Sarah Palin

Sorry folks couldn't help posting this. Dick Cavett is so funny!

http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/the-wild-wordsmith-of-wasilla/?th&emc=th

Sarah Palin: New York Times Nov 8, 2008

Wel I know that I had removed all stories on the Republican run for presidency but I think this story in the New York Times needs our attention. While I did not think Sarah Palin was suitable as VP of our country that does not mean she should be treated this way. Even if she lobbied for the job, which I don't believe she did, she was picked by John McCain. So that is where the buck stops. She certainly gave him the initial boost that he needed. Would he have done better if he had chosen someone else? Perhaps, but he didn't choose someone else, he choose Sarah Palin. So give her a fair break as we would all want for ourselves.

Here is the story http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/us/politics/08palin.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

One World, One Planet: Lets Sieze the Moment

Let's seize this opportunity to create a major global moment of unity, reconciliation and hope by sending a million messages of warm congratulations and invitation to work together to the new President and the American people.

Avaaz has built a huge wall near the White House in Washington DC where the number of signatures on our message and personal messages from around the world will grow over the next several hours. Let's get to 1 million signers and messages to Obama! Sign on at the link below and forward this email to others:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/million_messages_to_obama

This is a time for celebration of democracy. So let's act quickly to make sure the people of the world are heard as Obama makes crucial choices in the coming days on how to live up to his campaign promises. Rarely has a US President been more likely to listen to us. Sign below and forward this message on:

PS - You can send them a picture of yourself for the wall - email it to obamawall@avaaz.org

PPS – Here's a link to a report on Avaaz's past campaigning – http://www.avaaz.org/en/report_back_2/

PPPS - And a list of 10 of Obama's campaign promises that concern the world – you can find his full platform here http://www.barackobama.com/issues/

1. Reduce the US's carbon emissions 80% by 2050 and play a strong positive role in negotiating a binding global treaty to replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol

2.Withdraw all combat troops from Iraq within 16 months and keep no permanent bases in the country

3.Establish a clear goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons across the globe

4. Close the Guantanamo Bay detention center

5. Double US aid to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015 and accelerate the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculoses and Malaria

6. Open diplomatic talks with countries like Iran and Syria, to pursue peaceful resolution of tensions

7. De-politicize military intelligence to avoid ever repeating the kind of manipulation that led the US into Iraq

8.Launch a major diplomatic effort to stop the killings in Darfur

9. Only negotiate new trade agreements that contain labor and environmental protections

10. Invest $150 billion over ten years to support renewable energy and get 1 million plug-in electric cars on the road by 2015

OBAMA IS PRESIDENT!!

It's over with a result that most of us of our black elders could only have dreamed about. Visit the YouTube video of Obama/Dr King tribute from Sister Monica Parker - I Have a Dream http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04mlGzHyjmg and then remember the words of Obama "It’s been a long time coming. But tonight, because of what we did on this date, in this election, change has come to America."

Check out the Chicago Tribune's coverage of last night. http://www.chicagotribune.com/ They are one of the premier papers in the United States

And to the President Elect I would like to suggest that he gets his dog from one of the many rescue groups in the city he loves. New Leash On Life Chicago has a dog that looks perfect. His name is Mr Sniffs and he is a standard poodle.

Well he missed out on this wonderful dog because some else adopted him last week. Way to Go Mr. Sniffs.

Pictures from Harvard Sq, Cambridge MA OctoberFest

Question 1 is the initiative to eliminate our state tax thereby ensuring that our roads and bridges remain in a mess, a massive layoff of government workers such as social agency workers, and fire and police personnel. We cannot afford this with the current cuts made in the State budget due to the financial melt down.

Should the US lead the world out of the Fiscal Disaster?

Check out an excellent article in the latest issue of Business Week on the Bush Administration's and the financial industry's involvement in the mortgage crisis which is at the heart of the unravelling of the entire financial system. After you have read this article decide, what do you think?
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_42/b4104036827981.htm

It was only last week that a friend of mine told me how the entire mess started with the excess cash available in China and India that they were begging to invest in the U.S. As a result the U.S. financial industry created esoteric derivatives. Then she went on to say "but I've no doubt we will be blamed for the crisis." Just because there is excess cash does not mean that we should have created what I consider fradulent transacations.

So, yes we are to blame and who will pay the most for this is the countries whose populations are living on the brink. It is unforgivable. The good news is that perhaps we will change drastically the way we view capitalism which would give our ecosystem a chance to recover. Unfortunately though I think it will take five hard years for the financial system to recover as no one is talking about the next major shoe to drop: unpaid credit bills. Many jobs will be lost, less money means we will drive less, buy less, and live more within our means because we will be forced to. many people will be forced to downsize the size of their houses which will save a lot of oil in heating them. Of course, I acknowledge that those folks at the bottom of the economic chain will suffer the most for they don't drive, buy little and do live within their means, but most of us don't. This could lead to a more healthly life style for all.

There is massive resentment in the U.S. at this time, as there should. Perhaps folks will step back now and reconsider the notion that there is no end to growth, because I have always believed there is. A moral I live by is "just because it is available, does not mean that it is the right thing to do." As to our upcoming elections, I would ask our candidates to focus on the crisis rather than mud slinging. This is unappropriate and unappreciated at this time.

Check out the 20-page section in the latest Economist on the World financial meltdown. http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=12373696
The picture at top is from this latest edition.

The Forever War

The focus of our election over the next few weeks looks as if it will be entirely focused on our financial crisis rather than the War. However, since the war has cost $500 billion to date (August 2008) the two cannot be separated. There is also the question on how the war is being fought, for what, and the number of dead which vary wildly but appear to be around 950,000. When you finish this book you will understand why we are in such a quagmire. The book left me very angry. I wish that every politician who voted for the war had been made to spend time in the war zone and share what our soldiers and the Iraqis have gone through.

I will be the first to say that this is not the type of book I would generally read much less buy. When I started reading it a few days ago, I could not put it down. Once you are a third of the way through the book you will fully understand why the author chose the title that he did, and that all by itself is depressing. In fact this realization made me feel that I had been hit in the chest by a very large object. I don’t want to give away anything in the book except to say that the Iraqis must think that they are living through Dante’s Inferno. One wonders who is better off, the dead or the living and were the Iraqis better off before the Americans arrived? What is the price of democracy, is it possible for an occupier to impose democracy on another, and if so is this democracy?

My biggest surprise reading the book was not the lies we were told about going into Iraq but simply what we were not told. Who knew the numbers of different nationalities involved in the war, particularly the Pakistanis and the Uyghur’s’ from Western China. The book opens with the seize of Falluja in November 2004. Dexter Filkins had gone in with the troops and wrote what he saw from his side of the invasion. This chapter is the best piece of war reporting that I have read in a very long time. You could smell the fear and sweat from the soldiers and the reporter. My heart was in my mouth for that entire first chapter.
Picture U.S.1st Calvary Divison


Also read Jo Wildings report of the same event from the other side. Click on the articles tab and then go to April 11th Falluja. http://www.jowilding.net/archiveframeset.html

Now I have finished the book I will add one more comment. Massoud is not who you thought he was, Chalobi was a chameleon and as to Paul Bremmer less said the better.In fact the only person who appears to be what he says is Muqfada Sadir. So while he may be the villian of the piece, I am left wondering about all the other folks on the Iraqi stage, how many of those are equal vilians too?

Dexter Filkins went into areas in Iraq and Afghanistan that most would not. He talked to ordinary Iraqis and Afghans about their life and what they thought of the invaders. He had high level access to folks on both sides of the war which is what makes this book so invaluable. Read this book and you will understand why the war has gone on forever, why it has cost so much in human lives and money, and what Iraqis’ really think about us.


If you want to understand the U.S. role in Central Asia read Ahmed Rashid's Descent into Chaos, a very aptly named book. http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/10/descent_into_chaos_ahmed_rashid_on

At the end of a four year history of the war I felt that the shifting sands of Iraq had slipped through our fingers and what we were left with was a $550 billion dollar debt and counting. So how do the Iraqis feel? If Iraqis cannot go outside without the fear of being killed what kind of freedom do them have? Please read this book. In addition for your teanager is Walter Dean Myers' excellent book Sunrise Over Fallauh http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2008/09/29/2_YA_BOOK_REVIEW.ART_ART_09-29-08_D2_OVBEJLV.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

To keep up to date with what is happening in these areas of the world visit the New York Times site of Dexter's Filkins reporting.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/dexter_filkins/index.html?inline=nyt-per