Saturday, January 20, 2007

Are the Hoosiers for Real?


Hoosiers Top Connecticut, 77-73, For Fifth Straight Win
Senior Roderick Wilmont scored a game-high 23 points, including the basket that gave IU the final lead, as the Hoosiers defeated Connecticut, 77-73, on Jan. 20.

Jan. 20, 2007

HARTFORD, Conn. - Three Hoosiers scored in double figures, with two over 20 points, as the Indiana University men's basketball team defeated Connecticut, 77-73, in the Hartford Civic Center on Jan. 20. Senior Roderick Wilmont led IU with 23 points, including a runner in the lane that gave IU the lead with just over a minute to play, as the Hoosiers improved to 14-4 on the year. It was IU's fifth consecutive win. The Huskies fell to 13-5 with the loss.

Who Can Stop Comandante KooKoo Bananas?


Dear Stephanie,
Cant' somebody PLEEEASE STOP this man? Does the concept of a Democracy completely elude this idiot? Does he not understand that he has made a horrible mess and it is up to him and his cronies to put an end to it? What can "We the People" do to make sure he doesn't do any more damage to this country and the world? These are among the many questions that run through my mind every day, if not every hour. I hate to make a doomsday prediction, but I don't think that we can wait until 2008 to change this disastrous course that the incompetent, arrogant boob who inhabits the white house has set for us...
Cheers,
Faye in Tulsa, OK

The Nation
This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070205/editors
For the Republic
[from the February 5, 2007 issue]

World opinion is against it. The American people are against it. The Democratic Party is against it. The Congress of the United States is against it. The Iraq Study Group is against it. The Iraqi people are against it. The Iraqi government is against it. Many Republican lawmakers are against it. The top brass are against it. But George W. Bush is going to do it: send 21,500 more troops into Iraq. Can a single man force a nation to fight a war it does not want to fight, expand a war it does not want to expand--possibly to other countries? If he can, is that nation any longer a democracy in any meaningful sense? Is its government any longer a constitutional republic? If not, how can democratic rule and the republican form of government be restored? These are the unwelcome questions that President Bush's decision has forced on the country.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

What's Wrong with Living Single???

Stephanie Miller
The Matron Saint of Single Grrrls Everywhere


Hey there Stephanie,
With all the commotion about Barbara Boxer's comment to childless Condi Rice (that was completely misrepresented by the right wingers) and the here-to-fore ignored comments by Laura Bush that were very inflamatory toward single women in particular, I thought that the following article might shed some light on the shifting demographics in this country, regarding single living. As a single (never-been-married) woman in my forties, I must agree with the women who find their singleness liberating. I had an opportunity recently to join a partner in a living situation, but turned it down, because I enjoy my life and my freedom too much. My doggies and I are just fine, thank you very large...

“For better or worse, women are less dependent on men or the institution of marriage. Younger women understand this better, and are preparing to live longer parts of their lives alone or with nonmarried partners. For many older boomer and senior women, the institution of marriage did not hold the promise they might have hoped for, growing up in an ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ era.”
Dr. William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington.

“This is yet another of the inexorable signs that there is no going back to a world where we can assume that marriage is the main institution that organizes people’s lives.”
Professor Stephanie Coontz, director of public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit research group.

“Although we can help people ‘do’ marriage better, it is simply delusional to construct social policy or make personal life decisions on the basis that you can count on people spending most of their adult lives in marriage,”
Professor Stephanie Coontz, the author of “Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage.”

“Considering all the weddings I attended in the ’80s that have ended so very, very badly, I consider myself straight up lucky. I have not sworn off marriage, but if I do wed, it will be to have a companion with whom I can travel and play parlor games in my old age.”
Sheila Jamison, lives in the East Village, works for a media company, is 45 and single.
January 16, 2007
51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse
By SAM ROBERTS

For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results.

In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

Kalyn Free on Native America Calling



Today, Tuesday, January 16, 2007, Kalyn Free, (founder of INDN's List - www.indnslist.org) along with Frank LaMere, both spoke on Native America Calling. They both spoke about 'Prez on the Rez." You can listen to the fantastic interview at the following link:

Monday, January 15, 2007

National Conference for Media Reform

The National Conference for Media Reform is for anyone who is concerned about the state of our media and committed to working for change. This energizing weekend presents ideas and strategies for winning the fight for better media and connects you with thousands of media reformers from across the nation.

"As ownership gets more and more concentrated, fewer and fewer independent sources of information have survived in the marketplace; and those few significant alternatives that do survive, such as PBS and NPR, are under growing financial and political pressure to reduce critical news content and to shift their focus in a mainstream direction, which means being more attentive to establishment views than to the bleak realities of powerlessness that shape the lives of ordinary people."
Bill Moyers, National Conference for Media Reform, Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 14, 2007

“The cold-blooded murder of Abeer and her family is a tragedy. But it’s almost as great a tragedy when her story and all the other stories that are difficult to hear and difficult to accept are buried in the back of news pages and quickly shuffled off the nightly news. A truly powerful media is one that can stop a war, not start one.”
Jane Fonda, National Conference for Media Reform, Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 14, 2007

The Spirit of Dr. King Lives in Burgeoning Media and Democracy Movement

Martin Luther King Jr. Day


Today, the country honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who would have been 78 years old. The civil rights leader, who was assassinated in 1968, was only 39 years old when he died.

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars... Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
Martin Luther King Jr.

"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative."
Martin Luther King Jr.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Weekend in Review


Stephanie,
There were just so many stories that broke over the weekend, I thought I'd send you a little "weekend in review" with a compilation of stories that caught my eye since Friday afternoon. BTB, I've had plenty of time on my hands as Tulsa has been essentially closed down with an ice storm this weekend. Not even sure whether I'll be able to get to work tomorrow - we are working even though it's MLK Jr. Day ;-(
Take care and stay warm - you, West Coast Wussie, you...
Cheers,
Faye in Icy, Frigid Tulsa, OK

Afghanistan Suffers as More Troops are Sent to Iraq...
"Already, a U.S. Army infantry battalion fighting in a critical area of eastern Afghanistan is due to be withdrawn within weeks in order to deploy to Iraq." In a January 11 article (https://exchange.utulsa.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104%26article=41693%26archive=true) reporting that "U.S. commanders [in Afghanistan] have issued a request for reinforcements against a resurgence of Taliban fighters," Stars & Stripes observed that, based on the Sun's report of a battalion move (https://exchange.utulsa.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.afghanistan07jan07,0,3288686.story?coll=bal-attack-headlines), "[t]he 'surge' option in Iraq also could have a direct impact on the mission in Afghanistan."

Bush Tries to Woo Conservative Republicans to the "Surge"...
"We're aware public support is dwindling, and if we're going to ask the American people to sacrifice even more, we want to have a level of comfort,'' said Putnam, who along with other Republican leaders was invited to spend part of the weekend at Camp David with Bush." [emphasis added]
Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, Florida
as quoted by LESLEY CLARK, Miami Herald, Sat. Jan. 13, 2007
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/16450802.htm

Coalition Partners Look to Scale Back
Citizens in Many Nations Want Troops Home

By William J. Kole AP - Associated Press January 13, 2007
VIENNA, Austria · The Italians have left, and the Slovaks are about to. Britons want to start getting out, and so do Danes and South Koreans.President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops into Iraq has not inspired America's coalition partners to follow suit. Washington's top war partners, London and Seoul, are looking to draw down their forces, and they are not alone.U.S. forces in Iraq, which now number 132,000 and would swell to 153,500 under Bush's strategy, are supported by 15,857 mostly noncombat troops from 25 nations. reduceIn the months after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the multinational force peaked at about 300,000 soldiers from 38 countries -- 250,000 from the United States, about 40,000 from Britain, and the rest ranging from 2,000 Australians to 70 Albanians.American forces have always shouldered most of the burden and suffered most of the casualties in Iraq.Some say there is little point in boosting forces in the largely Shiite south, where most non-U.S. coalition troops are concentrated. Yet as more countries draw down or pull out, it could create a security vacuum if radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stirs up trouble there.Italy, once the third-largest partner with 3,000 troops in southern Iraq, brought the last of its soldiers home last month.Now Britain, America's chief ally, hopes to cut its 7,000-member force in the southern city of Basra by several thousand in the first half of the year. Prime Minister Tony Blair is preparing to announce a withdrawal of about 2,600 soldiers, the Financial Times reported Friday."As for the future shape in the coalition, there continue to be coalition forces operating in Iraq," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday in Washington. "The South Koreans, the Japanese, others have re-upped their forces again to continue operating in Iraq. And there is a NATO training mission for officers in Iraq. And so, I think you'll continue to see that kind of international support."Fact check: South Korea, the current No. 3 contributor, plans to halve its 2,300-member contingent in the northern city of Irbil by April, and is under pressure from parliament to devise a plan for a complete withdrawal by year's end.And Japan has not "re-upped" yet, though news reports Friday said the Japanese government was considering extending a special law that authorizes the deployment of its 600-member humanitarian mission for another year.Poland has extended the mission of its 900 troops through the end of 2007. But most of the other coalition members that have extended their commitments are small, mostly symbolic contributors. They include the Czech Republic, which has 100 military police in Iraq; Armenia, with 46 peacekeepers under Polish command; and the 40 Estonian infantry serving with U.S. forces in Baghdad.Denmark is trying to scale back its 470-troop contingent serving near the southern city of Basra. Six Danish soldiers have been killed since the 2003 deployment, and recent surveys show six in 10 Danes want out of Iraq.Ordinary citizens in Slovakia, which is bringing home its 103 soldiers early next month, know the feeling."It's an American war, and we have nothing to do with it," said Mikulas Krkolak, a bartender in Bratislava.

Steph,
Here's a righteous piece on the current inhabitants of the white house and their ceaseless attempt to ignore, if not completely destroy, the Constitution. I think it's worth reading the entire piece on the air... if you feel so inclined... in any case here it is:

Editorial NYTimes
Round Up the Usual Lawyers
Published: January 13, 2007
No one who has followed President Bush’s policies on detainees should be surprised when a member of his team scorns American notions of justice. But even by that low standard, the administration’s new attack on lawyers who dare to give those prisoners the meager representation permitted them is contemptible.Speaking this week on Federal News Radio, a Web site and AM radio station offering helpful hints for bureaucrats and helpful news for the administration, Cully Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, tried to rally American corporations to stop doing business with law firms that represent inmates of the Guantánamo internment camp. It does not seem to matter to Mr. Stimson, who is a lawyer, that a great many of those detainees did not deserve imprisonment, let alone the indefinite detention to which they are subjected as “illegal enemy combatants.” And forget about the fundamental American right that everyone should have legal counsel, even the most heinous villain.In his interview, reported yesterday by The Washington Post editorial page, Mr. Stimson rattled off some of the most respected law firms in the country that, after initial hesitation, have courageously respected that right. He called it “shocking” that they were “representing detainees down there” and suggested that when corporate America got word of this dastardly behavior, “those C.E.O.’s are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms.” He added: “We want to watch that play out.”When his interviewer asked who was paying these firms for the work, Mr. Stimson said, “It’s not clear, is it?” Actually, it is quite clear. Mr. Stimson surely knows that the vast majority of those cases are being handled for free by law firms that have not signed on to Mr. Bush’s post-9/11 revision of the American rules of justice. Still, he persisted, saying some lawyers were “receiving monies from who knows where.”The interview was a greatest-hits remix of Bush administration nonsense about Guantánamo, including Mr. Stimson’s message to corporate executives that lawyers “are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line in 2001.” The only terrorists at Guantánamo associated with 9/11 were transferred there recently after being held for years in secret C.I.A. prisons where no lawyer could enter.
Not only do we find Mr. Stimson’s threats appalling, we differ with him about 9/11. The tragedy and crime of that day was that thousands of innocents were slaughtered — not that it hurt some companies’ profit margins.