Saturday, October 4, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Upcoming AK-AL U.S. House Debates
Although it isn't at all clear whether or not Sen. Ted will show up for any of the debates between now and election day, there are two debates coming up, featuring challenger Ethan Berkowitz and Rep. Don Young.This coming Monday, The American Association of Retired People will host a candidate debate at the University of Alaska Anchorage's Wendy Williamson Auditorium. The debate will be at 6:00 p.m.
The next day, Tuesday, October 7, the Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce will host Berkowitz and Young at the Carlson Center. That debate will begin at 11:30 a.m.
Don Young is in the race of his life, forcing him to come out and debate widely in 2008. Come watch. if you can, and see Ethan nail this corrupt relic of times past.
Saradise Lost - Chapter One Hundred-Two -- The BearTooth Focus Group
What a hoot it must have been to watch these folks watch the Veep Debate yesterday. I was teaching in Eagle River. This is another fine YouTube by Anchorage videographer frsbdg:
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Saradise Lost - Chapter One Hundred-One -- Palin on the Exon Valdez Supreme Court Ruling
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's non-response to Katie Couric's question on Supreme Court decisions she might remember, got Judy to remind me of Palin's deep involvement in the both the February arguments before the Supreme Court, and of Palin's response to the Court's June ruling in the case.Judy speculated that Palin might have recalled her responses to the case, but felt she couldn't mention it, as it might warp her new "Drill, Baby, DRILL!!!" persona.
Anyway, here's a YouTube of her June interview on Anchorage's KTVA Television:
We'll see which Gov. Palin shows up in eleven hours...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Saradise Lost - Chapter One Hundred -- Obama Recruiting Rape Survivors for Campaign Ads
-- by Lindsay BeyersteinThe Obama camp is reportedly looking for a rape survivor who was billed for her rape kit to appear in an ad. The ad is intended to dramatize a dark episode in Sarah Palin's political past. As Mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin signed off on a budget that cut off city funds for rape exams, forcing many women to pay out of pocket.
Megan at Jezebel thinks it's disturbing that the campaign would ask a survivor to come to them. It strikes her as importantly different to have a victim volunteer, as opposed to having the campaign put out a call.
I disagree. If a woman answers the Obama campaign's call, it will be an act of incredible bravery. She will be viciously attacked by conservatives. The campaign must make sure the woman is briefed on what's likely to happen to her. Death threats are virtually guaranteed. Bushels of hate mail. Disgusting jokes at her expense. She could lose her job. She might lose friends. It's a serious commitment. But if a woman chooses to share her story, knowing the potential repercussions, that's admirable.
Amanda is right, the campaign wouldn't be exploiting a volunteers as long as the volunteer chose to lend her story to the campaign. I bothers me that calling an act "political" is tantamount to calling it tawdry or trivial. Political motives can be profound. People die for their political beliefs.
While researching this article, I had the privilege of interviewing survivors who were billed for their kits. I stress that my subjects didn't have any partisan agenda, they were talking to me as a reporter. The Rape and Incest National Network (RAINN), a meticulously non-partisan organization, was kind enough to put the word out to their speaker's bureau. I spoke to four or five women who were charged. (None had been raped in Alaska.)
I was impressed by how willing, indeed how determined, these women were to talk on the record using their full real names.
Hannah French, 27-year-old office manager from Tennessee talked about what it was like to have to go to the bank and get a notorized document to stop the collection calls from a hospital in Mississippi while she trying to cope with the aftermath of being raped by her best friend's husband. She said that one of the hardest things about surviving rape was having nowhere she could go to talk because nobody knew what to say to her. She said she thought even shows like "Law and Order Special Victims" were important because they brought up the issue of rape on a weekly basis.
The National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-HOPE. You can also reach the new National Sexual Assault Online Hotline at rainn.org
Saradise Lost - Chapter Ninety-Nine -- A Rape Survivor on Sarah Palin
Planned Parenthood has raised over $800,000 by donors protesting Sarah Palin's dim views on rape victims. The action on this pretty much started with Shannyn Moore's column, Life Begins at Rape. The column was picked up by a number of blogs nationwide. Then, somebody suggested donations be sent to Planned Parethood in Sarah Palin's name. She will be sent "thank-you's" for each donation in her name. She can read them, as she prepares for her 2009 impeachment hearings.
Hey, Anchorage Daily News! You still haven't covered the HB 270 story in context. Maybe now that a story by a girl from Homer has encouraged people worldwide to contribute what will soon be over $1,000,000 to Planned Parenthood, the story's importance might be worth mentioning?
Others seem to think Palin's policy is newsworthy. I know, I know, it is only papers like the Boston Globe, for instance, after all...
erin and hig to Return to Anchorage
erin and hig will be returning to the University of Alaska Anchorage for two presentations on their non-motorized trek from June 2007 to June 2008, from Seattle to Unimak Island.Back in late January, UAA Art professor Mariano Gonzalez and Progressive Alaska sponsored them, in their multi-media talk and showing, about the progress of their journey. In February, they continued the trek.
Here's a listing of some of their upcoming appearances in Anchorage and Seattle.
I can't stress enough what a rich, exhilarating experience erin's and hig's presentation is. More details when we get closer to the October 25 and October 27 presentations. Meanwhile, here's a recent essay by erin:
Greed
With pieces of our financial system exploding, while the government considers a massive bailout, it seems like a good time to take a moment to think about greed.
In Christianity, greed is one of the “seven deadly sins”. And Christian or not, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone saying that greed is a good thing. Yet we live in an economy and culture driven by greed.
People are easily consumed by short term rewards. Greed drives them to reach for those rewards and ignore any long term consequences. They want more… more… more… and they want to believe that there will always be more to get.
Financial Reality
In the financial crisis, people wanted more money.
Home buyers wanted more house than they could afford, and they wanted the influx of cash they were sure to get when they turned around and sold the house for a hefty profit. How could they lose? A few years back, folks were telling us we were stupid not to buy a house - whether or not we could afford it.
The banks, the investors, the financial industry… They wanted more money too. They wanted to throw their money at something and have it come back bigger and bigger and bigger. So they gave out more and more and sketchier and sketchier loans, and bought and sold them over and over again until their value was stratospherically inflated over the reality they were actually based on. The actual houses and the payments owners would make in the future.
Lots of smart people were blinded by greed. They wanted to believe that they could always have more - that there were no consequences or risks to ignoring reality. I’m no economist, and I have no clue what the government should do to fix the banking system. But in this greed and this crisis of financial resources, I see an analogy to how we’re approaching our natural resources.
Where the forests go
Physical Reality (natural resources)
We’re not just greedy about money. We’re greedy about everything. We want stuff. We want more stuff than we had yesterday. We want to have more stuff next year. And we want our kids to have even more stuff than we did. We want high tech gadgets, we want big TVs, we want seven bathrooms, we want cars, we want globe trotting vacations…
Whether it’s finance or consumption, we want to believe we can always have more. We want to believe in perpetual growth, and in growth without consequences. No consequences for the earth, for us, or for our children.
And we’re being blinded by the same kind of greed that creates financial bubbles. We’re leaving ever larger footprints on the earth, and not even looking at the consequences. Not just for natural ecosystems. Polluting our world and depleting our natural resources has consequences for our own health, for our future standard of living, for the rest of the world, for future generations… I think too many people assume that cute wild animals are all we are risking.
Most importantly, we’re not looking at the fundamental discrepancy between the overconsumption “bubble” and the underlying value that backs it up. In financial markets, we got in trouble because speculation got far ahead of the actual values of houses and businesses. In this, we’re getting far ahead of something far less flexible than house prices: The earth.
The earth’s forests, soil, fish, and minerals aren’t going to produce forever more just because we think we need it. Oil really is running out. Fish are vanishing. Soil is going away, as are the fossil resources that make fertilizer and pesticides. We are cutting down forests at a rate far beyond the rate at which they recover. We can’t wish ourselves into an infinite flood of resources, just because we always want more.
So we have to push towards sustainability. Anything else is just greedy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)