Wed 23 Jan 2008
There was a photo in last Friday’s Hartford Courant, that’s worth a second look. Here’s the link: http://www.courant.com/media/photo/2008-01/34806412.jpg
The photo, by Marc-Yves Regis, isn’t a picture of Iraq or Afghanistan, and the armed men are not soldiers. They are officers of the Hartford Police Department and they are effecting an arrest for possession of marijuana. Clearly, the shirtless offender is on parade for the camera. (more…)
Tue 22 Jan 2008
Check out the results of a recent study: 935 false statements in a two year period by the Bush administration about Iraq’s ties to 9/11 and weapons of mass destruction. If but one of these was to Congress, isn’t that a crime?
For the full story, click here.
Tue 22 Jan 2008
As we approach Tuesday’s special session, ironically following the National holiday honoring the Rev Martin Luther King, Jr, it may prove informative to look at some of the facts. For clearly the mass media has and will not go to the facts of this issue. The following is my small and maybe naive reading of the facts from a number of reports available through the CGA website. Though hopefully these thoughts may help stir the dialogue to pre-cheshire re-entry and reduction of recidivism implementation plans rather to the drum beat of enhanced penalties, mandated 60 yr prison sentences and expansion of the crime of burglary.
Life imprisonment for 3-time offenders:
First, I hope someone reminds our legislators, (more…)
Mon 21 Jan 2008
“We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves.”
George Orwell 1984.
ECT(electro-convulsive therapy) administered by psychiatrists with the Page-Russell device was used as a treatment for schizophrenia. It was also part of secret classified CIA project under the direction of Dr. Ewen Cameron, a Canadian citizen and member of the American Psychiatric Association. He advocated ECT as a therapy to depattern individual personalities and create a “tabula rasa”, blank slate on which to build a new person. ECT causes memory loss, bodily function loss and confusion about self. MKULTRA, the CIA program also used LSD, Phenobarbital, PCP and numerous other chemicals on involuntary subjects. These methods along with waterboarding, hooding and sensory deprivation are part of the Bush administrations interrogation practices and are included in the CIA manual for interrogators. These are the harbingers of the Shock and Awe doctrine used by the US military and the multiglobal free market neo-con vampires. I will elucidate on this using Naomi Klein’s must read book, The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism. (more…)
Sun 20 Jan 2008
I recently heard a great piece by Mumia Download link as we approach the Remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this Monday.
Mumia, in quoting Vincent Harding, noted that: America has largely chosen the path of amnesia rather than true remembrance of the man. (more…)
Sat 19 Jan 2008
Three astute local journalists smoked Congressman John Larson out on the issue of executive accountability this week. Larson called me today to set up a meeting Friday on the 12 questions I presented him with just before Thanksgiving on behalf of a local group we call Greater Hartford Impeach. I’d been rebuffed repeatedly in my efforts to get a meeting on the questions, but when the reporters picked up our sad story, Larson was compelled to respond. (more…)
Fri 18 Jan 2008
In the ever-thoughtful Free Will Astrology horoscope, I read this gem directed towards my virgo bretheren: In 1954, the writer Albert Camus said, “A person’s life purpose is nothing more than to rediscover, through the detours of art or love or passionate work, those one or two images in the presence of which his heart first opened.”
Thu 17 Jan 2008
I wrote some nasty things about writers earlier this week, and, as I was considering whether I owe anybody an apology, it occured to me that there is precious little written in disparagement of writers. (more…)
Wed 16 Jan 2008
Public portion:
I was very happy to finally receive an invitation to serve on a redesign team in a recent letter from the Brd. I have contacted a teacher in the academy my daughter is in that I am available and ready to serve. However I have a few requests in regard to the format of the letter. Based on my belief and understanding of the US Constitution and the democratic principles for which I fought, I would like recognition of myself as a member of the public and a taxpayer demanding representation by inserting a single word into the new letterhead of the schools. I would like you to call yourself Hartford, a system of public schools. This is singularly important and I will explain.
After Katrina devastated New Orleans, Milton Friedman the grand guru of unfettered global capitalism said,” Most New Orleans schools are in ruins, as are the homes of the children who attended them. The children are now scattered all over the country. This is a tragedy. It is also an opportunity to radically reform the educational system” Friedman’s idea was instead of rebuilding a world class public school system, the government should provide vouchers which parents could spend at private institutions or for profit charter schools. (more…)
Mon 14 Jan 2008
By Steve Thornton
The writers are on strike. Jon Stewart is a scab. Who cares? There’s still plenty to watch on TV and at the movies. Even if my favorite shows are re-runs, there’s always Netflix, right?
Well, the strike of 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America, which began November 5th, should be important to us, and here’s why:
1. The strike is about the future of work. It’s old news that American industry has been shipped to foreign shores. Connecticut lost as many as 200,000 manufacturing jobs in the last three decades. Tomorrow’s jobs – our children’s work – could very well be in information technology. The writers are fighting for their fair share of the pie when it is served across the internet, through iTunes and other new digital media. What they are able to win now, our kids may not have to fight so hard for in the future.
2. It gets people talking about unions. When Tina Fey in New York and Jack Black in Hollywood walk the picket line in solidarity with striking writers, it’s news (sad but true). Since only one in ten U.S. workers is presently in a union, labor organizing is not a daily topic of conversation. That’s good for business leaders, but bad for the rest of us. In an age when we are bombarded with Paris Hilton’s jail time and Martha Stewart’s recipes, discussions and even arguments about the value of unions are a good thing. (more…)
