©Ramin Khojasteh - Fotolia.com
Continue reading
News Day: Franken, Coleman, Pawlenty and the Supremes / Unlicensed in St. Paul / Mortgage relief – finally / more
Continue reading
Filed under news
News Day: Policing smarter / Minneapolis redevelopment / Vallay Varro / Honduras coup / more
Soja Andrzej - Fotolia.com
Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Summer reading – Latehomecomer, Ordinary Ways
Murder mysteries are my usual summer reading fare, but this vacation was different. I had a stack of books on my table, some waiting for months, and memoirs won out.
Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Honduras Coup
UPDATED 6/29/09: See Nicanet for reporting from Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and summaries of global press coverage, and NACLA for additional analysis. Highlights:
As of 11:15am, Caracas time, President Zelaya is speaking live on Telesur from San Jose, Costa Rica. He has verified the soldiers entered his residence in the early morning hours, firing guns and threatening to kill him and his family if he resisted the coup. He was forced to go with the soldiers who took him to the air base and flew him to Costa Rica. He has requested the U.S. Government make a public statement condemning the coup, otherwise, it will indicate their compliance. He said that he has not resigned and that until his term ends in 2010 he remains president of Honduras.The Honduran Foreign Minister and the ambassadors to Honduras from Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua were detained by the military. The ambassadors, after suffering physical mistreatment by the military, were set free but the Foreign Minister, Patricia Rodas, remained in military custody.
Filed under Uncategorized
From Abu Ghraib to Bagram?
BBC reports reliable allegations of prisoner mistreatment at the U.S. detention center at Bagram air base in Afghanistan from 2002-2008. The indicia of reliability seem high – interviews with 27 released prisoners, who are not facing any charges; each interviewed in isolation from the others; similar reports of “physical abuse, the use of stress positions, excessive heat or cold, unbearably loud noise, being forced to remove clothes in front of female soldiers.”
Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
Tim Pawlenty, Through the Looking Glass
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty told Alice in Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking Glass, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.'” In a similar manner, Governor Pawlenty casts himself as a heroic defender of education, promising no cuts to K-12 funding, while at the same time making “shifts” in funding that, in fact, will decrease the total amount that all schools have to spend on education.
Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
H1N1 – here already (6/26/09 update)
Update, 6/29/09: BBC reports “The number of confirmed swine flu cases in England has jumped by nearly 20% in a single day, latest figures show. The Health Protection Agency statistics show that 535 new cases were confirmed on Friday, bringing the total to 3,364.” Closer to home, KARE 11 reports that Wisconsin is leading the nation in reported swine flu cases, hitting 4251 confirmed or probable cases of H1N1 this week.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Continue reading
Filed under analysis
Poem for Bagua – Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria
Thursday, June 18, 2009 – Reposted at the poet’s request
For The Homeland (A Poem for Bagua)
by Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria
With my hands I write these words for the homeland
Today my heart stopped
My blood spilled
On land that will be given
To oil companies that will rape it
Brand it, and sell it with my name on it
Continue reading
Filed under Uncategorized
News Day: Reading the job numbers – carefully / Slash and burn the cities / Eviction, filesharing / Get out of town
Reading the numbers – carefully AP today picks up on the crucial bit of analysis reported right here yesterday: Lower numbers of people receiving unemployment benefits is NOT good news. It simply means that more workers have been unemployed for so long that they have exhausted their benefits.
Continue reading
Filed under news
News Day: MN unemployment up to 8.2 percent / Foreclosures dip / Preventing the NEXT economic meltdown – or not / more
MN unemployment up to 8.2 percent Minnesota’s unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent in May, up from 8.0 percent in April but still below the national rate of 9.4%, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. DEED’s press release this morning led with the announcement that MN employers had cut only 1,600 jobs in May, the smallest number since October. Total job losses in May were more than 10,000, but that number was offset by some job gains, including 7,100 in the leisure and hospitality industries and 900 in construction.
Continue reading
Mary Turck