Anti Iraq War Rallies
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 03/17/2007 - 09:34This weekend, there will be rallies against the Iraq War around the country. Over at MyLeftNutmeg, CTBlogger has a great flashback from last year’s rally.
For those who want to put things into perspective about some of the real costs of the war to individuals around the country, please check out the case of Suzanne Swift, who is
facing a redeployment to Iraq while serving under the command of the same individuals that allowed her to be raped and sexually harassed, suffered a breakdown due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and went absent without leave rather than subject herself to the horrors she experienced during her first tour of duty
(Hat Tip to Michael V. Brown for pointing me to this site.)
When you start talking about PTSD of returning soldiers, I want to point out Ilona Meagher’s book Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops. I’ve met Ilona at a couple conferences. She is a great writer and I’ve managed to get a review copy of her book. I highly recommend it to anyone concerned with the fate of our servicemen and women.
She mentioned that her publisher has sent out press release about the book on Thursday. You can get more information there.
So, please, get out to a rally, but don’t stop there. Contact your elected officials to bring the troops home now to the heroes welcome they deserve, and make sure that they are given the support they need upon their return.
The U.S. Attorney General
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 03/15/2007 - 21:08From Wikipedia:
As attorney general, ..[he] believed that the government's need for "law and order" justified restrictions on civil liberties. He advocated the use of wiretaps in national security cases without obtaining a court order and the right of police to employ the preventive detention of criminal suspects. He brought conspiracy charges against critics of the ... War, and demonstrated a reluctance to involve the Justice Department in civil rights issues. "The Department of Justice is a law enforcement agency," he told reporters. "It is not the place to carry on a program aimed at curing the ills of society."
Who is it? Here’s another quote:
the first United States Attorney General ever to be convicted of illegal activities and imprisoned.
No, we are not talking about the current U.S. Attorney General, Alberto R. Gonzales. John Mitchell has earned his place in history as the first U.S. Attorney General to be convicted of illegal activities. People have commented about how wily Gonzales is. He may be smart enough to avoid committing conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury as he tries to wiggle his way out of the investigations into the Justice Department that appear to be coming, Or, he might be a little bit too smart for his own britches and find himself earning his own place in history.
The Gavel Blog has House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales
A conference call with Sen. Edwards
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 03/15/2007 - 12:43This morning, as Senator Edwards heads to his major policy speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, he took time for a conference call with the media. I had received a media alert about the conference call and asked if I, as a blogger, could participate. Sen. Edwards press secretary responded “We are blogger friendly”
As you come to expect with political candidates, the call started a little late. Sen. Edwards started off outlining the speech that he should be giving as I write up this blog post.
He said the speech is focused on the fundamental transformational changes needed here in the States and in the across the world such as dealing with poverty, health care, global warming, a new energy economy, and improvements to education. He went on to say that he would be talking a lot about global issues which would be the newest part to people in the press corps.
Wireless Net Neutrality
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 03/14/2007 - 21:13On February 8th, Tim Wu wrote a blog entry about his beta draft of Wireless Net Neutrality. For a long time I’ve thought that the wireless industry in the United States was not operating in the best interest of consumers, that there actions are anti-competitive. I’ve been concerned about why Europe and the Far East is so far ahead of us in wireless innovation.
Yet most of the time, it hasn’t particularly affected me. Sure, the ridiculous pricing on text messaging discourages me from using text messaging as much as I would otherwise.
Then, this evening, I got an email that changed things. I often use Free Conference.com for conference calls. They sent out an email saying,
As of Friday, March 9, it's come to our attention that Cingular Wireless has begun blocking all conference calls made from Cingular handsets to selected conference numbers. If you call our service, you receive a recording that says, "This call is not allowed from this number. Please dial 611 for customer service".
Earlier this week, Sprint and Qwest joined in this action, blocking cellular and land line calls to these same numbers. This appears to be a coordinated effort to force you to use the paid services they provide, eliminating competition and blocking your right to use the conferencing services that work best for you.
Thinking about grassroots organization
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 03/13/2007 - 10:26Over on MyDD, there is an interesting discussion about the latest straw poll. PsiFighter37 comments about the organizational structures:
The interesting dynamic to observe between the two would be the interaction between the campaigns and the netroots. Edwards' grassroots outreach appears to be largely organized in a top-down fashion. …
Many … seem to be put off by the Obama's lack of active interaction within the netroots. Nevertheless, if one takes a look at Obama's website, it is a highly decentralized, bottom-up organization.
I comment that while I prefer Edwards positions, my preference for a bottom-up type organization. Psi agrees and goes on to say
that the bottom-up directive works well mainly in the initial stages of boosting a campaign's base of supporters and volunteers. When it comes time to hit the streets and knock on doors, there definitely needs to be instructions from the top.
