Observations 6.5

I should start by saying this is made up of thoughts I had over the past few days as protests erupted in Turkey. I'm not trying to go anywhere with it, just connecting some of those random thoughts.

Ozan Kose, AFP/Getty Images

Watching Morning Joe yesterday I was struck with a thought. Thank the gods talking heads and pundits didn't exist 200 years ago or we would be a territory of Canada. After spending an hour discussing the IRS non-scandal, non-scandal because imbecilic job performance does not make a scandal, the topic turned to the protests in Turkey. They praised Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan for keeping Turkey from becoming an Islamic Republic, made note that he was democratically elected, than briefly turned to the protests themselves. What I got out of their discussion was that some felt that Erdogan was a good leader who had maybe gone to far in pulling Islam back into Turkish politics. The protesters were regarded as mostly young secularists and idealists who have numbers, social media, but no real plan or power to change things after they mess up the staus quo. After five minutes they moved to the next story.

What Erdogan exemplifies to me is arrogant power on the verge of running amuck. I'm not saying Turkey needs to change or that the protesters are completely right. Unlike the Arab springs this is being compared to Turkeys protests are more of a warning than a revolution but in that region of the world there is a fine line between the two.

I heard somewhere that John McCain called Erdogan the most arrogant leader he has ever met. To live up to that Erdogan went on an official trip to Algeria as his country entered a two day general strike and protesters filled its cities. Also, unable to run for a fourth term as Prime Minister Erdogan, who was first elected in 2003, plans on running for President which is a path first taken by that other famous democrat, Russia's Vladimir Putin. Erdogan would like to change the office before he does because currently it has no real power. It should be noted that Erdogan was first elected in 2003 and is into his third term as Prime Minister. Even Iran limits its President to two terms in office.

The are a few lessons Americans can learn in this if they want to listen. The conservative talking heads forget a simple fact in their passion for all democratically elected leaders. Barrack Obama was elected with over 50% of the popular vote not once but twice.

The other lesson is a bit scarier to think about. What you have in Turkey is a now predominately secular democracy being spoon fed religion by a wealthy ruling elite which thinks it knows better. Turkish life and politics has become polarized to the point that the Turkish people think they have no option other than taking their grievances into the streets. Now you might think something like that couldn't happen here but sit back and think about the polarization of American society today. If the current pro-wealthy, anti-government, and very nonsecular version of the Republican Party ever gained total control (the House, Senate, and Presidency) it could very easily happen here.

In an article today The Guardian asked 21 year old Mervenur Erol what she had been doing when the Turkish police charged into Gezi Park. "I was reading my English literature books," she said.

A quick note, I used the photo above because when I first saw it my immediate thought was "holy crap how did my sister get to Turkey?" It just reminded me of her so much.

update - For anyone interested I found this very good paper written by Turkish journalist Anna Wood. It's an analysis of the Gezi Park protests she wrote to try and explain the events to those outside Turkey. You can read or download the paper here.

Observations from the Coffee Shop 6.3

Over the past few days Turkey seems to have exploded in protest but you wouldn't know it by following the major American networks. They would much rather cover the DC non-scandals, Senator John McCain's latest attempt at starting a war, or whatever wingnut Rep. Darrell Issa fabricated today. Yesterday Issa called White House Press Secretary Jay Carney a "paid liar," but when asked why he said that he couldn't answer. "We're getting to proving it," is all he said.

It's easy to understand why the major networks aren't covering the Turkish protests very much. I had some trouble thinking of any reasons they should but I did come up with a few. I could start by saying Turkey is an American ally but given some of the countries we call allies I wont count that one. But Turkey is, or seemed to be, an actual secular middle eastern democracy, it is a member of NATO and the European Union, and counts among its neighboring countries Greece, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Turkey is host to 350,000 refugees from the Syrian Civil War, a number that is expected to swell to over a million before summer's end. Finally Turkey has one of the largest standing armies in Europe and, before I forget, the U.S. stations 90 nuclear weapons at the Incirlik Air Base.

It should be easy for you to see why Issa is so much more important to cover.

While I'm on the subject of Turkey I want to mention this from the 'you can't make this shit up' file. Yesterday Syria's Foreign Ministry advised Syrians "against travel to Turkey for the time being for their own safety, because of the deteriorating security." Honestly this would be hilarious if not for the 90,000 Syrians who have died in the Syrian Civil War.

I'm not going to get into why the protests started other than to say Turkey isn't quite as democratic as the wizards inside the beltway like to think it is. If you want more background here is a very good article from Jadaliyya you should start with.

Observations 11.20

As I have said before I try and keep my opinions to myself when talking about the Palestinian situation, it's just a no win thing no matter what I think or say. Jews having been killing Muslims who have been killing Christians who have been killing Jews for two thousand years. Sadly I don't think that is ever going to completely change. It seems more wars have been fought over supposedly peaceful religions than any other reason.

It's a little bizarre watching a war unfold on Twitter. One minute you can read as the Alqassam Brigade tweets every time it fires a rocket at Israel and a moment later the IDF announcing something called the 'Iron Dome' shot the same rocket down. Than there is a man who tweets under the name "News of the Middle East" from Oklahoma of all places. That is one person who does piss me off because he is totally pro-Israel and his av is a photo of President Obama with the Israeli flag behind him. Talk about not so subtle propaganda, Goebbels himself couldn't have come up with something better than that.

This is one of those videos I stumble onto while randomly chasing links. I'm not completely sure what the 'Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)' movement is but it doesn't really matter for my purposes here. The video was published in September, long before the current round of fighting began, and watching it I can't help but wonder how the turmoil is effecting these students. What they are doing, how they are coping, if they are even alive today.

Gaza, Palestine Youth Send Message to BDS Activists


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Published on Sep 20, 2012 by Shahd Abusalama
Young Palestinian activists in the Gaza Strip ask their peers in the United Kingdom and around the world to build the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and attend the UK Student Palestine Conference at the University of Manchester on Sunday, September 23.

Observations from the Gallery 11.20

Reuters: GAZA TRUCE WILL BE DECLARED AT 1900 GMT AND GO INTO EFFECT AT 2200 GMT - HAMAS OFFICIAL SAYS

A mobile news flash, the funny thing with this is that before I could even get it posted and IDF spokesman said that truce talks were ongoing and they were still hopeful. That as the Israeli air force intensified the bombardment of Gaza.

We shall see but I wont hold my breath.

Observations 11.18

I really try not to take one side or the other in the whole Palestine, Israel, Jewish, Muslim historical mess. You really can't win no matter what you say and anybody that knows me can figure out how I feel. Last night an Israeli jet bombed a building housing international journalists and an Israeli missile killed 11 civilians bringing the current death toll in Gaza to over seventy. Another 660 have been injured including well over 200 children. As far as I can tell four Israelis have been killed so far by the dreaded Hamas rocket barrage.

You can call them terrorists, victims, innocents, or anything in between but it doesn't matter in the end. Dead is dead. These are the names of the Palestinian dead as of Sunday morning with their age where it was available. Also children under ten years old are italicized. As to what it means, make and up your own mind.

Abdula Muzanar, Amina Muzana, Suhaila Dalou, Raneen Al Dalou (22), Son of Suheil Hammad, Suheil Hammad (45), Hussam Abu Shaweesh (37), Abdallah Al-Mzannar, Tahani Al-Dalou (46), Samah Al-Dalou (25), Sulifa Al-Dalou (50), Nawal Abdelaal (52), Ahmad Essam Al-Nahhal (25), Tasneem Zuheir Al-Nahhal (13), Eyad Abu Khusa (18 months), Muhamed Abu Nuqira, Tamer Salamah Abu Sufyan (3), Gumana Salamah Abu Sufyan (1), Omar Mohammad Hmeid (26), Tamer
Al-Hemry, Samaher Qudieh (33), Mohammad Al-Louji, Awad Hamdi
An-Nahhal, Mokhlis Adwan, Hasan Isaed, Abdulrahman Al-Masri, Ahmad Al-Ja’bary (52), Marwan Abu Al-Qumsan (52), Osama Abdel Jawad, Ashraf Darwish, Ali Al-Mana’ma, Mohammad Al-Hamss (30), Ahmad Abu Musameh, Ayman Saleem, Khalid Khalil al-Shayer (28), Walid Abadleh (4), Hasan Salim al-Hulei (27), Ziad Farhan Abu Jalal (23), Majd Abu Jalal (33), Abu Jalal (43), Mahmoud Sa’ad-Allah (3), Tahrir Suleiman (22), Ismail Qandil (24), Fares al-Bassiouni (5), Oday Jamal Nasser (16), Tareq Jamal Naser (14), Haneen Tafesh (10 months), Walid al-Abadleh (18 months), Khaled Abu An-Nasr, Rami Hamamd, Hisham Mohammad Al-Ghalban, Wael Haidar Al-Ghalban, Habes Masbah (30), Mahmoud Abu Sawaween (65), Omar Jihad al-Mash-Harawi (11), Heba Adel
al-Mash-Harawi (18 and pregnant with twins), Essam Mahmoud Abu
al-Ma’za (19), Mohammad Hani Kaseeh (18), Ranaan Yousef Arafat (3), Mohammad Al-Hamss (30), Marwan Abu Al-Qumsan (52),
and Ahmad Al-Ja’bary (52).

11:00PM update - I'm not going to keep doing this but after an early Monday morning (Gaza time) airstrike leveled two homes I thought I would continue the list till the end of my day. The new names include five more children: Hussein Nasr (7), Jalal Naser (39), Ahmad Abu Amra, Samy Al-Ghfeir (22), Jamal Al-Dalou, Ibrahim Mohammed Jamal 
Al-Dalou (1), Yousef Mohammed Jamal Al-Dalou (10), Jamal Mohammed Jamal Al-Dalou (7), Mohammed Jamal Al-Dalou, Mohammed Bakr Al-Of (24), Mohammed Salama Jundeya, Hussein Jalal Nasser (8), Nabeel Ahmad Abu Amrra, Nawal Abed al-Ali, Saadiyya al-Theib,
and Atiyyeh Mubarak (54).

Observations 11.17

I don't know if I have ever done a post that contained just a single quote before but given the state of the world yet again it seemed perfect dream for a gorgeous sunny morning.

"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?'"
 Eve Merriam (1916-1992)

Observations from the Edge 7.9

Hubris, the characteristic of excessive confidence or arrogance, which leads a person to believe that he or she may do no wrong.
Person, or movement.

When I said the Occupy movement was in for a big summer I may have been wrong, yes I can be wrong sometimes. I could blame the relentless heat but I made that prediction in what felt like spring but was in fact winter. I like to think I'm politically knowledgeable but, caught up in the events of fall, I glossed over in my mind the movements major failing which in the end would start it down the road to the dustbin. Occupy has no plan other than being occupy. Protest is good but it can't be sustained without some sort of end game like the end of the Vietnam War or equal rights for minorities.

The movement bragged endlessly about its lack of centralized leadership or goal but the lack of that has finally caught up with it. Somebody needs to be out there talking every day, talking to the press, talking to anybody that will listen. They seemed to have forgotten, or never really knew, how to generate publicity. Looking back maybe the NYPD generated more Occupy news than the movement itself did.

A good example of the fall of Occupy can be found in last week's news from Philadelphia. Or I should say lack there of. Occupy held a convention in Philadelphia last week which you probably don't know about because it wasn't widely reported. The convention drew hundreds of protesters from around the nation, a far cry from the tens of thousands I once saw in the streets of New York. The only first hand knowledge I have of this event is from my sister. According to her it just added to the annual 4^th of July traffic debacle that is Philadelphia and pretty much just irritated her to no end as she tried to get to Penn's Landing. After the convention Occupy Wall Street marched back to New York in temperatures approaching 100°. For all I know they could still be marching across Jersey.

When I think of all the excitement and optimism of last year, of Zuccotti Park and Tahrir Square, I hope I  am as wrong in writing this as I was in my original prediction. Otherwise it really is a sad world we live in.

I was ready to post this when I decided to add something. It really doesn't matter if an official Occupy slowly fades away. Occupy's lasting achievement is that it showed that the status quo can't be sustained indefinitely and it changed the national discussion to the massive economic inequalities in this country. It's now up to the rest of us to continue that fight in November and beyond.

Also, I may just be venting. 

les Casseroles

Leave it to the Canadians ....


Un frisson de solidarité from Jonathan Seaborn on Vimeo.

Manifestation populaire dans les rues de Limoilou, Québec, contre les décisions du gouvernement libéral.

Observations

Non-hockey related violence in Canada? Seriously?? In Canada???

"Riot between Students and Police ,
Rock and Tear Gas Out at Quebec Canada May 4, 2012"


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Observations from the Edge 5.5.1

One of the sadder traits of Americans, myself included at times, is that we tend to think everything is about us.  Seriously, Americans think what happens in the good ole USA is just as important to the rest of the world as it is to us. The only case where I think that might be true is when they watch us argue over stupid social issues as the country itself falls apart. It is true that if the US crashes the rest of humanity crashes right on top of us. It's a small world people and gets smaller every day. Get over it.

"Podrán Ucortar todas las flores,
pero no impedir la llegada de la primavera."
Pablo Neruda

Happy Cinco de Mayo. It continues.


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Please refrain from any New York City jokes. Someplace
still has to be the center of the universe.

Observations from the Edge 5.5

I hadn't originally planned on wandering the streets of Manhattan for 15 hours on May Day. The plan was to see what was going on, see if there were any shots to be had, than do some errands until it was time to settle into the bar for some cold beverages and the Flyers game. As they often say, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

The day just got a bit more interesting than I thought it would. Interesting to the point that Reuters was forced to change their byline. In an obviously pre-written article they called the OWS "resurgence" a dud due to wet weather and poor turnout. A few hours later, when there were an estimated 30,000 people marching down Broadway, the Reuters twitter account posted "Live coverage of #MayDay protests show Occupy Wall Street resurgence far from being a dud." Noon deadlines must be a bitch.

At one point I found myself leaning over a roof near Grand and Broadway to take a shot of the protesters in the street (l). The march stretched as far as I could see in either direction, supposedly one end was arriving at Wall Street just as the other end was leaving Union Square, or about two and a half miles. At the protest's peak crowd estimates ranged from 30,000 to over 50,000 but the lower one seemed about right to me, not that I have a clue. Still there were only about 100 arrests made during the entire day.

One high, or low, point was being called missie not once but twice. The first time was early in the day, a male midget cop telling me to keep moving and I laughed and smiled, perfectly acceptable at the time. The second time was later in the day, a female pseudo amazon security guard asking if I had a problem. Not as acceptable and i fought to keep my hand, well my finger, down. I swore to more than one person the third lucky person to utter the word was getting laid out. By that point I don't think I was kidding.

Maybe it was a spring awakening as some claim, maybe it wasn't. Since the eviction from the Liberty Square camp in December the group seems to have gotten even more decentralized. This is a worry if it is to survive as a major player this election season. Either way it was a huge turnout that showed OWS hasn't gone away over the winter. It will be interesting to see how and if the May Day energy carries over into the summer with the political conventions and the NATO summit in Chicago.

In closing a sign of the impending apocalypse or at least of the world we live in. One of the official hashtags of the day was M1GS. By evening it had been "occupied" by pornbots.

Observations from the Edge 5.1.1

I jumped ahead of a large march heading towards Washington Square Park so I could stop in at the apartment and grab some fresh batteries. There are three large marches moving in different parts of the city including the huge "guitar army march" led by Tom Morello that is marching from Bryant Park to Union Square, right through the heart of Manhattan.

I wanted to get back to the Fox News piece I saw this morning. The theme of the studio chat was that shutting things down is not how Democracy works, that strikes are counter productive. Well I beg to differ because if a worker hasn't the right to strike what right does she have? The right to quit? Mass strikes have happened repeatedly in American history, a small history lesson.

In 1877, during a deep depression and the destruction of trade unions, workers shut down the country’s railroads, factories in major cities, and battled police and militias. They were only stopped when the US Army killed more than a hundred participants.

In 1886, more than 500,000 joined a May 1st strike for the eight-hour day. The movement was broken by a reign of terror that followed a police attack that is usually referred to as the “Haymarket Riot.”  May Day became a labor holiday in honor of the “Haymarket Martyrs” who were tried by a judge so prejudiced against them that their execution has often been referred to as judicial murder.

More recently, in 1970, during the Vietnam War protests, the civil rights movement, and a widespread cultural rebellion, postal workers, teamsters, and others took part in a wave of wildcat strikes, while miners held a month long political strike in West Virginia to successfully demand justice for victims of black lung disease.

For the record, I happen to have an uncle who just happens to be a local union officer but I'm still fair and balanced.

Observations from the Edge 5.1

May Day arrived rainy and fairly quiet but as the weather cleared some things began to get a bit more interesting. If nothing else the morning gave us the return of the scooter cop posse and steel cattle chute barricades everywhere in the city. New York, it's a tourist friendly town.

Fox News did report this morning in which they scolded the Occupy movement for trying to rejuvenate itself at the expense of "normal" Americans. I think I saw their normal Americans huddled at the upper floor windows of the Chase Building while the entrance of the temporarily closed building was shielded by barricades and a phalanx of NYPD's finest. Fox opened its report with video of Stalinist era Soviet Mayday Parades and hinted that today's movement was communist inspired. As a public service here is a partial list of non-communist endorsements the general strike organizers received.

AFSCME DC37, AFSCME DC 1707, AFSCME CSEA Region 2, AFSCME Local 371 (SSEU), AFSCME Local 372 DC 37, AFSCME Local 375 DC 37, AFSCME DC 37 Retirees Association, AFT - PSC/CUNY, American Federation of Musicians Local 802, Anakbayan NY/NJ, Answer Coalition, BAYAN-USA, Brandworkers, CentroGuatemalteco Tecun Uman, Coalition for a District Alternative, Coalition for Public Education (CPE), Committees of Correspondence, Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center, Community Farmworker AllianceCSEA 1000, CWA District 1, CWA Local 1180, CWA Local 31003 The New York Newspaper Guild,
NABET-CWA Local 16, Domestic Workers United, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE), Freedom Socialist Party, Frente Unido de Inmigrantes Ecuatorianos, GABRIELA USA, Greater NY Labor-Religion Coalition, Green Party of NYC, Green Party of NYS, Guyanese American Workers United, Honduras USA Resistencia, IBT Joint Council 16, IBT Local 808, IBT Local 814, IBT Local 210, IBT Local 272, Immigrant Workers Movement, Immigrant Solidarity Network, Industrial Union Council New Jersey, International Action Center, International League of Peoples Struggle, International Migrants Alliance, International Socialist Organization, Jersey City Peace Movement, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Jornaleros Unidos de Woodside, Kurland Group, Labor Network for Sustainability, La Fuente, La Pena del Bronx, Labor for Palestine, Left Labor Project, LIUNA Local 10, LIUNA Local 78, LIUNA Local 79, Long Island Workplace Project, Make the Road New York, May 1st Coalition, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), National Domestic Workers Alliance, New Immigrant Community Empowerment, National Immigrant Solidarity Network, New York Broadcast Trades Council, New York City Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, New York City Labor Against the War, New York City LCLAA, New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP), New York Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, New York Communities for Change, New York Immigration Coalition, New York New Jersey Regional Joint Board, Workers United, New York Taxi Workers Alliance,  NYS Nurses Association, Occupy Sunset Park, Occupy Wall Street, Operation Power, Organization of Staff Analysts, Pakistan USA Freedom Forum, Philippine Forum, Radical Women, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, Retail Action Project, School of Americas Watch (SOA Watch), SEIU 32BJ, Senegalese Workers Association, Sisa Pakari Cultural & Labor Center, Take Back the Future TWU Local 100, UAW Region 9A, UAW Local 1981 National Writers Union, UNITE HERE Local 100, United Federation of Teachers, United NY, Veterans for Peace Chapter 3 NYC, Workers United, SEIU, Workers World Party, Writers Guild of America.

Observations from the Edge 4.2

Not to repeat myself but I have been saying for some time that it would be an interesting year. Anonymous joins the May Day protest.

The fine folks at American Thinker would like to warn you that Occupy Wall Street is inciting violence on communism's, yes they said communism's, favorite holiday. "Our federal government stands by silent, as forces such as OWS and the New Black Panthers openly encourage vigilante justice, riots, insurrection, and obstruction of elections. Barack Obama has a lot to answer for, but the encouragement provided to OWS and the NBP, not to mention SEIU, in lawless intimidation will  be remembered by history as an attack on civil society and law and order."

For a round of sick entertainment I would suggest you browse the comments to the above link. The following one is my personal fav. "Therefore, as you go into the voting booth, just think of what OWS has given America: Democrat rapes, Democrat murders, Democrat drug dealing, Democrat vandalism, Democrat anarchy, Democrat public defecation, Democrat rat infestations, Democrat public masturbation, Democrat hate, Democrat racism, Democrat flash mobs… do voters really want that sort of country?"

Hide the children, the drug dealing rats are defecating in public! The person, I awesome it's a person, who wrote that comment has no profile but has managed to post 233 comments to American Thinker.

And some dare argue against birth control.

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Observations from the Edge 3.29

With the warm temperatures of March, unreal, the Occupy crowds have been getting larger and the main center of operations has moved uptown to Union Square. This move is very helpful to me as I can check on things and go the the Green Market in one trip. All roads seem to lead to the May 1^st general strike and the summer political conventions beyond.

Spring is here so one can't be totally serious though the video
does get serious towards the end.

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Observations from the Edge 3.23

The world we live in ....

AFP photographer Patricia Melo was covering a general strike in Lisbon yesterday when she was attacked by Police for no other reason than that she was a photographer. The photo was taken by Hugo Correia for Reuters.

Observations on Art 3.9

With all the art fairs going on it's been a hectic, crazy, fun week in the Village. I think I have started five art posts so far but have yet to finish one of them so I guess I'll be spending the next week catching up. This post is more a vent than anything else so I think I'll get it out of the way first.

Over the winter the Occupy movement seems to have gone quiet at times as the non-existent leaders spend their time discussing relevancy or the lack of it. The thing they don't seem to have learned is you can't plan relevancy, you have to go out and make it. Much of what happened in the fall was spontaneous with some help from the NYPD. The return of warm temperatures and the NYPD's continuing problems with hubris should cure all that so it should be an interesting summer leading into the fall election. My vent isn't directed at the movement as a whole but once again at that fringe element of occupy, Occupy Art or Occupy Museums.

Now I don't pretend to understand all the ins and outs of the mainly sociopolitical Occupy so it doesn't thrill me when some of them pretend to understand the art world. Occupy Museums founder Noah Fischer is a graduate of the Columbia School of Art and should know better but also has a well known chip on his shoulder. The money being thrown around this week does tend to confirm some of Occupy Museum's arguments as there is too much money in art and it does put the ability to own works by known artists out of the reach most people. But, as I wrote before, Occupy's campaign is directed in the totally wrong direction. To call for an end to the "elitist" Whitney Biennial and never once mention the Gagosian Galleries is just ignorant because the museums simply show art, they don't sell it, they don't set the price. Occupy could better spend its time protesting at Sotheby's or Gagosian instead of the Whitney and Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Than again Gagosian has some security guards that would make NYPD cry with envy, that might explain a lot.

Granted MOMA has always been a very special place for me, you can call me biased if you want, but sports is also special so here is a little comparison. A 12 game ticket plan for the New York Yankees will cost you anywhere from $90 to $1350 and the games are all weekdays. A single game in the nose bleed level will run you at least $20 and in the 'champagne' section $525. A one day ticket into MOMA is $22.50, $16 for seniors, $12 for students, and children under 16 are free. Try getting your kids into Yankee Stadium for free. There are ten different ways to join MOMA or I guess you could say get a season ticket. For $85 you get admission for a year, weekends included, and your guests can purchase tickets for $5. Skip up to $360 and you can even pull four people of your choice off the street to accompany you every time you visit, for free of course.

All I'm trying to say is this. Sure in a perfect world museums would be publicly supported and admission would be free. But we live in a far from perfect world today so don't fault the museums their admission fees, they don't come close to covering operating costs, and don't expect the government to turn more tax dollars over to the museums anytime soon. Your representatives are too busy spending those dollars building stadiums. It is estimated that the deals to build Yankee stadium cost New York City a combined $362 million to start and, including waived tax revenue, could top over $4 billion during the 40 year run of the deals.

Occupy sports instead of museums.

Observations from the Edge 3.8

I've been saying for some time that it's going to be an interesting year and spring with its warm weather isn't that far off now. Just an update, or a warning, however you want to take it.

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Observations from the Edge J17

Today was the Martin Luther King holiday and I found my own strange way to celebrate it, riding a train south from New York to Washington for tomorrow's little get together in the nation's capital. Tomorrow is J17, the opening day of the Congress, and the day the same Congress will be "Occupied" by protesters streaming in from all over the country. Given the weather forecast and the time of year it will be interesting to see how many people actually attend but as of now, considering all the buses arriving in the morning, it looks like it will be big. The idea is to have a mass demonstration on the first day of the session and let the members of Congress know that, even though it's an election year, they waste another year of our lives at their on peril.

Although I had thought about going I hadn't actually planned on making the trip until Ash came up with the idea of my doing some work for her while I was in Washington. So that is why I found myself on a train heading south, gazing out the window at the cold landscape and cities along the way, and thinking about somebody totally unrelated to my destination. I've been told I get my love of history from my great grandfather, a man I never met. His name was Bill and he worked for the railroad most of his life. I have seen photos of him in the station he ran, those totally awesome grainy old photos that so simply show us where we came from. Everybody has them somewhere, tucked away in drawers, books, or in boxes in the attic. Those photos are a link to a past we never met but somehow feel we did. I heard someone ask today what Martin Luther King would have thought of the Occupy movement. I want to know what Bill would have thought.

While this trip is strictly for observation and photo taking it's nice to have some friends offer help should the need for bail money come into play. For the record bail in DC ranges from $50 to $100.

Observations from the Coffee Shop

Today is the New Hampshire primary and it seems a perfect moment to drop some random bits of political information on you.

The Keystone XL pipeline is one of brother's favorite things to complain, vent, and curse about. It would carry oil and diluted oil sands from northern Canada to locations throughout the US, going as far as the Texas coast. Supporters claim it would create tens of thousands of jobs. Opponents counter that it would create less than one hundred permanent jobs, wreak havoc with the environment of the mid-west, and just further our dependence on fossil fuels. Two of the main people pushing for faster approval of the pipeline are Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. For the record Boehner has received $1,111,080 from the petroleum industry during his time as Speaker, McConnell received $1,277,208. Take that for what you will.

Kansas' Republican Speaker of the House Mike O'Neal sent an email to friends and supporters when he 'discovered' Psalm 109. He wrote in the email, "At last, I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up, it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an amen?" And what is Psalm 109? Bible.org describes it as a prayer for the punishment of the wicked. "May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children." I take that to mean that O'Neal wouldn't mind seeing the President dead and I really think the Secret Service needs to look into that the with same seriousness they would if a random drunk in a random bar threatened him.

This is a short one because I can't bare Rick Santorum being in my thoughts for any length of time. I saw him on Morning Joe this morning and he said a couple of things that make me think of the words revisionist history. He called a nuclear armed Iran the greatest threat western civilization has ever known. Greater than the Islamic expansions of the 8th century, the Mongol invasions of the 14th century, greater even than Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia. Seems like more of the GOP tactic of winning elections through fear, just another excuse for another war in the middle east. Santorum also stated that he felt the working families of Pennsylvania could relate to him and his family history, I would remind the former Senator that the families of Pennsylvania showed him the door after his 2006 election campaign.

And last something only marginally political but something that may become more important as we move into the new year. Vibe is a new application for iPhones, iPads and Android that allows the user to send messages that are only visible to other Vibe users, and not to police or other outsiders. Vibe messages are anonymous, and users can control how far they are broadcast, from 150 feet to worldwide. The user can also control how long the messages are visible, they disappear after a set time period ranging from 15 minutes to thirty days thus leaving no trail.

And so it goes.