I just found this website that claims to do fact-checking on all of the candidates claims:truths, lies, and stretching-the-truths. I hope it is also legit! I’ve found it useful.
PS: And some of the lies are pretty funny if you get the chance. . . I had no idea some of this was going around.
Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart have issued a cease and desist order to the RNC and Sarah Palin to stop using their song Barracuda. 
Best part is their statement that her views and values “in NO WAY represent us as American women.”
BTW: John Mellenkamp also told McCain not to use his music. I admit it: I have an (embarrassing) soft spot for Mellencamp.
I’m sure at least some of you heard about the NYT article that came out last week discussing how the Bush adminsitration refused to open an email report from the EPA and placed it in limbo status. This was not just any document but was, according to the article, “the E.P.A.’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that required it to determine whether greenhouse gases represent a danger to health or the environment.”
Last Wednesday Jon Stewart put together a piece called “Be Patient, This Gets Amazing!” on this (watch the show intro & through the first 5 minutes). This is absolutely nuts to me that they could get away with this, but Stewart’s right: it does get amazing(ly mundane) how many stories we’ve heard like this.
Here’s a great article by Stephen Zunes that lists the differences between Obama’s and Clinton’s policy advisors. I appreciated reading this because it definitely clarified some crucial differences in what their foreign policy might be.
Now that Edwards is out of the race, I’m supporting Obama! Not that his positions are perfectly in line with what I’d want, but they are the best of the two.
I’ve been happy to see so many of the NYT editorials addressing the problems with our food system. Today there was a great article, Rethinking the Meat Guzzler, comparing the petroleum used in travel to the amount that gets used in beef production.
She named a corporate ag head honcho (former head of the National Pork Producers Council) as co-chair of Rural Americans for Hillary. This group supports the use of CAFOS (contained animal feeding operations– the type that are so horrendous in rural NC and in others rural places of the US).
Edwards has supported a moratorium on the hog farms in NC. Not sure where Obama stands according to the link above and the comments that follow.
This condescending NYT article talks about the new voting and democracy coming to the small nation of Bhutan. The article mentions that the entry of shows like “Desparate Housewives” & the internet might not be such a good thing, but the World Bank is predicting a 14% growth rate for Bhutan. Hmm. . .
Fleeting mention is made that of the Bhutan’s government’s stance that Gross National Happiness is more important than economic measures like Gross National Product!
I love pics of this protest of UC Berkeley students sitting in on redwood trees on campus to protest the UC’s deal with BP to research biofuels. Way to go!
I’ve intended to write about a project I have been involved in since last fall for some time now. One of the faculty in my department (with the help of several grad students) organized a research collaboration called CIRA (the Center for Integrating Research and Action). In particular, I’ve been attending meetings on a project in NC on addressing issues of poverty reduction in 12 of the counties identified as having the most “persistent poverty” in NC.
Last weekend I went up to Boone (in the Appalachian mountains) and stayed at the farm of another grad student, Maverick Farms. She is a PhD student while at the same time running an organic farm in the mountains with her partner & sister! Pretty amazing!
The CIRA project met all day in Cove Creek (a neighboring community to Boone) and we disussed the creation of local food systems as a way to keep money within communities. The project is planning on doing Community Food Asssessments in all of the communties in order to address how much money is spent on food in these communties and to find ways to tap into this spending and keep the money local.
It was a very exciting day! With visits to the Appalachian State Sustainable Ag program and to Maverick Farms and lively discussions about racism, class and food. Some of the partner groups in the project are:
- The Concerned Citizens of Tillery (CCT): located in an African-American New Deal Settlement community this group has been working for years on issues of environmental racism (the latest of whichis horrendous hog farms & their waste lagoons) and land loss of black farmers in the community. The numbers of African American farmers in the US and in NC have been declining over the years– surprise, surprise.
-Center for Community Action in Lumberton, NC A grassroots group dealing with community organizing and poverty issues in Southeastern, NC. (Hog farms are also an issue here. . .)
-Appalachian State Sustainable Ag Program & Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture. Will write more later on this!
Very exciting stuff! Will write more in this post when I get the chance! (I’m supposed to be dissertation writing right now!) Needless to say, I’m excited about the project, especially because we are finally starting to see it really take off.
UN study finds that the richest 2% of the world’s adults own 50% of the world’s wealth. Sad that this isn’t surprising.
I love this quote, “It’s a good action“, made by Arnold Schwarzenegger about the VERY questionable and controversial swearing in of Calderon as the new Mexican president. What were Bush and Schwarzenegger doing at the swearing in of Calderon anyway? No shame in the free-market good ol’ boys’ club.
P.S. Argh. . . apparently the quote made Schwarzenegger look like too much of an idiot, because after I made the link the BBC cut the quote by him! I swear it quoted him as saying, “It’s a good action” and referenced Bush and Schwarzenegger’s attendance at the swearing in. . . see this Houston Chronicle article for the quote.
Where all the technical assistance folks we talk to on our service calls will be shopping:
Apparently social movements in India are protesting this. . . but the Beast is relentless. . . and just found a “huge market” to expand in.
We hope! See the article America’s Election: Daddy’s swagger vs. Mommy’s Care for analysis of what Ruth Rosen hopes is a change in political tenor from macho swagger to real family values. I don’t like her framing of it as Daddy vs. Mommy (since men can be caring and women macho too) but overall she hopefully is right about the shifting political tides. . .
One of the tactics that helped legalize abortion in the first place (or at least made its legalization more accepted by the general public) was a campaign that U.S. feminists put on in the 1970s in which famous women and everyday women openly admitted to having abortion. The idea was that familiarity, seeing someone you know as potentially affected, would allow people to humanize (and not demonize) the decision to have an abortion.
Brazilian feminists (where it is not legal unless you have been raped) are currrently using this tactic in their legalization campaigns , in which celebrities discuss their abortions in magazine articles and appear on the cover saying so.
So the time has come for a second attempt at the campaign in the U.S. Ms. Magazine is currently asking women who have had an abortion to sign on and will have a special issues devoted to this. So, anyone who feels comfortable sign on and if you you haven’t had one, well, you can sign in support too.
Check out the piece “Hog Hell” by Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation author) in the current issue of The Nation on the brutal working conditions at the Smithfield pork-processing plant in Tar Heel , North Carolina.
In case any of you have missed the brouhaha over the LAME Forbes piece telling men not to marry career women (well, at least women who make more than $30,00 a year), check out these links (and the links they follow) at Boing Boing and Feministe. My fave from the original article is how the tag-line validates his sexist opinion citing the work of “social scientists”. . . so, it must be true!
Especially given the feminist victory with Plan B, check out this Slate piece discussing posts on Plan B and the Forbes article debate.
So Plan B (emergency contraception) was finally approved for over-the counter sales today! A huge victory given the current status of women’s reproductive rights in our country. See this link or here for more info.
An addendum to this: Apparently Plan B has been made legal only for women over 18. So there is still an issue of access for many young women and pharmacists can still refuse to sell Plan B for religious reasons, the reasons given that they can “refer women to someone else”. Which misses the whole point that Plan B prevents pregnancy because it stops the egg from implanting to begin with!!! But, small victories, one at a time . . .
Think the religious right will support this in the name of security?
When my friend Mary was in town a few months ago we saw a car with the bumper sticker “Republicans for Voldemort”– we loved it!
I finally got to tracking the maker down and ordering a bunch. If you’re interested in getting one, see the website for the comic strip Goats.
I know Voldemort comes in close with Cheney for being the best candidate, but Voldemort’s ability to use magic makes him a much better choice than any muggle.