRY about that – typical Scorpion Unreasonable Woman that I am.  

So, I’ve been meditating, doing yoga, singing in the shower… and the world still seems to be burning down around me.  But it’s not.  As long as I am not falling apart, as along as I am still moving forward, as long as I am taking care of things I need to do to take care of myself – this world has so much to offer – if we just stop yelling, fighting, arguing and experience it.  

Then we can go and march for it with a new found sense of Peace, Love and Wonder.  Am I less angry? Hell, No!  But I try really fucking hard to not let those fires consume me anymore.  I really need to allow them to help me burn brighter.  

Let me take you down my river.  Just for a few minutes.  I promise to bring you back.

Kayaks, unlike outboards or other loud, gas powered zen disturbers, are silent.  You can sneak up on sleeping ducks… and they don’t even mind.

Great Blue Heron aka The River Keeper.
Or in Hockey terms, The official Blue Coat of the Tualatin. Making sure we don’t stand up or leave our seats.

This uber young Peeping Tom somehow knew we weren’t packing anything more than granola bars and chapstick.
Can you see him?

Therapy for arthritis in my sternum… and my weary, liberal soul.

Just chillaxing in my ultra cool hat.  Which is now adorned with my old black on white peace button.  It’s nice wearing clothes that don’t stink of pepper spray 🙂

Portland Pride.
Yes, we are a total hockey family, but the Timbers, even though they suck, they are our local boyz.

Let Go
Allow
Receive
Have – truly Have
Let Go – truly…

This now ends your moment of Portland Zen.

Ohio is a crucial state in the November election. And Romney isn’t doing well enough there to win. The following analysis may have come from Karl Rove:

On the eve of the Republican convention, a senior strategist with a Republican “super PAC,” who would share the group’s strategic thinking only on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Romney would need a “real surge” and “a reset to the dynamics there” to gain an edge over Mr. Obama in Ohio.

This is why the Republicans have been fighting so hard to eliminate early voting. But they’ve run into a problem there, too.

…the Republicans had a setback on Friday when a federal judge reversed a new state law that halted early voting on the weekend before Election Day. In 2008, that final weekend was seen as giving Mr. Obama an advantage, especially as African-American churchgoers organized trips to the polls on Sunday.

The early voting accounted for 100,000 ballots in 2008, roughly 2 percent of the total cast. That is no small number in such a hard-fought swing state, especially this year. Republicans said they would appeal the judge’s ruling.

For more than two weeks I had been working on developing a campaign to try to bring pressure on the Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to drop his opposition to early voting. Then, right before we were ready to press the ‘go’ button, a federal judge ruled that the new Ohio law is unconstitutional. And, while the Ohio Republicans are appealing, once things get in the judicial arena, the opportunities for political action pretty much evaporate.

So, on the one hand, I wasted a lot of time and energy. On the other hand, at least for now, black folks in Ohio can vote after church on the Sunday before the election. And that really is what these voting changes are about. Whether it is limiting early voting or requiring a state-approved photo identification, or it’s purging the voter lists, to beat Obama it is not enough to get the Republican base out to vote. And, since the GOP is having almost no success in winning over Obama voters from 2008, their only path to victory is to suppress the Democratic vote. They have been trying to do that through the law, but they can do it in other ways, too. They can fail to supply an adequate number of voting machines, thereby creating long lines in urban areas. They can arbitrarily strike people off the registration rolls. They can send in hordes of “election observers” to harass and challenge people’s right to vote. Perhaps they can even hack into the vote tabulating computers in certain instances. The GOP will employ most if not all of these tactics in addition to the legal shenanigans they have already pursued.

The good news is that the Republicans have been consistently losing in court. Yet, court battles are not truly decided until the Supreme Court weighs in. With the Roberts Court, I don’t think either side can assume they will prevail in the end.

If video killed the radio star, it appears that the internet killed the political convention bounce. Between 1968 and 1992, the only challenger not to get a double digit bounce out of his convention was George McGovern, and he still got a bounce bigger than Bush in 2000, Kerry in 2004, or Obama in 2008. McGovern’s convention was, of course, a tremendous disaster because his running mate turned out to have received electric shock therapy.

Before the inception of the internet, most Americans were much more influenced by the political coverage of the conventions on television. People learned a lot about Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis, and Bill Clinton by watching their conventions. They learned almost nothing about George W. Bush, John Kerry, or Barack Obama by watching theirs. I think Mitt Romney will discover that the trend remains true.

Today’s conventions are basically like big ad buys. You get a small and unsustainable bounce out of them, but they matter very little.

In 2008, the Democratic convention didn’t move the polls much but the flawless execution solidified the impression that Obama knew how to do big things. In 2012, the Republican convention had a lot of hiccups, which bolstered the idea that Romney can’t execute under pressure. We saw it with his foreign trip, and we saw it in Tampa. He reinforced negative perceptions about himself. He”ll get a little bounce just because he got a lot of attention. But it won’t last.

To the degree that The Hill’s Alexander Bolton and Peter Schroeder are just reporting what Republicans are saying, their article is fine. But what about this?

But it was [Paul] Ryan’s Wednesday night speech that was widely acclaimed as a home run and showed he can perform confidently on the national stage.

Widely acclaimed by whom? In the context of the article, it is almost clear that Bolton and Schroeder mean widely acclaimed by Republicans. But that’s not what they wrote. Paul Ryan’s speech was widely panned as the most dishonest and lie-filled speech ever delivered at a political convention. Bolton and Schroeder could have mentioned that.

If your house is literally under water, don’t worry, Mitt Romney is here to help.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney launched the final leg of his quest for the White House by visiting storm-battered Louisiana on Friday. He drove through a town that was flooded by Hurricane Isaac in part because it’s still outside the vast flooding protection system built with federal funds after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

Romney and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) spent close to an hour meeting with first responders and local officials. Romney shook hands with National Guardsmen outside the U.S. Post Office and talked with a local resident, Jodie Chiarello, 42, who lost her home in Isaac’s flooding.

“He just told me to, um, there’s assistance out there,” Chiarello said of her conversation with Romney. “He said, go home and call 211.” That’s a public service number offered in many states.

How clueless do you have to be to tell someone to return to their inundated home to make a phone call? How about offering Jodie a cell phone? How about referring her to the governor for some advice? What a dipshit.

Paul Ryan cannot even be honest about how fast he can run. To be more accurate, Paul Ryan lied about how fast he could run twenty years ago. In fact, his own brother called him out on his lie and mocked him relentlessly. Ryan had claimed that he once ran a 26 mile marathon in under three hours.

“The race was more than 20 years ago, but my brother Tobin—who ran Boston last year—reminds me that he is the owner of the fastest marathon in the family and has never himself ran a sub-three. If I were to do any rounding, it would certainly be to four hours, not three. He gave me a good ribbing over this at dinner tonight.”

The safe thing to do when dealing with Paul Ryan and math is to assume massive rounding errors on pretty much every number he gives you. The man is the biggest liar we have ever seen on a presidential or vice-presidential level. He is a bigger liar than Sarah Palin, Dick Nixon, or Spiro Agnew. If he’s moving his lips, he’s telling a lie.

Hello again painting fans.

This week I will be continuing with the three turreted Victorian house in Cape May, New Jersey.  I will be using my usual acrylic paints on a conventional 8×8 inch canvas.  The photo that I’m using is seen directly below.

When last seen, the painting appeared as it does in the photo directly below.

Since that time I have continued to work on the painting.

I’ ve been away on vacation out west (NM and AZ) and didn’t make as much progress as I would have liked.  However the changes are fairly dramatic.  I’ve added some paint to the roof and plantings out front.  These are only first layers and there will be several more to come.  On the house itself, I’ve roughed in the windows.  Final placement will vary slightly as things move along.   I will have more to show you next week.

The current state of the painting is seen in the photo directly below.

I’ll have more progress for you next week.  See you then.  

Earlier paintings in this series can be seen here.