Martini

A coworker of Anthony’s brought a stray kitten to work hoping someone would take it home. Well.. that someone was us. We fell in love with the kitten even with all the gunk in her eyes. Her name is Martini. =)

Dark Days

"Dark Days is an amazing first-time documentary project. I saw this last night and was blown away. The guy shot a huge amount of film before developing anything. He was lucky he got the light metering right under such challenging conditions!!! He also never checked the audio until all the shooting was done (more than 50 hours)- another small bit of luck! Mark lived in the tunnels under New York City with homeless people for two years while filming this documentary. He lived homeless in every aspect, even dumpster diving for food.

As for the content of the film, it's an incredibly compassionate look into the lives of a few of the many homeless people who lived under New York City in abandoned railway tunnels for decades. Up until recent years, there was a community of multiple thousands of people living down there. Having read the book the Mole People, I'd say this movie is a more compelling and insightful examination of this story."

Stop Blackwater

"Remember the bill passed just before the November elections to fund the military? ("John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007" (H.R. 5122)) Well, hidden in that bill are provisions that seriously weaken two bulwarks of liberty--the Posse Comitatus Act and the Insurrection Act of 1807--by expanding the power of the president to declare martial law and use troops as a domestic police force in response to a "public emergency" or any "other condition". Blackwater troops (which were deployed domestically in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina) or other private mercenary and paramilitary forces pose a severe threat to the civil liberties of the American people and now could be deployed to quell public dissent, put down popular uprisings, or even to stop opposing points of view through intimidation or outright force.
These are bases of an invading force that is bent on stealing our country from us, right under our noses! CONNECT THE DOTS!

Blackwater USA, one of the largest private military contractors in the world, has proposed "Blackwater West" to be built in a valley just north of the small town of Potrero, in East San Diego County. The facility will comprise 824 acres, and includes a portion of the Cleveland National Forest. The valley is one of a chain of valleys starting in Descanso, part of the original two-million acre preserve originally designated by Teddy Roosevelt. Since then, it has been reduced to 650K acres, and swiss-cheesed with private ownership. This valley has been used as a chicken ranch.

The proposed boot camp will substantially develop the property and utilize it for target practice using pistols and carbines, a two-mile race track for emergency vehicle training, an 18,000 sqft armory (almost 1/2 acre of guns and ammo,) dormitories, mess hall, etc. The intention is to service 15,000 trainees each year (300 per week) with 60 staff in residence on site."


To take action go to stopblackwater.net


to get a taste of what blackwater is all about:

"In January 2008 Marshall Adame, a Democrat running for Congress in North Carolina's 3rd District, took part in a live question-and-answer forum where he was asked a question about Blackwater. Adame who had served as a State Department official in Iraq recounted; "I saw them shoot people, I saw them crash into cars while I was their passenger. There was absolutely no reason, no provocation whatsoever." He then stated "There is no place in the American force structure, or in American culture for mercenaries, they are guns for hire; No more, no less."

This led to Blackwater executive vice president Bill Mathews sending a furious internal corporate email to staff:
There is a man named Marshall Adame who is running for congress in our district. He just put a quote online which says he wants this company and all of us to cease to exist. Do you like your jobs? Are you sick and tired of the slanderous bullshit going on in DC? If so, would you all mind joining me in reminding Mr. Adame that he is running for office in our backyard. Tell all your friends and family too. We welcome their assistance in making this point very clear to Mr. Adame.
Anyone who wants to send a letter may do so at the following address…....
His email is ....

He was too cowardly to put a phone number on the web. I ask that you keep your comments to Mr. Adame professional (well, mostly professional). We help him if our comments get threatening or too crass. Let’s run this goof out of Dodge….!
As a result of the letter writing campaign Adame stated; "I feel very strongly about how extensively organized Blackwater has become, and I will do everything I can as a congressman to look into that, to find out whether or not the things they're doing are even legal.""

Source is from http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002175 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_USA#cite_note-109

Hati Hunger, the IMF and the US

Transcript from the War and Peace report from Democracynow.org

"BILL QUIGLEY: The problem really is, is that the United States and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, all of which we, the United States, dominate, have for the last twenty-five, thirty years have insisted that in order to get the loans, which Haiti and these other countries, agricultural countries, need, in order to get those loans, Haiti had to change their economic system so that their country was open to competition from other countries on agriculture, trade, a number of other things.

It’s so clear in the case of rice. As you said, thirty years ago, Haiti imported almost no rice, was an exporter of sugar and other things. Today, Haiti imports nearly all of its rice. It even imports sugar, even though it was the sugar-growing capital of the Caribbean. And the reason is, is that the powers that be said, in order to get these loans, which they need desperately to be able to survive, that they had to open up their markets to competition.

Well, it turns out that the competition doesn’t do the same thing. And the main competition is the United States. So at this point, the United States exports over 200 million metric tons of rice every year to Haiti. And they’re actually like our third biggest customer. And the reason is that our rice is cheaper than the rice that they could grow there themselves, because our rice is so heavily subsidized. A billion dollars a year of taxpayer money goes to rice farmers in the United States, plus we have a tariff. We have three different subsidies, three different programs that do that, plus we have a tariff that adds between three and 24 percent protection for our rice farmers. And as a result, the rich and powerful country of the United States, along with other rich and powerful countries in the world, have just really bullied these small countries into accepting our rice. And as the rice from the United States came in—they even called it “Miami rice” and some call it the invasion of Miami rice—that the rice flooded in at low or below cost—free or below cost and destroyed the ability of farmers in Haiti to be able to grow rice. And as a consequence, the country now depends totally on imported rice. Cost of import—cost of rice around the world has gone up over 100 percent since January.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Bill Quigley, I’d just like to ask you on this particular point of the tariff situation, clearly there’s been a lot of emphasis on free trade policies and countries lowering tariffs, but most of the focus has always been on the industrial effort, manufacturing jobs. But hasn’t, as you’re suggesting, the real impact on the people of the world of these free trade policies and tariff lowering has been on agriculture and on the ability of all of these third world countries to maintain their own independent agricultural resources?

BILL QUIGLEY: Absolutely. And I think in my experience, the people of the United States have no idea that they are paying taxes, and our government has destroyed not just Haiti, but the agricultural bases of lots and lots of very poor countries. And so, our money is going to these huge farmers, mostly in Arkansas. They’re in about five different states, some of them getting hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. There’s one that has gotten over half-a-billion dollars over the last ten years. And so, we are directly subsidizing these huge agribusinesses which are putting the small farmers and even the regional farmers out of business and really creating this hunger problem that the world is seeing right now, because the people in Haiti, it takes awhile to irrigate, farm and all this other stuff, and the industry has been broken down. A lot of the workers moved from the country into the city, not just in Haiti, but in every place else. So it’s a great little lens for those of us in the United States who care about hunger and care about justice to look and see it’s not just mismanagement in Haiti, it’s not just the fact that they have problems, which they certainly do, but also our country plays a huge role in creating the hunger that has led to the riots."

*You can view the entire transcript at: http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/24/the_us_role_in_haitis_food

Papers...

I have less then a week to synthesis 12 articles for my research paper. =( I have no idea how it will turn out, but I’m hopeful for the best. Wish me luck.

Arizona is headed to the dark side

"Arizona public schools would be barred from any teachings considered counter to democracy or Western civilization under a proposal endorsed Wednesday by a legislative panel. Additionally, the measure would prohibit students of the state's universities and community colleges from forming groups based in whole or part on the race of their members, such as the Black Business Students Association at Arizona State University or Native Americans United at Northern Arizona University. Those groups would be forbidden from operating on campus.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/114048

Arizona schools whose courses "denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization" could lose state funding under the terms of legislation approved Wednesday by a House panel.

SB1108 also would bar teaching practices that "overtly encourage dissent" from those values, including democracy, capitalism, pluralism and religious tolerance. Schools would have to surrender teaching materials to the state superintendent of public instruction, who could withhold state aid from districts that broke the law.

Another section of the bill would bar public schools, community colleges and universities from allowing organizations to operate on campus if it is "based in whole or in part on race-based criteria," a provision Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said is aimed at MEChA, the Moviemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, a student group.

The 9-6 vote by the Appropriations Committee sends the measure to the full House. "

You can read the articles at: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/04/20/18494078.php


*Is this not scary that a bill like this could actually pass!?!. a bill that would prevent citizens of being critical of their government, a slap in the face for freedom of expression, a step towards brainwashed Americans to always go along with their government and never questions their motives. This bill is extremely disturbing to me and a direct attack on civil rights, and unconstitutional. This bill in Arizona threatens the closure of minority specialized discipline such as Latin American, African American, Asian, and race majors in community colleges and Universities. They are trying to undo the hard work of the civil rights movement when minorities fought for disciplines that emphasized their culture and race to bring tolerance and diversity.

Radiolab

If you ever get a free moment check out Radiolab.org they have some really fascination philosophical shows. This one was particularly interesting.

http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2008/04/22/pop-music/