Katalusis

Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow

2012-02-02T09:47:00.001-06:00


Groundhog photo credit: public domain.

Groundhog Day is a whimsical holiday, and I’ll bet most of us smile – even those of us who are surviving another Minnesota winter – when we hear of Punxsutawney Phil’s latest prognostication, whether or not he sees his shadow. The Huffington Post's Green section reports:

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. -- Pennsylvania's Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his lair to "see" his shadow on Thursday, in the process predicting six more weeks of winter.

But, at this rate, that might not be so bad.

The groundhog made his "prediction" on Gobbler's Knob, a tiny hill in the town for which he's named about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

Temperatures were near freezing when he emerged at dawn – unseasonably warm – and were forecast to climb into the mid-40s in a winter that's brought little snow and only a few notably cold days to much of the East.

Update: Bachmann denies reports of endorsing Romney

2012-02-01T19:36:00.000-06:00

In a follow-up to his earlier post at Political Intelligence (Boston.com), Glen Johnson reports that Michele Bachmann denies any intention of endorsing Mitt Romney:

CHICAGO - Former Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann today denied any plans to endorse frontrunner Mitt Romney when he visits Minnesota this afternoon, following a Globe online post suggesting the possibility.

The Minnesota congresswoman noted she would be in Washington while Romney was appearing in Eagan, Minn. She also said that while she has had discussions with her formal rivals, she has no immediate plans to endorse any of them.

Romney courts Michele Bachmann

2012-02-01T06:18:00.000-06:00

Bachmann and Romney. Photo courtesy of the Guardian.

A progressive who has appreciated the efforts of moderate Republicans in their efforts over the years to promote sane government at both the state and federal levels, I'm disappointed this morning to learn that coming off his Florida victory, Mitt Romney headed for Minnesota

As governor of Mass., Romney helped put the state on a firm financial footing, and he signed into law the Mass. health care reform legislation, the first of its kind in the nation.

Now we learn that Romney is seeking the endorsement of radical Minnesota conservative, Michele Bachman, in order to win over the Tea Party faction of the Republican party.

Glenn Johnson, blogging at Political Intelligence (Boston.com) reports:

TAMPA, Fla. - Mitt Romney is carrying a full head of steam after winning the Florida primary, but the Republican presidential contender isn’t headed first today for Nevada or Maine, the next two states to vote.

Instead, he is jetting off this morning to Minnesota for what is billed as a “grassroots rally.”

Why?

Michele Bachmann, it seems.

Aides to Romney and the Minnesota congresswoman have been in conversation in recent days about securing the candidate’s endorsement by the Tea Party favorite and forceful public speaker, The Boston Globe has learned.

Not only would it add to the impression of Romney consolidating the GOP base after rebounding in Florida from his South Carolina loss, but it could help Bachmann by earning her an ally to help her pay off her lingering campaign debt.

Romney wins Florida; Newt implodes?

2012-01-31T20:36:00.000-06:00

Romney, official portrait.

Steve Holland reports for Reuters:

Mitt Romney cruised to a blowout victory in Florida's Republican U.S. presidential primary on Tuesday that put him back in front in the fight for his party's nomination to face President Barack Obama and left chief rival Newt Gingrich reeling but vowing to fight on.

With 70 percent of the vote counted, Romney had 47 percent of the vote to Gingrich's 32 percent in the largest of the four Republican presidential nominating contests so far this year.

Newt Gingrich’s role in Congress’s all-time low approval rating

2012-01-31T14:35:00.000-06:00


December 22, 1995, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton meet at the White House to reach a compromise that will reopen the U.S. Government. Photo courtesy of CNN.

Down in Florida today, the latest poll by Real Clear Politics shows Mitt Romney leading Newt Gingrich by 13 percentage points. If the story in the Nation today, “How Newt Gingrich crippled Congress,” is accurate, we should all be relieved if Romney soundly defeats Gingrich.

The Nation’s Alex Seitz-Wald tells us:

How much Americans hate Congress has become cliché. Congress’s approval rating is at an all-time low, and it’s not hard to see why: the institution is broken. Plenty of structural forces have contributed to Congress’s dysfunction: the increasing flow of money in politics, the emergence of the 24/7 cable news cycle, the increasing polarization of the electorate. But perhaps no single person bears as much responsibility as Newt Gingrich.

“I spent 16 years building a majority in the House for the first time since 1954,” Gingrich said during NBC’s Florida GOP debate Monday night, referring to the Republican takeover of the House in 1994. Over those sixteen years of personal and partisan striving, Gingrich invented or perfected many of the things that Americans dislike most about Congress. “I think I am a transformational figure,” Gingrich said before the 1994 election. “I am trying to effect a change so large that the people who would be hurt by the change, the liberal Democratic machine” will fight it, Gingrich explained.

2 million Wisconsin citizens demand Walker’s removal

2012-01-28T20:13:00.001-06:00

Image courtesy of WKOW.com, Madison, WI.

John Nichols at the Nation tells the story of democracy at work in Wisconsin:

What does democracy look like? How about this: a governor, swept into office on the GOP wave of 2010 with a financial assist from the billionaire Koch brothers, pivots immediately from moderate talk about job creation to radical austerity that divides his state more than any in the Union. He attacks the collective bargaining rights of public workers and teachers. When hundreds of thousands of citizens rally to oppose his agenda, the governor and his allies respond by attempting to bar protests in the Capitol. They reject their state’s tradition of open and transparent government, dismiss criticisms from the opposition—even from moderates in their own party—and begin gerrymandering districts and changing election rules, actions Common Cause and the League of Women Voters recognize as assaults on voting rights. Faced with a serious threat to basic rights and democracy, citizens organize a grassroots campaign to recall and remove the governor, the lieutenant governor, the State Senate majority leader and key legislators.

The task is daunting: it requires collecting more than a million signatures in the dead of winter, and it must overcome a multimillion-dollar attack campaign, along with daily condemnations from local, state and national talk-radio and the Fox News echo chamber. Yet in villages and inner-city neighborhoods, grandmothers with clipboards and high school seniors engaging for the first time in politics brave the snow and cold. They put up with catcalls from Rush Limbaugh listeners who have been instructed that they are nothing but “union stooges.” On the day the documents are due, the people march to the state elections office with brass bands, banners and petitions bearing almost 2 million names—the largest portion of a state’s population ever to demand the removal of a governor and his lieutenants.

What’s the difference between normal grief and depression?

2012-01-28T08:15:00.000-06:00

Photo credits: Public domain.

About 20 years ago, I was pastor of two small United Church of Christ congregations in northwestern Pennsylvania.

Shortly after one of my parishioners, a retiree, died of cancer, his wife came to visit me. She told me that her doctor had offered to prescribe an antidepressant for her.

She said, “It made me angry. I told him my grief was normal, and I didn’t want any drugs.”

I applauded her decision.

The headline for Allen Frances’s post, Don’t Confuse Grief with Depression, caught my eye this morning. Frances, Professor Emeritus of Duke University, supports the attitude demonstrated by my grieving parishioner with his strong opposition to a proposal that would transform grief into a depressive disorder.

Frances writes:

A front page story by Ben Carey in January 24th's New York Times carries the poetic title: 'When does a broken heart become a diagnosis?' It describes a puzzling proposal by D.S.M. 5 to transform what is now considered normal grief into Major Depressive Disorder.

D.S.M. IV already recognizes that some people respond to loss with severe problems that warrant immediate attention. It therefore encourages the diagnosis of major depression whenever bereavement is persistent or is associated with severe, impairing, delusional, or suicidal symptoms. D.S.M. IV thus makes a crucial distinction between the transient pain of expectable grief and the severe and/or persistent symptoms of major depression. D.S.M. 5 proposes to eliminate this distinction. It would allow the diagnosis of major depressive disorder after only two weeks of fairly mild symptoms.

Protect our endangered wolves from aerial killing

2012-01-27T14:27:00.000-06:00

Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of Defenders of Wildlife, has some breaking news for all of us:

Yesterday, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game confirmed the state is moving forward as soon as weather permits with plans to have the federal Wildlife Services agency kill as many as two thirds of the wolves in the Lolo District of Clearwater National Forest – possibly leaving only 25 or 30 wolves in the district in a misguided attempt to increase elk numbers for hunter harvest.

Help us stop the killing. Please donate now to support our all-out campaign to stop this ill-conceived and unscientific wolf cull.

The killing could begin within days, when snowfall and a break in the storm in the area will make it easier for federal agents in helicopters to find, target and kill wolves in this wild area of Northeastern Idaho.

According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game director, if Wildlife Services -- the federal agency charged with the killing -- is allowed to move forward with this plan, the state hopes to expand the use of federal dollars and aerial culling to other national forests in Idaho.

The Obama Administration has not yet indicated how it will respond to Idaho’s request to use federal money and staff to kill these wolves on federal lands, or why it would be justified in doing so since these wolves are on federal lands and not in major conflict with livestock.

That’s why today Defenders is launching a new comprehensive campaign to stop aerial wolf killing in the Lolo District and help ensure an interconnected, sustainable population of these ecologically important animals remain in the region.

Donate now to help stop the killing and save the lives of wolves.

In the next week – with your help –we will launch an outreach plan to make more people aware of this plan, including in media outlets locally and across the country.

We’ll put pressure on federal officials to not participate in Idaho’s unjustified wolf killing plan, including Secretary Tom Vilsack (who oversees the agency that would execute the wolf killing plan in the Lolo District) and President Obama. And we’ll continue to work with ranchers to reduce conflicts with wolves, saving the lives of these amazing and important animals.

This will be a difficult fight, but I believe that our efforts can prevail – with your help. Please donate now to support efforts to save Idaho wolves and other imperiled wildlife.

To support our vital advocacy efforts in the coming days we need to raise at least $50,000 by Monday. Will you help?

The aerial wolf killing plan is not the only new threat to wolves in Idaho.

The Idaho Fish and Game Commission is reportedly investigating the possibility of no limits on people killing wolves on private land, similar to practices in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, where wolves are far more numerous.

And the chairman of the Idaho Fish and Game Commission even indicated that the state may reclassify wolves as predators under state law – effectively engaging a shoot-on-sight plan similar to Wyoming’s awful plan.

The state reports that pack sizes are down. It also appears that young, less experienced wolves have been the most likely to be killed under Idaho’s wolf plan.

We need to restore science to wolf management in Idaho, and Defenders needs your help to do it. Please donate whatever you can to support our work now.

With Gratitude,

Jamie Rappaport Clark
President
Defenders of Wildlife

P.S. Please make a secure donation online now, so we can put your contribution to immediate use saving wolves and other wildlife. Or, you can donate by phone by calling 1-800-385-9712.

Elizabeth Warren stands for the middleclass on the Daily Show (video)

2012-01-25T17:22:00.002-06:00

Here's Elizabeth standing up for all of us on the Daily Show:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Highlights of Obama’s State of the Union Speech (video)

2012-01-24T20:53:00.004-06:00

Rocky Anderson Third Party Candidate (video)

2012-01-23T18:41:00.000-06:00

Rocky Anderson

Cross posted from LadyBoomerNYC.wordpress.com

by LadyBoomerNYC

Rocky Anderson appeared on MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Show on January 17, 2012 and gave a great interview and raison d’etre for his candidacy and The Justice Party. This former two-time mayor of Salt Lake City tells it like it is “about the corrupting influence of money in our government” and his ideas about how to change the system. He makes the point for a spoiler candidate–why just move the players around on the chessboard? This guy makes sense!

« Rocky Anderson for President!

Go to www.voterocky.org and show them some love. Do what you can to get the word out, donate, and get this third party going.

“In this day and age, where the Democrat and Republican parties are no longer the voice of Main Street, but the puppets of Wall Street, it is natural that a Third Party should appear to champion the traditionally conservative proposition that the Constitution is the blueprint for the operation of the government of the United States.” —Gatewood Galbraith (1947-January 18, 2012) in a stump speech during his 2000 congressional race

The behind the scenes ruthlessness of the “hope and change” candidate in 08

2012-01-23T13:57:00.000-06:00


Obama and Clinton. (photo credit: public domain.)

In his piece in the New Yorker, Ryan Lizza clearly is not out to get Barack Obama. For the most part, Lizza offers balanced coverage of the soon to be president and his first term in office. Occasionally, the savvy reporter bends over backwards to praise Obama in his continued efforts to grasp the difference between campaigning and governing.

It’s a long article that gets tedious at times, but when Lizza exposes the Obama campaign’s deliberate strategy to attack Hillary Clinton by smearing her character rather than debating her policy positions, any civilized person has to recoil in shock. Recall as you read the paragraphs below that Obama presented himself as the one who would rise above politics and unite the country; whereas, Hillary Clinton would be too polarizing:

(We’re still waiting for that united country, Mr. President.)

Another hard-edged decision helped make him {Obama} the Democratic Presidential nominee. In early October, 2007, David Axelrod and Obama’s other political consultants wrote the candidate a memo explaining how he could repair his floundering campaign against Hillary Clinton. They advised him to attack her personally, presenting a difficult choice for Obama. He had spent years building a reputation as a reformer who deplored the nasty side of politics, and now, he was told, he had to put that aside. Obama’s strategists wrote that all campaign communications, even the slogan—“Change We Can Believe In”—had to emphasize distinctions with Clinton on character rather than on policy. The slogan “was intended to frame the argument along the character fault line, and this is where we can and must win this fight,” the memo said. “Clinton can’t be trusted or believed when it comes to change,” because “she’s driven by political calculation not conviction, regularly backing away and shifting positions. . . . She embodies trench warfare vs. Republicans, and is consumed with beating them rather than unifying the country and building consensus to get things done. She prides herself on working the system, not changing it.” The “current goal,” the memo continued, was to define Obama as “the only authentic ‘remedy’ to what ails Washington and stands in the way of progress.”

Obama’s message promised voters, in what his aides called “the inspiration,” that “Barack Obama will end the divisive trench warfare that treats politics as a game and will lead Americans to come together to restore our common purpose.” Clinton was too polarizing to get anything done: “It may not be her fault, but Americans have deeply divided feelings about Hillary Clinton, threatening a Democratic victory in 2008 and insuring another four years of the bitter political battles that have plagued Washington for the last two decades and stymied progress.”

Neera Tanden was the policy director for Clinton’s campaign. When Clinton lost the Democratic race, Tanden became the director of domestic policy for Obama’s general-election campaign, and then a senior official working on health care in his Administration. She is now the president of the liberal Center for American Progress, perhaps the most important institution in Democratic politics. “It was a character attack,” Tanden said recently, speaking about the Obama campaign against Clinton. “I went over to Obama, I’m a big supporter of the President, but their campaign was entirely a character attack on Hillary as a liar and untrustworthy. It wasn’t an ‘issue contrast,’ it was entirely personal.” And, of course, it worked.

And it’s still working, Neera. Any mention in the blogosphere of Hillary’s current popularity compared to Obama’s humiliating poll numbers, brings out Obamaphiles regurgitating the same character attacks against her.

Gingrich takes South Carolina

2012-01-21T19:46:00.000-06:00

Photo courtesy of newtgingrich360.com

Here’s the tally with 26 percent reporting (NY Times):

Gingrich 60,572 40.7%

Romney 39,261 26.4

Santorum 26,672 17.9

Paul 19,590 13.2

Jim Rutenberg at the NY Times has the story:

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Surprising his rivals and upending the highly unpredictable Republican race for the presidency, Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary on Saturday, just 10 days after a fifth-place finish in New Hampshire left the impression his candidacy was all but dead.

Mr. Gingrich rode to victory by winning a plurality of voters among a wide swath of important Republican voting blocs, outperforming the rest of the four-person field among evangelical Christians and Tea Party supporters, men and even women, who had been expected to vote by comfortable margins in favor of Mitt Romney, the man who was presumed to be the front-runner as of just a few days ago.

Mr. Romney’s defeat is sure to raise new questions that have dogged him from the start of his campaign over whether he could win over the many conservatives, Tea Party adherents and religious voters who have viewed him with suspicion over his Massachusetts health care initiative and past support for abortion rights.

Tell Congress: Overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood.

2012-01-21T10:16:00.000-06:00

Karl Rove. Photo courtesy of Dailykos.com.

If you’ve paid any attention to the 2012 campaign, you’re aware the recent Supreme Court Citizens United ruling makes a mockery of our democracy.

In just one consequence, Elizabeth Warren is not only battling Scott Brown in the Mass. Senate race, she’s up against Karl Rove’s super PAC.

The CREDO Action Network invites Democrats, Republicans, Independents (and I’m assuming members of the Justice Party) to take action now.

Dear Virginia,

We deserve a country where our elected officials are not bought and paid for by big corporations.

But the Citizens United vs. FEC Supreme Court decision, issued two years ago this week, overturned over a century of precedent and opened the floodgates for unlimited amounts of corporate money to flow into our political system.

Shockingly, the court came to this decision based on the notion that a corporation is legally a "person" entitled to First Amendment rights, and by equating a corporation's right to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing an election with our right to free speech.

Tell your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Even before the Citizens United decision, we too often saw the interests of Main Street subverted in favor of the interests of Wall Street.

But with the Citizens United decision now the law of the land, large corporations have the power to spend unlimited amounts of money from their general treasuries to buy elections.

To put things in perspective, the roughly $745 million Barack Obama raised to run for President in the 2008 election cycle (which was the most money raised by any candidate ever to run for office in the U.S.) is dwarfed by the $45 billion in profits a single company (ExxonMobil) made in 2008.

What's more, Citizen United opened loopholes that allow corporations to hide their campaign expenditures by laundering the money through non-profit advocacy organizations.

Tell your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Unfortunately, because Congress cannot pass a law that supersedes a Supreme Court ruling, it may take a constitutional amendment to undo the worst aspects of the Citizens United decision and end corporate personhood.

Clearly, the bar to successfully amending the Constitution is very high. But with 85% of the public opposed to the Citizens United decision, there is a potential for a broad coalition of Democrats, Republicans and Independents who all want to restore our democracy.

And let's remember, the stakes are too high to allow inaction on this issue. It's no exaggeration to say that the Citizens United decision fundamentally threatens the integrity of our democracy.

We need a government of, for and by the people. And sadly, we might need to work really hard to re-establish the common sense and democratic view that only people are people, not corporations.

Your senators and member of Congress need to hear from you, regardless of where they stand on this issue. We need to show them that their constituents are part of a broad movement demanding action — not only to convince them that overturning Citizens United is the right thing to do, but also that it's possible.

Today, take a step to be part of that movement.

Click the link below to automatically sign our petition telling your senators and member of Congress to support a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and end corporate personhood:

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=745044&id=33773-4150669-7kJGUxx&t=10

Thank you for standing up for democracy.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager

CREDO Action from Working Assets

Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson enters presidential race

2012-01-20T10:36:00.000-06:00

Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson in 2009. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com.

A couple of days ago, LadyBoomerNYC posted her support of the recently formed Justice Party’s candidate for president, Rocky Anderson.

According to his wiki page, Anderson is a well-qualified challenger in opposition to Obama and whoever emerges as the nominee from the messy GOP primary.

Coincidentally, a Washington Post-ABC poll reported today (Friday) that more than two-thirds of Americans would consider voting for a third-party candidate.

LBNYC said:

Perhaps there is a choice. Say what? …and we don’t have to vote for the worst of two evils. (Sorry Obama fans, if there are any of you left.)

Rocky Anderson for President! He’s running on the newly formed Justice Party ticket and telling it like it is: “I consider this a second party.” “We need a new paradigm where people are committed to representing the public interest.”

The Boomer’s post includes this video of Anderson’s appearance on Democracy Now:

Elizabeth Warren’s money bomb

2012-01-18T11:45:00.000-06:00

Very cool – just got this email from the Elizabeth Warren for Massachusetts campaign.

Virginia,

We are gaining strength every day, and Elizabeth's grassroots supporters are making it happen. But over these next 36 hours, it's more important than ever for you to join us and help make it happen too!

Tomorrow, on the same day Scott Brown officially kicks off his re-election campaign, we're launching our first ever Elizabeth Warren "money bomb." Already, thousands of supporters have pledged more than $300,000 -- pledges that become real contributions when that money bomb launches.

Will we raise $500,000 tomorrow? $1 million? Who knows.

All I know is that the ultimate success of tomorrow's money bomb, how much we end up raising, and the strength of our message is entirely in your hands.

Will you make your money bomb pledge of $25 or more now?

Only you can help us demonstrate that the momentum we have in this race is real, that we have the strength and resources to beat Wall Street and the big banks financing Brown's campaign. They've already helped him build a massive campaign war chest of more than $12 million -- twice what we have in the bank.

But tomorrow, if we can produce a big number on Scott Brown's big day, our money bomb will send a strong message that Elizabeth's supporters across Massachusetts and across the country are coming together to do something big.

That sense of togetherness is really important to Elizabeth, because she knows, that if we work together, we can win.

Will you make your money bomb pledge of $25 or more now to inspire fellow supporters to join us? Act now, and we'll automatically process your pledge tomorrow.

We all remember the day Scott Brown was elected one year and 364 days ago. We all know why he's trying to turn tomorrow's anniversary of his election into a powerful, symbolic day for himself and his campaign.

We need to show that on his big day, we're going to be the ones who step up with the huge grassroots support it's going to take to win this race.

Thanks for your support,

Mindy Myers

Campaign Manager

Elizabeth for MA

Pledge Today

Follow Elizabeth onFacebook

Follow Elizabeth onTwitter

PO Box 290568

Boston, MA 02129

Paid for by Elizabeth for MA

America’s enemies: “Just give them death”

2012-01-17T15:34:00.000-06:00

Romney: "Bin Laden got what he deserved, a bullet in the head.

Roger Simon at Politico has tapped into America’s bloodlust and thirst for revenge that’s still going strong more than ten years after 9/11.

Simon highlights the fact that Republicans and Democrats are bipartisan on the issue, although he needn’t have brought religion into it.

We all know the Quakers, the Religious Society of Friends, represent the sane folks within the Christian tradition.

Simon said:

Just in case you sometimes get Mormons and Quakers confused, Mitt Romney cleared things up Monday night.

“Bin Laden got what he deserved,” Romney, a Mormon, said at a Republican debate in South Carolina. “A bullet in the head.”

The crowd, as debate crowds sometimes do, went wild.

The audience assembled in Myrtle Beach at a Fox News/Wall Street Journal debate seemed so amped up even before the debate began, in fact, that I thought they were going to have to string up chicken wire to protect the candidates.

The primary is Saturday, and it is generally agreed that if Romney wins — it would be his third victory in a row — the Republican nominating race effectively will be over, just 18 days after it began.

So spirits are running high, and all the other Republicans are running hard at Romney.

Huntsman issues statement (video)

2012-01-16T14:39:00.000-06:00

Jon Huntsman ended his race for the Republican nomination with this statement today:

Huntsman quits the race

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Jon Huntsman in 2010. Photo credits: wikimedia

Bilingual Jon Huntsman – despite our ignorant media’s scorn of his mastery of mandarin – stood head and shoulders above the other candidates in the Republican primary.

With his global vision, Huntsman was the GOP’s best choice to run against Obama in the general election. But word has it this morning that the civil, “country first” Huntsman is quitting the race and endorsing Romney.

From Zeleny and Rutenberg at the Caucus (NY Times):

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Jon M. Huntsman Jr. will announce Monday that he is ending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination and endorsing Mitt Romney, narrowing the field and erasing a challenge to Mr. Romney from the moderate wing of his party.

Mr. Huntsman, who had hoped to use the South Carolina primary this week to revive his flagging candidacy, informed his advisers on Sunday that he was bowing to political reality and would back Mr. Romney, whom he accused a week ago of putting party ahead of country.

Mr. Huntsman, who had struggled to live up to the early expectations of his candidacy, was to deliver a speech Monday morning in Myrtle Beach, where the five remaining major Republican candidates will gather hours later for a debate. His endorsement of Mr. Romney is indication of the party establishment getting behind Mr. Romney and trying to focus the party on defeating President Obama.

Interestingly, Zeleny and Rutenberg conclude their post:

But Mr. Obama’s top advisers seemed to see the danger in Mr. Huntsman’s candidacy, signaling in 2009 that they thought he might be a strong contender.

America’s social welfare state: relief for the rich!

2012-01-15T11:39:00.000-06:00

In her campaign for the senate in Mass., Elizabeth Warren continues to take on the big banks. Photo courtesy of 1000awesomewomen.tumblr.com.

Dan Froomkin’s recent post, “Social Welfare State, American-Style, Means Relief For The Rich,” has attracted more than 8,000 comments from its readers. A quick scan indicates that hundreds of those comments support Froomkin’s thesis.

Anyone who followed the budget debates in 2011 is already aware that both Democratic and Republican leaders, supported by our corporate-owned media, favored cuts in Social Security and Medicare to reduce the deficit.

But keep in mind that those going after the safety net for the poor and the elderly repeatedly used the euphemism “entitlement programs” to equate even self-funded Social Security with welfare.

It’s good news that Froomkin’s post is drawing multitudes of readers as he emphatically points out that the real entitlements in our country benefit primarily the wealthy. Hopefully, members of both parties will reflect on that fact:

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney has taken to accusing President Barack Obama of trying to turn the United States into a European-style social welfare state.

The hyperbole about Obama's actions aside, the United States already is a social welfare state -- almost right up there with the Europeans -- if you measure the total amount of drain on the Treasury caused by spending and subsidies on such things as health care and retirement.

The one big difference is that in the American social welfare state, a lot of the benefits go to the rich.

"We spend a tremendous amount on private social welfare through tax subsidies," said Christopher Faricy, a political science professor at Washington State University whose forthcoming book is about our divided welfare state.

"It just goes to a drastically different population than what we usually associate with welfare programs," Faricy said.

“Urinating on dead bodies represents ‘us’ today”

2012-01-13T08:51:00.002-06:00

Marines in Afghanistan reportedly urinating on dead bodies.

I’ve written several times previously on the desensitization of American culture since 9/11 when we blindly set out on a path toward revenge rather than justice. In a recent post, Steve Clemons addresses the same topic in his response to the video of the five Marines who appear to be urinating on Taliban corpses in Afghanistan.

Clemons begins:

As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, US military officers -- incumbents and retired -- and others in DC's firmament condemn the US soldiers that apparently urinated on dead Taliban militants, I'm wondering how long it will take for a movement to grow inside the United States that embraces the soldiers and the "pissing act" that Panetta has called "deplorable."

And Clemons concludes:

So, while many in the national media and in polite circles promise to investigate this act, to punish those involved as Panetta said "to the fullest extent", the truth is that the Iraq War and Afghanistan War and the building up of national security commitments that rest on the backs of a new generation of soldiers -- many of whom don't understand and operate with nuance -- has empowered those who think pissing on the enemy is the thing to do.

Whether many want to admit it or not, what those soldiers allegedly did represents "us" today -- and that's yet another part of the malignant manifestation of these current conflicts.

When will the Obama Administration investigate the perpetrators of the economic crisis?

2012-01-12T09:56:00.000-06:00

Obama and bank officials. Photo credits: public domain.

Credo, Moveon.org, and other progressive organizations are joining forces to pressure the Obama Administration during this election year to investigate the big banks that caused the housing crisis and resulting recession.

Check out this message from Credo and sign the petition to get Obama to act:

Wall Street greed fueled the housing bubble, and it's not hard to find evidence of what appears to be widespread and pervasive fraud by the biggest players in the mortgage industry.

Yet, despite the work of a handful of brave state attorneys general, there has been an astonishing lack of investigation into the misdeeds and outright crimes that caused the financial crisis.

The investigations that do exist have barely begun to scratch the surface.

And without meaningful investigations, there won't be any accountability for the Wall Street crooks who drove our economy off a cliff.

Tell President Obama: Announce a full investigation into the cause of the housing bubble and foreclosure crisis. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

The collapse of the housing bubble caused trillions of dollars in homeowner equity to evaporate, which directly led to our economy grinding to a halt.

And the ensuing wave of foreclosures — caused in no small part both by predatory loans designed to fail and out-and-out foreclosure fraud — has destroyed communities across the country and shrank the tax base of local governments right when there was the most need for the services they provide.

Yet with all the resources at its disposal, the Department of Justice and other federal entities have yet to announce a full investigation of the cause of this man-made economic catastrophe.

Quite the opposite. Thus far the president's advisors have been pushing for a bad settlement with the banks that lets them off the hook . But a bad settlement has been stopped so far by courageous progressive attorneys general supported by an army of grassroots activists like you.

We now have an opportunity to change the White House's strategy as the reelection campaign heats up, and get the president to come out on the right side of this issue.

Tell President Obama: Announce a full investigation into the cause of the housing bubble and foreclosure crisis. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

The timing of this fight is critical.

The election calendar is working with us by pushing President Obama to be more aggressive than he's been. We saw this, for example, with his recent recess appointment of Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

And we know that President Obama's political team wants him to run against Wall Street.

CREDO is not alone in asking the Obama administration to launch a full investigation. We're joining with MoveOn and other progressive groups in this campaign.

If we make enough noise, it will be hard for the Obama administration to avoid calling for full investigations into the fraud that led to the housing crisis.

It's a completely reasonable ask, it's within his powers to call for a full investigation, and it's the right thing to do.

Tell President Obama: Announce a full investigation into the cause of the housing bubble and foreclosure crisis. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Thank you for speaking out. Your activism matters.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

Protecting consumers: Cordray hits the ground running

2012-01-11T09:12:00.000-06:00

Richard Cordray. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com.

In the interval between the NH and SC primaries, the GOP is likely to turn its attention back to its efforts to undermine Obama’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. That’s why Elizabeth Warren is rallying the troops to defend Cordray and the agency she founded.

I just got this email from the Warren campaign:

Virginia,

On the second day of a new job, most people are still filling out paperwork and finding the cafeteria.

But not Richard Cordray.

Just one day after President Obama appointed Richard to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- bypassing the Senate Republicans -- he got to work.

He made clear his intent to use his authority as Director to level the playing field for middle class families and to rein in the sorts of abusive lending practices that nearly brought down the economy.

With Richard Cordray on the job, consumers already are seeing a big difference. We want to show Rich we're with him, and Elizabeth is going to personally deliver our online card to him when she next sees him. If you haven't signed it yet, there's still time.

Please join Elizabeth and tell Richard Cordray we're with him all the way: Sign our online card in the next 24 hours and help send an important message of support.

Many outside analysts and observers expect there will be fierce legal challenges to Cordray's appointment from those who want him out.

Republicans are still reeling over their inability to block his nomination, and the big banks have a lot on the line with the new agency's success. We've also seen Wall Street continue to set new spending records hiring lawyers and lobbyists to shift attention away from their wrongdoing.

We've worked hard together to get this far. With Richard Cordray in place at the new consumer agency, we can start moving toward real accountability over the big banks and better protections for consumers.

Please join Elizabeth in telling Richard Cordray we stand with him in this important fight for middle class families and in showing the momentum behind his leadership.

The public is paying attention to this fight -- including thousands who signed our petition urging that Rich get this important job. Middle class people in Massachusetts and around this country are tired of getting hammered by the same characters time after time.

This is a big deal for everyone who thinks it's time for a level playing field that gives middle class families a fair chance to get ahead.

Thanks for your support,

Mindy Myers
Campaign Manager
Elizabeth for MA

It's Romney 1st in NH; Paul 2nd, and Huntsman 3rd

2012-01-10T19:33:00.000-06:00

From CNN:

Photo courtesy of salon.com

Manchester, New Hampshire (CNN) -- Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary, according to CNN projections after voters turned out in expected record numbers Tuesday in the second contest of the Republican presidential race.

The CNN projection, based on early results and exit poll data, came after final polls closed in the state at 8 p.m. ET.

The battle for second place loomed as the most hotly contested result, with implications for the next primary in South Carolina on January 21.

According to CNN's information, Texas Rep. Ron Paul trailed Romney, with former Utah Jon Huntsman, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum behind Paul and Texas Gov. Rick Perry well behind them.

Huntsman hits his stride in NH

2012-01-10T10:30:00.000-06:00

Photo courtesy of Real Clear Politics.

Just hours ago, in my two previous posts, I was lamenting our media’s ignorance in essentially excluding Jon Huntsman in its coverage of the Republican primary. I found it necessary to point out that Huntsman was obviously the best qualified of the Republican candidates to assume the presidency.

As the polls opened in NH this morning, however, the media’s tune had changed, and a potential Huntsman surge is adding excitement in a race hitherto assumed to be all Romney, all the way.

Richard Benedetto at Real Clear Politics is measured in his expectations of where Huntsman will finish in NH, but he summarizes well Huntsman’s newly energized campaign:

KEENE, N.H. -- If today's New Hampshire Republican presidential primary produces a surprise, it could be Jon Huntsman.

The photogenic former two-term governor of Utah and ambassador to China in the Obama administration has a long-shot chance at finishing third behind Mitt Romney and Ron Paul.

That would be a shock. Huntsman has been campaigning in obscurity for the past six months, choosing to make a do-or-die stand in New Hampshire, but gaining little steam.

However, as the pre-voting days in this no-snow winter capital dwindle to the end, the low-key Huntsman seems to be hitting his stride. Although he continues to bill himself as an “underdog,” his crowds are bigger, his smile is wider, his voice is stronger and his step has an extra spring.

“New Hampshire loves an underdog!” he shouted to a cheering crowd of about 500 Sunday night at Keene State College.

Buoyed by the cheers, he still resisted the siren song of the grandiose prediction. That would be uncharacteristic of a man who has built his reputation on modesty. “We’re going to do well here” was as far as he would go.

His wife, Mary Kaye, who has been campaigning at her husband’s side and making speeches for him for months, was a little more optimistic, though not too much. “Every day the energy gets stronger and stronger. We’re going up, not down,” she declared in the tradition of Huntsman restraint.

Our ignorant media disses Jon Huntsman for his ability to speak Mandarin

2012-01-08T11:52:00.000-06:00

Jon Huntsman in 2010. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.

It was to be expected that media coverage of last night’s Republican debate would include dissing Jon Huntsman for his ability to speak Mandarin. But it figures. Too often pundits and commentators in both the old and new media appear to have mastered the technical skills of journalism, but are so ignorant in other areas as to fail to grasp what an asset Huntsman’s language skills might be for a U.S. president in today’s climate in which China is emerging as a world superpower.

Incidentally, how often do we find a U.S. ambassador who has actually taken the trouble to learn the language of the country where he or she serves?

Up to now, the media has virtually ignored Huntsman who is obviously the best qualified Republican candidate to compete with Obama in the 2012 general election. With his extensive background and “my country first” attitude, Huntsman could serve our nation well as president.

The Atlantic at least gives Huntsman some credit for his performance in this morning’s debate:

2. Jon Huntsman's breakout. Huntsman picked up a thread from the night before to jab back at Romney, who had dinged him for serving in the Obama administration. "He criticized me while he was out raising money for serving my country in China. Yes, under a Democrat. Like my two sons are doing in the United States Navy. ... I will always put my country first." When Romney replied that conservatives ought to oppose Obama, not support him, Huntsman replied: "This nation is divided because of attitudes like that." It was the best job he's done at making his centrist vision accessible and relevant.

Could Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman defeat Obama?

2012-01-06T12:45:00.000-06:00

Jon Huntsman. Photo courtesy of wikipedia.com.

It must be apparent by now to most sentient beings that the results of the Iowa caucuses offered nary a candidate capable of igniting even a modicum of enthusiasm in the 2012 presidential race. And as E. J. Dionne, a worshiper of Barack Obama in 2008, recently observed:

As the attention of the politically minded has focused on the rather more down-to-earth contests in Iowa and New Hampshire that will help determine which Republican will face Mr. Obama in November, let us ponder what the coming year will bring for someone who must now seek re-election as a mere mortal.

Oh, but E. J., out there on the horizon in the New Hampshire Republican primary, Jon Huntsman could emerge as a candidate whose qualifications for the presidency just might excite currently lethargic Republicans, Democrats, and independents sufficiently to defeat incumbent Obama. It seems as if, Obama, like Icarus, flew too close to the sun and got his wings melted.

In today’s LA Times, Michael A. Memoli reports from N.H.:

In its endorsement of Jon Huntsman, the Boston Globe made largely the same case for the Utah governor’s candidacy that the candidate himself has to New Hampshire voters -- that he is the rare GOP candidate prioritizing the national interest over ideology.

The Globe, which has a reach into many southern New Hampshire homes, snubbed former home state Gov. Mitt Romney for the second time in its endorsement for the first-in-the-nation primary, after backing John McCain in the 2008 vote.

Both Huntsman and Romney, the paper’s editorial board writes, "have track records of success" and "have shown the breadth of spirit to lead the nation."

"But while Romney proceeds cautiously, strategically, trying to appease enough constituencies to get himself the nomination, Huntsman has been bold," the Globe said.

For Those Who Have Far to Travel: An Epiphany Blessing

2012-01-06T07:20:00.000-06:00

If you could see the journey whole

you might never undertake it;

might never dare the first step

that propels you from the place

you have known toward the place you know not.

Call it one of the mercies of the road:

that we see it only by stages as it opens before us,

as it comes into our keeping step by

single step.

Thanks to United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities for sharing this epiphany message with the seminary community and its friends this morning with the following attribution:

Text from an Epiphany blessing by Jan Richardson in "The Painted Prayerbook".

Artwork: Epiphany @ Jan L. Richardson. www.janrichardsonimages.com

Whither the Occupy energy in 2012?

2012-01-05T14:17:00.000-06:00

Zuccoti Park, Occupy Wall Street. Credit: public domain.

Katrina vanden Heuvel at the Nation is bullish on Occupy Wall Street energy:

As we head into 2012, there are a lot of questions about where the Occupy energy will go from here. I’m confident it will move in powerful directions–fighting unjust foreclosures and evictions, exploring alternative banking, taking on outrageous student debt, countering the corrosive role of corporate money in politics, and allying in new ways with the growing ranks of poor Americans.

But there are also tangible—maybe not sexy or systemic—reforms that make a real difference in people’s lives and speak to OWS principles, and would benefit from its energy and activism. In 2011, two victories on paid sick leave offer something to build on as we work towards an economy that is more just and fair. Connecticut became the first state to guarantee this common sense protection for working people; and Seattle joined San Francisco and Washington, DC as the only cities with paid sick leave on the books.

As of New Year’s Day, hundreds of thousands of workers in Connecticut no longer have to choose between a paycheck, a job and taking care of a sick child or themselves; and on September 1, when the Seattle law takes effect, an estimated 150,000 workers who didn’t have paid sick days will begin to accrue them—thousands more will earn additional paid sick leave and have the flexibility and protection to actually use it. With more than 40 million workers in the US lacking a single paid sick day—and low-wage, women and Latino workers disproportionately affected—these new laws will also offer more evidence that this humane, decent approach to the workplace is also good for business. That’s important as more states and municipalities look to pass similar legislation.

Obama gives Richard Cordray a recess appointment as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

2012-01-04T12:07:00.000-06:00

Richard Cordray, photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

I received word this morning of Obama’s recent appointment of Richard Cordray as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in an email from Elizabeth Warren:

Virginia,

This is an important day. Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gets its first director -- and its full powers. President Obama gave Richard Cordray a recess appointment that Republicans cannot block.

Please join me and tell Richard Cordray we're with him all the way: Click here to sign my online card now and deliver a strong message of support to an important advocate!

For months, determined as ever to protect Wall Street and the big banks instead of you, Republicans stymied the consumer agency from doing its job. Republicans demanded changes that would weaken the agency and its ability to protect you, and they filibustered the nomination of Richard Cordray as its director.

The big banks were winning once again until today -- when President Obama gave Cordray a recess appointment!

This is a big deal for middle class families in Massachusetts and across our nation.

For more than a year, we've seen and heard reports exposing how some of America's largest financial institutions broke the law. Maybe that's why Wall Street continues to set new spending records hiring lobbyists to shift attention away from their wrongdoings.

As a result, those who broke our economic system haven't been subject to full scrutiny. But with Richard Cordray in place at the CFPB, we can start moving toward real accountability over the big banks.

Please join me in celebrating the end of the Republican roadblock preventing the consumer agency from moving forward -- and tell Richard Cordray we stand with him in this important fight for middle-class families.

The public is paying attention to this fight -- including thousands who signed our petition urging that Rich get this position.

We've worked hard together to get this far. We should celebrate -- and keep right on working. Let's show there's real momentum behind Cordray's leadership.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Elizabeth Warren

Shattering the safety myth of nuclear power

2012-01-03T09:38:00.000-06:00

A smoke plume from the Fukushima nuclear power plant after an explosion at reactor number one. Credits: Public Domain.

Kazuaki Nagata at the Japan Times reports this morning that following Germany’s lead, Japan is awakening to the threats of nuclear energy and may shift its emphasis to safer sources of renewable energy such as solar and wind. We can only wonder when the U.S. will heed the wake-up call so tragically sounded by the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Nagata writes:

The Fukushima nuclear crisis changed the national debate over energy policy almost overnight.

By shattering the government's long-pitched safety myth about nuclear power, the crisis dramatically raised public awareness about energy use and sparked strong antinuclear sentiment.

And as the government gropes for a new long-term energy strategy, intense debate both at the political and public level is expected to take place over whether Japan should end its reliance on atomic power just as Germany has vowed to do.

"Energy policy discussions within the government are no longer just about nuclear power," said Tetsunari Iida, executive director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies and a long-time foe of nuclear power.

Before March 11, the government and media had generally ignored the voices of alternative energy advocates, he said. But the disaster poisoned the favorable environment for the pronuclear bureaucracy and all of the nation's reactors may find themselves idle in the coming months — at least temporarily — if politicians fail to ease Japan's boiling anitinuclear sentiment.

As of Dec. 25, only six of the nation's 54 reactors were running. But even these will be halted by spring for scheduled inspections, bringing electricity supplies to dangerous lows.

Women executives in corporate America

2012-01-01T10:15:00.001-06:00

Photo of Virginia Rometty courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

In reviewing 2011, it’s apparent that sexism and misogyny are still very much with us as recently pointed out by Name it Change It.

(Name It. Change It. is a collaborative campaign between She Should Run, Women's Media Center, and Political Parity, Name It. Change It. works to end sexist and misogynistic coverage of women candidates by all members of the press).

On a hopeful note, this New Year’s morning I happened to come across an article in the NY Times published last October that announces the appointment of Virginia Rometty as the new chief executive of IBM. According to the article:

The selection of Ms. Rometty for the top job at I.B.M. will make her one of the most prominent women executives in corporate America, joining a small group of chiefs that includes Ursula Burns of Xerox, Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo, Ellen J. Kullman of DuPont and Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard. Gender, according to Mr. Palmisano, did not figure into Ms. Rometty’s selection.

55 or better seniors keep fit with Jane Fonda (video)

2011-12-30T10:09:00.000-06:00

Courtesy of newsvine.com

Well, here’s an encouraging clip from Jane Fonda’s new workout for those of us who are age 55 or better – working out is a great way to start the new year!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Name It Change It: media sexism in 2011

2011-12-29T09:09:00.000-06:00

Image courtesy of Name It Change It.org

I feel compelled to post this email from Name It Change It as 2011 comes to a close, and we face another presidential election year in which politicians and the media will no doubt continue their habitual sexist, misogynist ways.

We can only hope that little by little we’ll be able to raise the consciousness of the few who may one day lead the nation toward equality for all.

Dear Virginia,

“Bit of a heifer,” “Dumb twat,” “Great masturbation material.”

These were just some of outrageous terms thrown at women in politics in 2011. Every year Name It. Change It. takes a step back to examine the full year of the media coverage of women candidates and elected officials. Sadly, in 2011 we found no limit to how demeaning or insulting some media outlets and personalities felt they could be towards women candidates. The Name It. Change It. project is about pointing out sheer misogyny disguised as mere criticism.

This year, like last, contained some real doozies. Newsweek, Bill Maher, Tracey Morgan, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and of course Huffington Post.

We invite you to read our Year in Political Media Sexism coverage and also to get angry. This sexism is wrong and needs to stop. That’s why we need your help in calling it out.

See something sexist? Report it to Name It. Change It.

2012 unfortunately will bring a whole host of sexist attacks against women candidates as the election season heats up. And we need your help. Will you join us in fighting sexism?

--The Name It. Change It. Team

Name It. Change It. is a collaborative campaign between She Should Run, Women's Media Center, and Political Parity, Name It. Change It. works to end sexist and misogynistic coverage of women candidates by all members of the press

Using women as the spoils of war

2011-12-28T10:14:00.000-06:00

Photo of displaced Somali women courtesy of wn.com.

It’s happened throughout history and Islamic extremists are not alone in their assumption that women are the spoils of war.

American soldiers of various faith traditions have also been guilty of such crimes. But this front-page story at the NY Times on the plight of Somali women and girls now facing an “alarming increase in rape and sexual abuse” is painfully difficult to read.

But read it we must and face the reality that being born female is still a nightmarish handicap throughout much of the world.

Jeffrey Gettleman reports:

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The girl’s voice dropped to a hush as she remembered the bright, sunny afternoon when she stepped out of her hut and saw her best friend buried in the sand, up to her neck.

“You’re next,” the Shabab warned the girl, a frail 17-year-old who was living with her brother in a squalid refugee camp.

Several months later, the men came back. Five militants burst into her hut, pinned her down and gang-raped her, she said. They claimed to be on a jihad, or holy war, and any resistance was considered a crime against Islam, punishable by death.

“I’ve had some very bad dreams about these men,” she said, having recently escaped the area they control. “I don’t know what religion they are.”

Somalia has been steadily worn down by decades of conflict and chaos, its cities in ruins and its people starving. Just this year, tens of thousands have died from famine, with countless others cut down in relentless combat. Now Somalis face yet another widespread terror: an alarming increase in rapes and sexual abuse of women and girls.

Toward a calmer, more peaceful, and happier new year

2011-12-27T09:45:00.000-06:00

The venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. Photo courtesy of wkuplondon.wordpress.com

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, has long been a powerful advocate for self-compassion.

TNH advises us to embrace powerful emotions such as anger, jealousy, and addictive cravings instead of igniting a war within ourselves between what we perceive as our positive and negative feelings.

Through this integrative process, we are better able to center ourselves and respond calmly to whatever arises in our daily lives.

As facilitator of my mindfulness meditation group today, I selected for our reading excerpts from TNH’s article in the Shambala Sun: “Thich Nhat Hanh on Loosening the Knots of Anger:”

To be happy, to me, is to suffer less. If we were not capable of transforming the pain within ourselves, happiness would not be possible.

Many people look for happiness outside themselves, but true happiness must come from inside of us. Our culture tells us that happiness comes from having a lot of money, a lot of power and a high position in society. But if you observe carefully, you will see that many rich and famous people are not happy. Many of them commit suicide.

The Buddha and the monks and nuns of his time did not own anything except their three robes and one bowl. But they were very happy, because they had something extremely precious: freedom.

According to the Buddha's teachings, the most basic condition for happiness is freedom. Here we do not mean political freedom, but freedom from the mental formations of anger, despair, jealousy and delusion. These mental formations are described by the Buddha as poisons. As long as these poisons are still in our heart, happiness can not be possible.

In order to be free from anger, we have to practice, whether we are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish. We cannot ask the Buddha, Jesus, God or Mohammed to take anger out of our hearts for us. There are concrete instructions on how to transform the craving, anger and confusion within us. If we follow these instructions and learn to take good care of our suffering, we can help others do the same.

The Knots of Anger

In our consciousness there are blocks of pain, anger and frustration called internal formations. They are also called knots because they tie us up and obstruct our freedom.

When someone insults us or does something unkind to us, an internal formation is created in our consciousness. If you don't know how to undo the internal knot and transform it, the knot will stay there for a long time. And the next time someone says something or does something to you of the same nature, that internal formation will grow stronger. As knots or blocks of pain in us, our internal formations have the power to push us, to dictate our behavior.

After a while, it becomes very difficult for us to transform, to undo the knots, and we cannot ease the constriction of this crystallized formation. The Sanskrit word for internal formation is samyojana. It means "to crystallize." Every one of us has internal formations that we need to take care of. With the practice of meditation we can undo these knots and experience transformation and healing.

An interfaith holiday celebration

2011-12-25T09:46:00.000-06:00

Dear Katalusis readers,

All is well in my household as I look forward to an interfaith celebration of Christmas and Hanakkah with family members this afternoon.

Last Christmas, reminding readers that my name is Virginia, I posted eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon’s letter to the editor of the NY Sun and that gentleman’s response in 1897 to her query about the existence of Santa Claus, reprinted below.

On Christmas day, 2011, I will add that although Santa Claus is normally associated with the celebration of Christmas, the spirit of giving is universal. It abounds among all faith traditions, including both Christians and Jews whose celebration of Hannakkah this year concludes the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 28^th.

Dear Editor,

I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so." Please tell me the truth: Is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O'Hanlon
115 W. 95th St.

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except (what) they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanakkah, friends of Katalusis!

Holiday greetings from Elizabeth Warren

2011-12-24T13:19:00.000-06:00

Introducing political leaders and their rabid supporters to basic communication skills

2011-12-23T11:38:00.000-06:00

Secretary Clinton Meets With Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Dec. 2, 2011, State Department photo, public domain. Although Hillary's job approval as secretary of state is 66%, she continues to be targeted online by rabid anonymous attackers.

In Feb. 2008, Dr. Stanley Fish, Davidson-Kahn Distinguished University Professor and a professor of law at Florida International University, in Miami, and dean emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, addressed Hillary-hating in his NY Times column, “Think Again.” In his next column, he replied to the responses he received from readers:

The responses to my column on Hillary Clinton-hating have been both voluminous (the largest number in the brief history of “Think Again”) and fascinating. The majority of posters agreed with the characterization of the attacks on Senator Clinton as vicious and irrational, but in not a few posts the repudiation of Hillary-hatred is followed by more of the same. Lisa (No. 17) nicely exemplifies the pattern. She begins by saying “I agree that there is a rabid nature in the manner in which numerous conservative groups attack Hillary Clinton,”, but in the very next sentence she declares that “most of Hillary’s reputation is well earned” and then she spends nine paragraphs being rabid. A significant minority of posters skipped the ritual disavowal of hatred and went straight to the task of adding to it.

It seems that Hillary’s recent successes as America’s most admired woman, the most popular politician in the nation, and a 66% job approval as secretary of state – compared to Obama’s declining poll numbers - have incited more of the “vicious, irrational attacks,” noted by Dr. Fish in 08.

Hillary’s attackers at the Huffington Post, for example, stalk every mention of her on that huge website and even go to the Style page to spew their hateful sexist comments. When called to account, the haters defend their right to free speech, apparently having never realized that our constitution does not guarantee the right to slander those with whom one disagrees.

If there’s any hope for a more civil society, it lies with the efforts of today’s parents to teach their children mutually respectful communication skills, which are not to be discarded when posting anonymously at an online message board at websites like the Huffington Post.

Julie Costa, volunteer manager for Global Volunteers, is wisely training her two young sons in the art of communication by giving each of them a green card and a blue card:

The Green Card

There's something I need to talk to you about. It’s super hard for me to bring this up to you, but I feel it’s important. While you’re holding this card, I’m asking you to really listen. When I take the card back from you, I’m ready for you to respond.

The Blue Card

I’m handing you this blue card because our conversation has turned ugly. When this card is presented, we are to take a break for five minutes to cool off. We may postpone this conversation for another time, but we agree the conversation will continue when we can speak more calmly about this topic. This card may be presented more than one time in a conversation.

Based on the steady decline of civil communication in our culture since 9/11 and the behavior of our dysfunctional congress the past year, it might be a good idea to give each of our elected officials the Costa family’s green card and blue card and provide them an introductory seminar on mutually respectful communication skills. Perhaps they could, in turn, serve as role models for their crazed supporters on both the left and the right?

Merry Christmas to middleclass tax payers and the unemployed

2011-12-22T22:56:00.000-06:00

Photo courtesy of salon.com.

It’s two days before Christmas and baking and decorating cookies to have on hand when the kids come for dinner on Sunday is more on my mind than the latest skirmish of our dysfunctional congress. I’m also concerned with finding time to prepare to lead my meditation group on Tuesday.

Still, I’m glad that those affected will continue to receive the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance for the next two months – they can breathe a little easier this holiday weekend.

The NY Times editorial this Dec. 22 gives the win (with qualifications) to the Dems:

For a full year, House Republicans have replaced governing with confrontations that they allow to reach the brink of crisis, only then making extreme demands in exchange for a resolution. On Thursday, that strategy crumbled. Battered by public opinion and undermined by more reasonable Senate Republicans, the House’s leaders backed down and signed off on a deal to continue the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance for two months.

Balancing the media’s worshipful coverage of the passing of Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-17T09:55:00.001-06:00

Courtesy of Vancouversun.com

In the midst of the tidal wave of worshipful prose from around the web eulogizing the late Christopher Hitchens, I find myself recalling the man’s crude sexist attacks on world-renowned female leaders such as Mother Teresa and Hillary Clinton, not to mention his earlier slanderous assault on the entire Clinton family.

Just to balance the media's glorified coverage of the drunken atheist’s death, I’m re-publishing my post of Nov. 25, 2008 titled Rebutting Christopher Hitchens’ Latest Vilification of Hillary and Bill Clinton:

Responding to Christopher Hitchens’ attack in his post at Slate on Hillary Clinton is an unwelcome distraction this morning from preparations for Thanksgiving dinner.

I’ve managed to ignore Hitchens over the years and actually had to review his background to remind myself where such a depraved distortion of Sen. Clinton’s character and qualifications for the position of secretary of state was coming from. A quick glance at his Wiki entry was all it took.

At Slate, Hitchens writes:

In matters of foreign policy, it has been proved time and again, the Clintons are devoted to no interest other than their own. A president absolutely has to know of his chief foreign-policy executive that he or she has no other agenda than the one he has set. Who can say with a straight face that this is true of a woman whose personal ambition is without limit; whose second loyalty is to an impeached and disbarred and discredited former president; and who is ready at any moment, and on government time, to take a wheedling call from either of her bulbous brothers? This is also the unscrupulous female who until recently was willing to play the race card on President-elect Obama and (in spite of her own complete want of any foreign-policy qualifications) to ridicule him for lacking what she only knew about by way of sordid backstairs dealing. What may look like wound-healing and magnanimity to some looks like foolhardiness and masochism to me.

Where to begin?

1. “The Clintons are devoted to no interest other than their own.”

Both Bill and Hillary Clinton are known throughout the world for their lifetime efforts on behalf of human rights.

Over the past eight years as a U.S. senator, Hillary Clinton has earned a reputation for her in-depth knowledge of the important issues facing our government, her dedication, her compassion for those in need, and for her ability to work across the aisle.

As for Bill, today the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation addresses climate change, HIV/Aids and Malaria, childhood obesity, sustainable development in Africa, and economic opportunity for all.

2. “A president absolutely has to know of his chief foreign-policy executive that he or she has no other agenda than the one he has set.”

Here again, we have a male chauvinist commentator assuming from the get-go that as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton will be assuming the role of a subservient, dutiful wife constrained from expressing her honest opinions and best judgment in fulfilling the responsibilities of her position.

3. “a woman whose personal ambition is without limit”

Why must we repeatedly remind chauvinists like Hitchens that only women continue to be criticized for being ambitious.

4. “This is also the unscrupulous female who until recently was willing to play the race card on President-elect Obama and (in spite of her own complete want of any foreign-policy qualifications) to ridicule him for lacking what she only knew about by way of sordid backstairs dealing.

Note how perniciously, Hitchens uses the word “female” to describe Sen. Clinton. Would he have pointed out the gender of a man he was attacking, as in “this is also the unscrupulous male?” I think not.

And just who was playing the race card, Mr. Hitchens? I recommend that Mr. Hitchens view the video of Obama’s national co-chair Jesse Jackson, Jr.’ s tirade against Sen. Clinton the day after she won the New Hampshire primary.

Time after time Princeton historian Sean Wilentz debunked the Obama camp’s egregious attempts to smear both Bill and Hillary Clinton as racists. In an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Wilentz wrote:

‘“Obama's backers, including members of his official campaign staff, then played what might be called ‘the race-baiter card.’ Hillary Clinton, in crediting both Lyndon Johnson as well as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for the Civil Rights Act in 1964, had supposedly denigrated King, and by extension Obama. Allegedly, Bill Clinton had dismissed Obama's victory in South Carolina by comparing it to those of the Rev. Jesse Jackson in the 1980s. (In fact, their electoral totals were comparable — and in the interview at issue, Clinton complimented Obama on his performance ‘everywhere’ — a line the media usually omitted.)”’

When pinned down during the Las Vegas debate, Obama made clear – after most of the damage had been done – that along with the rest of the world, he was well aware the Clintons were not racists.

5. “What may look like wound-healing and magnanimity to some looks like foolhardiness and masochism to me.”

That could be due to your jaundiced, bigoted view of reality, Mr. Hitchens. As one who essentially hates women from the misogynous depths of your soulless being, you could not be expected to be aware of the fact that Hillary Clinton is already widely respected among the majority of world leaders.

Incidentally, it occurred to me the other day to imagine the roles were reversed and President-elect Clinton were attempting to find an appropriate slot in her administration for Barack Obama. With Obama’s thin resume, we have to immediately rule out the vice-presidency; an apprenticeship in the Chicago Daley machine and experience as a community organizer just doesn’t cut it. He has no background whatsoever in health care, economics, or any other domestic policy area. And as far as foreign policy goes, he went on a road trip abroad last summer to meet world leaders for the first time.

In response to Obama’s repeated attempts to justify his dearth of experience by identifying with Abraham Lincoln, a little reminder might be appropriate: the world is a lot more complex than when Honest Abe was president.

Neophyte Obama will indeed be fortunate to have the experienced Hillary Clinton on board as secretary of state.

Bill Clinton deserves the title of "first black American president" more than Obama does

2011-12-13T09:25:00.000-06:00

L. Douglas Wilder, governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994, was the nation’s first elected African-American governor. His piece at Politico yesterday compares Bill Clinton’s presidency to Obama’s in terms of benefits for blacks and concludes that under Clinton, blacks fared much better.

That conclusion unavoidably reminds us of the Obama campaign’s wildly false accusations of racism against Bill and Hillary Clinton in the 08 primary. Despite the painful irony Wilder’s piece evokes, however, it’s well worth the read.

Referencing Toni Morrison’s comment that Clinton was "America’s first black president," Wilder writes:

Obama was elected in a flourish of promise that many in the African-American community believed would help not only to symbolize African-American progress since the Civil War and Civil Rights Acts but that his presidency would result in doors opening in the halls of power as had never been seen before by black America.

Has that happened? I am forced to say, “No” — especially when comparing Morrison’s metaphorical first black president to the actual first black president.

Think back on a small slice of merely the upper levels of the Clinton administration, and remember how many Cabinet agencies the Arkansan had named African-Americans to lead: Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary, Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown, Army Secretary Togo West, who succeeded Brown at Veteran Affairs, Office and Management and Budget Director Franklin Raines and Director of National Drug Control Policy Lee Brown. Clinton also regularly cited Vernon Jordan as a respected adviser and strategist.

Clinton may not have been the nation’s first black president — but he did make appointments like he was. Obama would do well to look a little closer at the Clinton template.

Wilder continues:

By birth and life experience, Clinton cannot lay claim to the title of first black president — as Morrison knighted him. But Obama needs to work harder to make it less obvious that Clinton, in governing deed, actually deserves it more that the 44th president does.

Read the entire article here:

Watch Elizabeth Warren respond to Karl Rove's attack ads

2011-12-12T10:07:00.001-06:00

What’s happening in the church these days?

2011-12-11T11:50:00.000-06:00

Although a seminary graduate who left ordained ministry to pursue other work, I continue to be interested in matters affecting seminaries, churches, and the clergy, as well as broader theological issues.

I’ve been aware for some time of declining church membership, so this article titled Perspectives on the Young Clergy Crisis posted by Carol Howard Merritt in the Christian Century on Dec. 10 immediately caught my eye.

Merritt raises some good questions for all those who care about the life of the church in the postmodern era:

Since I’ve been chairing a national Presbyterian Church (USA) committee on the Nature of the Church for the 21^st century, I’ve been gaining a different perspective on many of the larger trends of our denomination. One thing that has been difficult to realize (and equally difficult to communicate to the larger church) is the young clergy crisis.

Why would I call it a crisis? We’ve known for a long time about the startling decline of young clergy. The drop-out rates don't help (I can't find hard and fast stats on this... but some claim that about 70% of young clergy drop out within the first five years of ministry, usually because of lack of support or financial reasons). The average age of a pastor in the PCUSA is 53. And I’ve realized that the age of our leadership might be much higher.

Over half of our congregations cannot afford a full-time pastor and many associate pastor positions were cut during the recent economic downturn. These are churches where seminary graduates would normally be heading, so what are the congregations doing instead? Many of them are hiring retired ministers or retired laypeople to serve these churches while our younger pastors remain unemployed.

Rove gang attacks Elizabeth Warren – again!

2011-12-10T07:18:00.000-06:00

In her race for the senate in Mass., Elizabeth Warren isn’t wasting time responding to attacks from Karl Rove backed ads. She fires back immediately.

Watch Elizabeth take on her Wall Street-funded adversaries in the video below and go here to support her campaign:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Elizabeth Warren surges past Scott Brown in latest poll

2011-12-08T10:39:00.000-06:00

Joe Battenfeld at the Boston Herald reports on the latest Warren vs. Brown poll numbers:

Warren leads Brown by a 49-42 percent margin, outside the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points. That number includes voters who say they are "leaning" for either candidate. But even without the "leaners," Warren still leads by a 46-41 percent margin, barely within the margin of error.

In the meantime, Warren is once again battling Republican attempts to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Here’s your opportunity to stand with Elizabeth in holding Wall Street accountable (letter from Elizabeth excerpted below):

It has been more than three years since the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. It's long past time we stop just talking about accountability from Wall Street and the big banks that broke the system -- and start demanding it.

Washington must hold the big banks accountable for irresponsible and illegal actions, the point of an op-ed I published today in Politico. Real accountability won't be easy, but the first steps toward overcoming Wall Street's armies of lobbyists and making sure everyone follows the law are simple:

1. The Senate must confirm Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

2. Our state Attorneys General and federal enforcement officials must investigate the illegal actions that broke the economy and, when evidence warrants, prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.

3. Congress must stop the late-night budget tricks designed to weaken agencies responsible for enforcing the laws.

Will you join with me in signing on to these key ideas to ensure real Wall Street Accountability?

Please sign on to my plan to hold Wall Street accountable now. I need your help to show what kind of grassroots strength exists for these critical ideas.

Thank you for joining me in this critical fight.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Warren

Hillary defines leadership in her recent game-changing speech on International Human Rights Day (video)

2011-12-07T09:53:00.000-06:00

In her recent speech in Geneva on the recognition of International Human Rights Day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton not only defines leadership, she demonstrates it. Reminding listeners of the immutable truth that "All persons are created free and equal in dignity and rights," she focuses on the rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender persons. Read the transcript here or watch the video below:

Surprise: Wall Street backs Scott Brown; opposes Elizabeth Warren

2011-12-06T08:59:00.000-06:00

Greg Sargent at the Plum Line (Washington Post) on Wall Street's support of Scott Brown:

Wall Street executives have been quite open about the fact that they really, really don’t want to see Elizabeth Warren get anywhere near the Senate. And it looks like they’re about to ratchet up their efforts to help Scott Brown prevent it from happening — including the influential U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Center for Public Integrity reports today that Wall Street and K Street lobbyists are firing up the fundraising on behalf of Brown in a big way. The report quoted multiple big finance types saying Brown’s reelection campaign is crucial, and it noted — without sourcing — that the U.S. Chamber “will be engaged early and heavily in Massachusetts with ads.”

Well, it’s no wonder the 1 percent is up and arms. Watch this video from the Warren campaign:

If you want to help Elizabeth Warren keep the momentum going, go here.

Chelsea: “She’s smart, she’s charming, and she’s got the last name Clinton”

2011-12-04T10:48:00.000-06:00

File:US Navy 110401-N-KD852-385 Chelsea Clinton, left, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton att.jpg. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist John Lill/Released. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, wikimedia.org.

In Amy Chozick’s article about Chelsea Clinton in the NY Times Fashion and Style section, Chelsea is referred to in passing as Bill and Hillary’s greatest achievement. I followed the Times’ front-page link to the article without noticing it was in the Fashion and Style section, and I’m glad I did because it turned out to be a substantive and interesting profile of Chelsea, who by the way, the accompanying photos reveal as a very stylish and attractive young woman.

Chozick writes:

OVER a series of casual dinners at neighborhood restaurants near her Flatiron District apartment in the spring, Chelsea Clinton began talking to a couple of longtime friends about something she’d been mulling for a while.

It was quite an assertion from someone who — despite the very public profile of her parents, one a former president and the other the current secretary of state — had lived most of her 31 years at a far remove from the spotlight.

Yes, there had been sightings of Chelsea over the years, as she grew from a gangly, curly-haired teenager into the confident, stylishly dressed woman making the social scene in her adopted home, New York. And, yes, her marriage to Marc Mezvinsky landed the happy couple on the cover of People magazine — and then later on Page Six when rumors circulated that there might be marital problems.

But for the most part, Ms. Clinton seemed determined to keep her private life strictly private, refusing to speak to the news media and requesting the same from her loyal inner circle. Now, however, talk turned to the notion that if she was going to face the downside of being the daughter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, under the constant scrutiny of the news media, why not also take advantage of the upside?

A Chicagoland friend’s scary evening

2011-12-03T09:57:00.000-06:00

Cesar Sanchez

My friend, M., was on her way home in suburban southwest Chicago late yesterday afternoon when she returned my call on her cell phone. As we were speaking, a fleet of five police cars screamed past her vehicle.

Only slightly rattled, M. assumed a traffic accident had occurred on the highway ahead of her, and we continued our conversation. She arrived home without passing any pileups, and we signed off.

A follow-up email message last night from my Chicagoland friend reported that a convict had escaped in her area; hence, all the police cars. M. heard on the news the escapee, Cesar Sanchez, was considered dangerous, and she went to bed concerned about her own safety as well as that of family members who live nearby.

Another email from M. this morning shared the news that Sanchez was caught hiding in a port-a-potty about a mile - far too close for comfort - from the home of her family.

The Chicago Sun Times (updated this morning) reported:

A convict being returned to prison escaped by jumping from a moving van Friday afternoon in southwest suburban Lockport — but he was caught late Friday, hiding in a port-a-potty near Joliet.

Cesar Sanchez, 37, was in a transport van being returned from the Cook County Courthouse in Bridgeview to the Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill.

Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sharyn Elman said Sanchez was able to jump out of the van about 2:15 p.m. while it was near 159th Street and Farrell Road.

Police radio alerts indicate Sanchez injured his leg in the jump but was able to limp away.

Numerous police agencies were alerted to the escape, Elman said.

Hillary Clinton bonds with Myanmar’s Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi

2011-12-02T16:48:00.000-06:00


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meets Aung San Suu Kyi for dinner in Rangoon during her historic visit to Burma. State Department photo by William Ng / Dec 01, 2011 .

A wonderful story has come out of Myanmar, of all places. Matthew Lee and Bradley Klapper report:

YANGON, Myanmar — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was presented during a historic three-day visit to Myanmar with two distinct sides to life in the isolationist and authoritarian country: the planned city of monstrous government offices and palaces built by a brutal military regime, and the Southeast Asian metropolis famed for temples and monks, where Clinton met a soul mate in opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Bidding for a dramatic advance of American influence in Asia, Clinton finished the visit Friday with a call for greater reform from a government long accustomed to iron-fisted rule. She invoked the promise of a new era of relations with the United States if the country also known as Burma delivered democratic change.

"The United States wants to be a partner with Burma," Clinton said Friday at Suu Kyi's home. "We want to work with you as you further democratization, as you release all political prisoners, as you begin the difficult but necessary process of ending the ethnic conflicts that have gone on far too long, as you hold elections that are free, fair, and credible."

If the immense but largely empty capital of Naypyidaw represented the harshness of the southeast Asian country's present, bustling Yangon offered glimpses of a brighter past – and possibly its future.

Lee and Klapper continue:

Finishing the first trip by a secretary of state to the nation in more than 50 years, Clinton and Suu Kyi held hands on the porch of the lakeside home where the Nobel peace laureate spent much of the past two decades under house arrest. Clinton thanked her for her "steadfast and very clear leadership."

Go here for the complete story:

Warren pulls ahead of Brown in MA Senate race

2011-12-01T14:14:00.000-06:00

Massachusetts is just one state, still there’s hope for the nation’s electorate when a centered, intelligent, gutsy woman like Elizabeth Warren can challenge an incumbent senator and on a platform of fighting for the middle class pull ahead this early in the race.

Warren is lighting up the 2012 election year with mega-wattage from the Bay State, and she’s doing it with support drawn primarily from women and people earning below $100,000 per year. Here’s the scoop:

Democrats' bet that former consumer finance watchdog Elizabeth Warren could take down Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) appears to be paying off, as a new poll suggests she is pulling ahead.

The survey by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst finds Warren leading Brown 43 percent to 39 percent -- just within the poll's 4.4 percent margin of error.

A plea for help from the Alaska Wilderness League

2011-12-01T10:24:00.000-06:00

The Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling rig is engulfed in flames before eventually sinking. US Coast Guard photo taken on Wed. April 21. Public domain.

The biggest threat to the global environment has to be the proliferation of nuclear power plants, think Fukushima, and the continued expansion of offshore drilling – remember the Gulf oil spill? In the meantime corporate greed delays development of readily available solar and wind power.

The Obama Administration is waffling again on offshore drilling. Read this letter I just received from the Alaska Wilderness League and take a minute to join me in voicing your protest:

Dear Virginia,

After last year’s BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, President Obama stood before the American people and promised safer, cleaner offshore drilling. But just a couple weeks ago, a draft plan for offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters over the next five years was released by the Obama administration that includes potential drilling in America’s pristine and fragile Arctic Ocean - despite the fact that there’s no proven way to clean up a spill in the Arctic’s extreme, remote conditions. This rush to drill in America’s Arctic Ocean fails to meet President Obama’s promises. Instead, it looks a lot like the fast and loose decision making of the past.

Now, President Obama has asked for your input on his first offshore drilling program before it becomes final. When it comes to the Arctic, the president’s proposed draft plan can be only be characterized as business as usual – but there’s still time to make our voices heard. Speak out now and tell President Obama to keep Arctic drilling out of the final version.

Will you sign our letter asking President Obama to leave the Arctic out of the final offshore drilling program?

Drilling in the Arctic is extremely risky because of pervasive sea ice, 20-foot swells, hurricane-force winds, months-long darkness and more. The truth is that no technology exists to clean up a spill in these “Mission Impossible” conditions – and Coast Guard officials have described their response capability in the Arctic as “starting from zero.” A spill would devastate the many species that rely on the Arctic Ocean to survive - including polar bears, birds and whales, as well as the Inupiat people of Alaska’s Arctic coast

If President Obama rubber stamps this risky offshore Arctic drilling scheme, he could have the next major oil spill disaster, and the devastation of a marine ecosystem that is vital to health of our planet, on his hands. But if we all speak out together, we can make sure he hears our call for offshore drilling plan that meets his promises of safer, cleaner offshore drilling and doesn’t include risky Arctic drilling. The American people expect real change – not business as usual.

Will you speak out for polar bears and ask President Obama to leave the Arctic out of the final offshore drilling program?

Thanks for all you do.

Cindy Shogan
Executive Director
Alaska Wilderness League

More thoughts on the insanity of investing in nuclear power

2011-11-28T10:48:00.000-06:00

Since the Japanese tsunami damaged the Fukushima nuclear plant earlier this year, I’ve posted several times at Katalusis on the dangers of nuclear power: here, here, and here.

And yes, I noted Germany’s wise decision to shut down its nuclear plants.

So it’s gratifying this morning to read Lester R. Brown and Yul Choi’s “global viewpoint” at the Christian Science Monitor titled, “Fukushima fallout: time to quit nuclear power altogether.”

In a nutshell:

Experience in northern Japan illustrates that even incremental investment in nuclear power threatens human civilization. The Fukushima disaster should once and for all drive global society away from nuclear power, and toward renewable energy.

Brown and Choi effectively summon rational people around the globe to come together in an all out effort to ban any further proliferation of nuclear plants and close the existing monstrosities as soon as possible. Let’s heed their wise counsel:

In August, just months following the tsunami-induced crisis at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, the 2011 World Conference Against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs gathered in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japanese cities destroyed in 1945 by atom bombs, becoming forever linked to the birth of nuclear weapons and the nuclear age. The world conference was formed in 1995 to work toward a nuclear-weapon ban and foster solidarity and support for A-bomb survivors and victims of nuclear disasters.

A few of the 70,000 victims of the Fukushima disaster joined us at the August meeting, riveting the attendees with first-hand accounts of the devastating effects of radioactive contamination. According to the reports delivered by these eyewitnesses, nearly 300,000 Fukushima children continue to live in wretched conditions, continuously exposed to the dangers of radioactivity. The health hazards of radioactivity are far deadlier to children than the effects of radiation on adults. Annual blood tests are now a life-preserving necessity to track the potential onset of disease.

Marketers succeed in commercializing both Thanksgiving and Christmas

2011-11-27T10:06:00.001-06:00

Photo courtesy of http://fashionbombdaily.com

It was a matter of principle for me not to go shopping this weekend. I’ve been appalled in recent years by how retailers have turned a day once set aside for giving thanks into a launch pad for the Christmas shopping season.

Hence, marketers have succeeded in commercializing both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Take a look at this report posted Sunday, Nov. 27, by Bloomberg:

Black Friday sales increased 6.6 percent to the largest amount ever as U.S. consumers shrugged off 9 percent unemployment and went shopping.

Consumers spent $11.4 billion, ShopperTrak said in a statement yesterday. Foot traffic rose 5.1 percent on Black Friday, according to the Chicago-based research firm.

“This is the largest year-over-year gain in ShopperTrak’s National Retail Sales Estimate for Black Friday since the 8.3 percent increase we saw between 2007 and 2006,” ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin said in the statement. “Still, it’s just one day. It remains to be seen whether consumers will sustain this behavior through the holiday shopping season.”

Happy Thanksgiving Katalusis readers

2011-11-24T09:28:00.001-06:00

Dear Katalusis Readers,

It’s a sunny Thanksgiving morning here in St. Paul, and the last traces of this Saturday’s two-inch snowfall have melted away. The turkey is stuffed and roasting in the oven in anticipation of family dinner guests.

I’m thankful for all the usual blessings this morning of good health, family and friends, a pleasant home, and the freedoms I enjoy as an American. I’m also thankful for my work as a freelance writer; a memoirist; a blogger and most certainly Katalusis readers; other writing opportunities; and my faithful writers group that continues to encourage me to do my best work.

And I’m especially grateful this time around for my mindfulness meditation group and my practice that helps me stay centered and in touch with the present moment instead of spending too much time moping about the past or worrying about the future.

On this occasion as we pause to acknowledge our blessings, I’m reminded of the ancient Buddhist loving kindness meditation:

May we be filled with loving kindness,

May we be well,

May we be peaceful and at ease,

May we be happy.

Happy thanksgiving,

Virginia