Booman Tribune Diaries

Understanding Toyota Sudden Acceleration - by statusquobuster

Tue Mar 9th, 2010 at 05:30:43 PM EST

As a materials and manufacturing engineer with decades of experience with failure analysis of manufactured products, and as an owner of a Toyota vehicle, I am saddened by the lack of expertise and insight shared with Congress and the public about the sudden acceleration problem.

RECOMMENDED - International Women's Day is a Day for Action - by The Opportunity Agenda

Tue Mar 9th, 2010 at 02:20:22 PM EST

President Obama and the First Lady recognized International Women’s Day earlier this week with a moving and sometimes funny ceremony in the East Room. The President said that “the story of America’s women, like the story of America itself, has had its peaks and valleys. But as one of our great American educators once said, if you drew a line through all the valleys and all the peaks, that line would be drawn with an upward curve. That upward curve—what we call progress—didn’t happen by accident.

RECOMMENDED - Blahblah Biden Visits Netanyahu, Israel - by Oui

Tue Mar 9th, 2010 at 02:14:48 PM EST

Biden sees 'moment of opportunity' for Mid-East peace

US Vice-President Joe Biden blahblahblahblahblahblah "moment of real opportunity" blahblahblahblahblahblah peace between the Palestinians and Israel blahblahblahblahblahblah.

Mr Biden welcomed blahblahblahblahblahblah start indirect talks, blahblahblah the US blahblahblahblahblahblah who "took risks for peace".

Blahblahblahblahblahblah US was committed to Israeli security blahblahblahblahblahblah prevent Iran blahblahblah nuclear weapons blahblahblah.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed US attempts to boost sanctions on Iran.

Mr blahblah Biden is blahblahblahblahblahblah administration of US President Barack Obama to visit Jerusalem.

At a joint news blahblahblahblahblahblah Mr Netanyahu, Mr Biden blahblahblahblahblahblah "no space" between the US and Israel on Israel's security blahblahblahblahblahblah.

'Exception'

Mr Biden blahblahblah cornerstone of Washington's relationship with Israel blahblahblahblahblahblah "absolute, total, unvarnished" commitment to its security blahblah.

Meanwhile ...

We Remain United: In Zimbabwe's Labor Movement, a Voice for Human Rights and Democracy - by borderjumpers

Tue Mar 9th, 2010 at 10:41:03 AM EST

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

In Harare, on the way to our meeting with Wellington Chibebe, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), even our driver was excited for us.

"He is a good, good man. I've only seen him on TV, but he's fights very hard for the people and to promote democracy!"

Since the early 1990s, ZCTU grew increasingly opposed to the government of Robert Mugabe and was the main force behind the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In fact, MDC's leader and the current Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai held the same position with the ZCTU before Chibebe.

Chibebe is one of the most vocal--and effective--voices in civil society promoting respect for human rights and democracy. Despite being brutally beaten, tortured, and having his life threatened over the last two decades, Chibebe remains more positive than ever about the direction of his country. It was largely due to Zimbabwe's labor movement that in the 2008 presidential election Tsvangirai defeated Mugagbe. Yet despite MDC's victory, Mugabe, refuses to step down and the nation has a "power sharing" agreement.

When we met with Chibebe, he was cautiously optimistic about the power-sharing agreement and the future of democracy in Zimbabwe. "Our role as the labor movement is to fight for democracy and good governance, respect for people's basic rights, and also social and economic rights." He says that while the MDC plays a critical role in promoting democracy, the mission of the union movement will be to hold all political parties accountable to these principles. "We just can't afford to repeat the same mistake by treating any government or political party as angels from heaven," he says. While he described the beginning of the power-sharing agreement as "terrible," Chibebe felt strongly that "things are now getting better, we are able to make some positive changes happen."

Chibebe was born 300 miles south of Harare. His upbringing herding goats and farming built both a sense of responsibility and social consciousness, he says. "Rural kids grow up different from urban ones, you start fighting for your rights at a very early age. If you aren't aggressive, you'll get abused." He also described how in rural life he had no access to books or libraries, so everyone listened to their elders, learning about the importance of struggle and hearing passionate tales of resistance against the ruling government. Not even a teen when his mother passed away, Chibebe became passionately involved in political struggle for social and economic justice that has lasted his whole life.

Being at the helm of the Zimbabwe labor movement at this moment is no easy task. The country faces unemployment rates of more than 90 percent. The media is controlled by the government. Union leaders are routinely harassed and imprisoned. And the Mugabe government instituted draconian laws to thwart unions, such as arresting any meeting of more than four people. Yet the affiliates of the ZCTU, representing more than 30 unions and every sector of the economy, have remained united. "While it is very difficult at times with unemployment so high to convince people to be in unions, we are still able to recruit and grow."

Chibebe works tirelessly to bring attention to Zimbabwe's economic and human rights realities and to pressure the government to reform its ways. As workers struggle to survive inflation and low paying informal employment, Chibebe has expanded the work of the ZCTU to represent all workers in both formal and informal employment. ZCTU fights for economic and social justice not just for his members, but for the fundamental rights of all of Zimbabwe's workers.

In 2002, Chibebe and the ZCTU had the vision of helping informal sector workers--everyone from street vendors to musicians and artisans--form unions. The desire for social and economic change spread like wild fire when the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Associations (ZCIEA) started in 2002. Presently with more than 1.5 million paying members (out of 3.5 million members), the informal workers now have access to all the resources of the ZCTU such as their lobbyists, their research arm, and the strength and power of their affiliate unions.

Chibebe, and everyone we met with at ZCTU, speaks with great pride about the support they've been given by the American labor movement through the Solidarity Center, which maintains an office in the country. "Because of the Solidarity Center and the American worker, we've had incredible moral and material support," Chibebe said. Some of the examples he cites are the role the Solidarity Center plays in supporting their research institute, expanding distribution of their newspaper "the Worker," their ability to fund a lobbyist, create a paralegal program, training activists and leaders, and getting support from international governments and politicians through organizational delegations such as the visit from the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU).

RECOMMENDED - Hill staffs and lobbyists - by CrapIsKing

Tue Mar 9th, 2010 at 10:15:32 AM EST

I can't speak to the grandees of the Senate, having only worked on the House side, but there are real constraints on the expertise a Congressperson can develop on staff: budget is definitely an important constraint; House leadership said they are trying to compete with private-sector salaries, but even paying less at the top (Chief of Staff, District Director, Communications Director, Legislative Director) only yields so much to distribute pay and workload among Legislative Aides. And yes, a lot of staff time and money goes to contacts with constituents on a scale that runs from the vital to the necessary but ridiculous.

There are also physical constraints, believe it or not, with interns and LA's working cheek-by-jowl with each other in tiny offices: you can only fit so much staff into the allotted space.

These constraints yield a very uneven process, where a legislative staff often has to be reactive if a bill comes up on a fast track. It's nice to have legislative staffers who have experience with, and therefore, deep knowledge of a set of policy issues, but usually these people will want pay and title commensurate with their experience and expertise, strangely enough, which subtracts from the ability to keep similarly-expert people on other issues on staff and engaged in the issues in which they are most expert, rather than supervising others. Pay and pressure lead to high turnover among these expert-level staffers, and so there is a sort of apprenticeship system, where good junior LA's are exploited as long as they are willing and able to take it, and then new ones must be found who are willing to live on low pay and prestige.

On some bills, the health care bill for example, the debate is so long and dynamic that staff and Congresspersons can become expert over time. But on ACES, for example, developing sufficient expertise and understanding in the short time allotted for debate and consideration was almost impossible for offices that weren't already focused on energy and environmental issues. Lobbyists, in contrast, are always focused on their clients' issues and can follow them from year to year and be familiar with most of the policy options floating in the ether, in addition to having sufficient time to develop good rhetoric.

The flip side of these constraints are all of the resources which are available: colleagues who are expert in a given issue, Congressional Research Service, outside experts who are willing to be helpful for free, the committees themselves, various fellows and interns with expertise related to various issues, the various hill newspapers, digests, newsletters etc. Putting budget, space, and human resources into a workable whole and keeping them there in a very dynamic, competitive and quasi-paranoid environment is definitely a challenge.

And of course, lobbyists don't just come with ready-made policy expertise and rhetoric. They also come with money. "We'll not only do the work for your staff on this issue you don't really care about, we'll give you a four-digit check to let us do it!" In a way, BCRA and campaign reform generally has made Congress more susceptible, not less, to the range of lobbyists. Gone are the days when Mark Hanna could give a candidate a check for the entire campaign. Now offices are tempted daily to sell small pieces of their souls to many buyers.

As it stands, it is not a good system. More staff, more space and more time all would be helpful, but until we take the money out of campaigning - with the Supreme Court currently moving us in the opposite direction - there will be lots of reliance on lobbyists and their PAC's.

Akha To New York City - by Akha Drug War

Mon Mar 8th, 2010 at 09:52:27 PM EST

The Ride for Freedom has now arrived outside Phily, on its way some 4,000 miles by horseback and bus, to the UN at NY City.

The Ant in the Queen's Tea Cup

Tomorrow we ride into Philadelphia to see a friend on our way to the Jersey state line and New York City which is only about 6 or 7 days away now.

We got three warmer days which has been nice, since basically a glacier crash landed on the NE part of the country. In Maryland we rode down roads that had 6 feet piles of snow still stacked up beside the road.

RECOMMENDED - The AIPAC-ization of Tom Campbell, Republican Senate primary candidate, CA - by shergald

Mon Mar 8th, 2010 at 04:45:41 PM EST

When Philip Giraldi wrote this article in September, 2009, The Best Congress AIPAC Can Buy, one just might have regarded it as cynical and perhaps over the top. While "many Americans who thought that the health care debate was important must have wondered where their congressmen were in early August during the first two weeks of the House of Representatives recess:" visiting Israel, he said. "House Minority whip Eric Cantor headed the Republican group, and House Majority leader Steny Hoyer," who claimed on the trip that he was more Jewish than Jewish representatives, n/t, "led the Democrats."

Now we have a more transparent battle going on in California between candidates in the Republican primary running for the Senate from California, as to who loves Israel more. As just reported by the Associated Press, the Senate debate focuses on support for Israel, not medical care reform.

Bizarro World: The New Left is now Tea Party - by Forgiven

Mon Mar 8th, 2010 at 12:56:03 PM EST

Because of this assumption, members of the Tea Party right, like the members of the New Left, spend a lot of time worrying about being co-opted. They worry that the corrupt forces of the establishment are perpetually trying to infiltrate the purity of their ranks. - David Brooks New York Times Columnist

First of all I want to apologize to all of those people from the peace movement, civil rights movement, and the other groups from the sixties who fought and died for long denied social change in America for this article from David Brooks. Obviously while so many Americans were actually trying to grapple with a social system that they felt no longer represented who they were Mr. Brooks was too young to know what was going on. I have a real hard time taking anyone seriously who writes about a period of history that they did not actually participate in. To me most post-history is either conjecture or an attempt at a mulligan for those who are promoting their own agendas.

A Government that Reflects America's Values - by The Opportunity Agenda

Mon Mar 8th, 2010 at 12:23:52 PM EST

According to a 2007 poll, Americans define human rights as the rights to equal opportunity, freedom from discrimination, a fair criminal justice system, and freedom from torture or abuse by law enforcement. Despite the current political wrangling over how to reform it, a majority of Americans even believe that access to health care is a human right.

There was a time when America’s leaders echoed those sentiments. President Franklin D. Roosevelt embraced them when he told Congress, “Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.” And in 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed into law the Civil Rights Act, forming the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Commission was intended to conduct critical reviews of social needs and public policy – in essence, to be the conscience of the nation. Regardless of circumstances or leadership, the body was to operate as an independent voice for the broad range of civil rights issues facing the country.

Using the Market to Create Resilient Agriculture Practices - by borderjumpers

Mon Mar 8th, 2010 at 12:16:12 PM EST

Cross posted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

Care International's work in Zambia has two main goals: increase the production of staple crops and improve farmers' access to agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers.

But instead of giving away bags of seed and fertilizers to farmers, Care is "creating input access through a business approach," not a subsidy approach, according to Steve Power, Assistant Country Director for Zambia.

One way they're doing this is by creating a network of agro-dealers who can sell inputs to their neighbors as well as educate them about how to use hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs. At the same time, "we are mindful" of the benefits of local varieties of seeds, says Harry Ngoma, Agriculture Advisor for the Consortium for Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition, AIDS, Resiliency and Markets (C-FAARM). Care and C-FAARM are working with farmers to combine high- and low-technology practices.

Care thinks that this "business approach" will help farmers get the right inputs at the right time, unlike subsidy approaches that give farmers fertilizer for free, but often at the wrong time of year, making the nutrients unavailable to crops. And Care's focus on training agro-dealers and giving them start-up grants allows the organization to remain invisible to farmers. Power says that Care wants to be a "catalyst to the market" and help transfer resources, without distorting the basic pricing structure.

Another component of Care's work is improving the production of sorghum and cassava. "Zambia is as addicted to maize as we are to Starbucks coffee," says Power. But by encouraging the growth of other crops, including sorghum, which is indigenous to Africa, Care can help farms diversify local diets as well as build resilience to price fluctuations and drought.

Care is promoting conservation farming in Zambia as well. The organization has been working in six districts since 2007, reaching 24,000 households. In addition to promoting minimum tillage practices and the use of manure and compost, Care is helping to train government extension officers about conservation farming so that eventually they'll be responsible--instead of Care--for training farmers.

According to Power, the key to Care's work is promoting business-like approaches to agriculture alongside more traditional ones, so farmers don't become dependent on the organization for gifts of fertilizer or seed. These sorts of programs, according to Care, will be more effective at feeding people and increasing incomes than traditional food-aid projects that rely on long-term donor support. This is a big challenge in a country--and a region--facing the impacts of both climate change and the global economic crisis.

Stay tuned for more blogs about how farmers are linking to the private sector.

To learn more about Care's work in Zambia, visit www.care.org/zambia.

RECOMMENDED - Am I an American Person? - by btchakir

Sun Mar 7th, 2010 at 12:15:12 PM EST

I listened to a Congressman from Alabama give the Republican's weekly statement (after the President's weekly statement) on NBC this morning and was told that despite what Pelosi and Reid want, despite the threat of using reconciliation to push the Health Care bill through, the American People don't want the Health Care bill as it has been debated and argued over the past year. He said the American People want Congress and The President to "start over on a new page."

Here in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, about as American a location as you can find, I sit watching this knowing that I WANT a Health Care bill to be passed NOW. I know that if the government starts on a NEW PAGE it will be in the face of a rate-raising, highly profitable private insurance system and a 10-to-1 ratio of lobbyists who are NOT starting on a new page, who will work day and night to weaken any progress.

1000 Words About Durban, South Africa - by borderjumpers

Sat Mar 6th, 2010 at 10:58:55 AM EST

We spent a couple of days in Durban which is the third largest city in South Africa. We arrived exhausted from Maputo, Mozambique after a 24-hour bus ride on Intercape (gotta love when they breakdown for hours in the middle of the journey and you have to jump on a replacement bus seven hours later).

Saturday Painting Palooza Vol.239 - by boran2

Sat Mar 6th, 2010 at 12:06:26 AM EST

Hello again painting fans.

RECOMMENDED - Help me stop the falsification of history re Kennedy - by Real History Lisa

Fri Mar 5th, 2010 at 11:42:59 PM EST

Robert Greenwald, bless him, is gathering signatures in an effort to persuade the History Channel to act like a History Channel and not like an adjunct of Rush Limbaugh, distorting history to serve an agenda.

Greenwald sees this as a politically motivated effort. I see something more sinister, as I'll explain in a minute.

This upcoming miniseries is produced by Joel Surnow, producer of "24" and written by one of his writers on 24, a guy who claims to be a liberal but does not appear to have made any political contributions to any liberal candidates.

Watch the clips here, and then sign the petition at http://stopkennedysmears.com/.

Women Wouldn't Have Named it the iPad - by The Opportunity Agenda

Fri Mar 5th, 2010 at 01:23:30 PM EST

Two weeks ago, in this space, I wrote about hiring inequalities at Silicon Valley technology firms—mostly focusing on disparities in employment for African Americans and Latinos.

However, the lack of women in technology jobs is similarly striking. The San Jose Mercury News has been forceful in highlighting the issue. The newspaper conducted an analysis of ten of the Valley's largest companies. Their numbers are from 2005 but they still highlight a disturbing trend. In their analysis of these ten companies (including Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Cisco, eBay, and more), women made up just 33 percent of the workforce. This is even down from 1999, when women made up only 37 percent of all employees at these organizations.

Turning specifically to managers, the Mercury News found that "women slipped to 26 percent of managers in 2005, from 28 percent in 2000."

Daily Kos features attack Iran ad - by shergald

Fri Mar 5th, 2010 at 10:29:59 AM EST

Primarydoc just published a diary on Daily Kos contending that the site is contributing to false advocacy and Iran-bashing based totally on false propaganda, principally the long unsubstantiated notion that Iran was contributing to the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq.

The ad features these words, with background visuals,

Iranian Bombs Are Killing Americans
On The Battlefields of Iraq

It is accompanied by shots of an IED exploding and a picture of a helmet and rifle, usually a symbol of a dead soldier. The Website skin is the advertising strip across the the top of Dkos' front page and is prominent, and highly expensive.

Friday Foto Flogging - by AndiF

Fri Mar 5th, 2010 at 05:06:14 AM EST

Welcome to Friday Foto Flogging, a place to share your photos and photography news. We were inspired by the folks at European Tribune who post a regular Friday Photoblog series to try the same on this side of the virtual Atlantic. We also thought foto folks would enjoy seeing some other websites so each week we'll introduce a different photo website.

This Week's Theme: Random

Website(s) of the Week: Damn Cool Pics: Cool, Funny, Crazy, Weird Pictures does a posting of amazing mountain (and other) goats photos.

AndiF Poles Apart

	Shots taken from the same spot, first facing north, then south Click image for larger version
	Positve and negative Click image for larger version

random olivia

	Click image for larger version
	Click image for larger version
	Click image for larger version

Next Week's Theme: Building(s). Verb or noun

Info on Posting Photos

When you post your photos, please keep the width at 500 or less for the sake of our Bootribers who are on dial-up. If you want to post clickable thumbnails but aren't sure how, check out this diary: Clickable Thumbnails. If you haven't yet joined a photo-hosting site, here are some to consider: Photobucket, Flickr, ImageShack, and Picasa.

Previous Friday Foto Flogs

FFFs 1-36 Random Skies School's Out

Flowers Weather Disrepair Random

Simplicity What is it? Vacation, Staycation Brown

Sparkle Random Purple Differences

What moves you? Colors Random What is it?

Self-portraits Up Where work is done Transitions

Random Gates, Doors Aphorisms and Quotes Bridges

What is it? Random Walls, fences, fields Black,White,B&W

Red Rails,Trails

Thursday Immigration Blog Roundup - by The Opportunity Agenda

Thu Mar 4th, 2010 at 05:48:39 PM EST

From Reform Immigration for America:

On March 21st, we will march on Washington, DC to demand immigration reform and economic justice for all Americans. Our vision of reform includes immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens working shoulder to shoulder to achieve better wages, working conditions, and labor protections, and of an American that’s back to work, with a fair balance between main street and wall street.

People from all across America will lend their voice in the fight for reform. We will come together as one voice on the National Mall for a strong America – for families, for workers, for businesses, and for security.

Join thousands from across the country in the March For America in DC on March 21st, and demand Congress act NOW to pass immigration reform and move quickly to put all Americans back to work

Where: National Mall, Washington DC

When: March 21st, 2010 – Interfaith Service at 1:00 pm, March at 2:00 pm

RECOMMENDED - My Lai Was An Hamlet, But Fallujah ... - by Oui

Thu Mar 4th, 2010 at 03:47:23 PM EST

Fallujah doctors report rise in birth defects

(BBC News) - Doctors in the Iraqi city of Fallujah are reporting a high level of birth defects, with some blaming weapons used by the US after the Iraq invasion. The city witnessed fierce fighting in 2004 as US forces carried out a major offensive against insurgents.

Now, the level of heart defects among newborn babies is said to be 13 times higher than in Europe. The US military says it is not aware of any official reports showing an increase in birth defects in the area.

BBC world affairs editor John Simpson visited a new, US-funded hospital in Fallujah where paediatrician Samira al-Ani told him that she was seeing as many as two or three cases a day, mainly cardiac defects.

Our correspondent also saw children in the city who were suffering from paralysis or brain damage - and a photograph of one baby who was born with three heads.

OFFICIALS WARN: WOMEN SHOULD NOT HAVE CHILDREN

He adds that he heard many times that officials in Fallujah had warned women that they should not have children. Doctors and parents believe the problem is the highly sophisticated weapons the US troops used in Fallujah six years ago.

British-based Iraqi researcher Malik Hamdan told the BBC's World Today programme that doctors in Fallujah were witnessing a "massive unprecedented number" of heart defects, and an increase in the number of nervous system defects.

She said that one doctor in the city had compared data about birth defects from before 2003 - when she saw about one case every two months - with the situation now, when, she saw cases every day.

"I've seen footage of babies born with an eye in the middle of the forehead, the nose on the forehead."

Ms Hamdan said that based on data from January this year, the rate of congenital heart defects was 95 per 1,000 births - 13 times the rate found in Europe.

Fire Bombs in Iraq: Napalm By Any Other Name

Israel's 40% solution - by shergald

Thu Mar 4th, 2010 at 10:25:46 AM EST

One day ago we heard from the Israeli PM: Israel must keep Jordan Valley

JERUSALEM -- Israel won't pull out of a key part of the West Bank even if there's a peace agreement with the Palestinians, the prime minister told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday. Benjamin Netanyahu was referring to the Jordan River Valley, along the eastern border of the West Bank. Israel considers control of the border vital to block the flow of weapons from Jordan to the Palestinians.
Netanyahu told the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that keeping the Jordan Valley was an "essential condition to ensure security and ensure that a peace deal holds," according to a meeting participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.

So Israel considers control of the border vital to block the flow of weapons from Jordan to the Palestinians including the Jordan Valley. There is therefore a need to imprison the Palestinians in the enclaves that now exist, where they are confined by walls and check-points. It is a prison.

The size of that prison also matters. Some of us actually believe that the bulk of land that might constitute a future Palestinian state would center on the West Bank the largest of the Palestinian territories (East Jerusalem and Gaza, being the others), and that in a peace deal, only 10%, taken up by the settlement blocs along the green line would be given to Israel with land swaps. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Nourishing the Planet Featured on Eco-Chick - by borderjumpers

Thu Mar 4th, 2010 at 10:00:10 AM EST

Check out this interview featured in Eco-Chick about the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet's on-the-ground research in Africa by Stephanie Rogers:

If it's true that there are sayers and there are doers, Danielle Nierenberg falls firmly into the latter camp. Danielle is currently traveling through sub-saharan Africa to highlight stories of hope and success in sustainable agriculture and blogging about it at WorldWatch.org.

A Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and co-Project Director of State of World 2011: Nourishing the Planet, Danielle is a widely cited expert in sustainable agriculture issues and the spread of factory farming. She knows better than most of us how our eating habits affect the world, and the experiences she shares on her blog will blow you away.

So of course, Danielle fits right in as an Eco Chick Heroine for the Planet! I talked to her about women in agriculture, global food issues and what we can all do to help.

SR: We were surprised to learn through your blog, Nourishing the Planet, that 80% of sub-Saharan farmers in Africa are women and that women make up the majority of farmers worldwide. What are some of the unique problems that female farmers face?

DN: Although women produce most of the food and raise most of the livestock in Africa, they rarely have access to land tenure, credit, agricultural extension services, and are under-represented in farmers groups, associations, unions. But by increasing women's participation and representation in these groups, women and men farmers alike can work together to improve gender awareness, as well as improve their access to loans and agricultural inputs and land tenure. As a result, women are able to earn a greater income, which translates into better nutrition for their families. But womens voices often go unheard, or even ignored, and that has to change.

SR: How has your focus on sustainable agriculture influenced your own eating habits?

DN: I've been a vegetarian since I was a teenager, but the more I learn about the global food system, the more interested I become in knowing where my food comes from and how it was produced. I think it's important to put a face to your food and know not only how the animals you eat were treated, but if the farmers who raised the vegetables and other foods you eat were given a fair price for their crops and if the workers who processed and packaged the food you eat had safe working conditions and were paid a fair wage.

SR: As much as we all care about global food issues and how they affect human health and the environment, sometimes we're not sure how to help - and sometimes, the problems of people in third-world countries can seem so far away. What can we do to contribute, even if it's just in a small way?

DN: This is a question we're asking as part of our Nourishing the Planet project: Why should wealthy foodies in the United States and Europe care about hunger in Africa?

The foodie community in the United States and Europe are a powerful force in pushing for organically grown and local foods in hospitals and schools, more farmers markets, and better welfare of livestock and I think that some of that energy can be harnessed to promote more diversity and resilience in the food system. Right now, the world depends on just a few crops-maize, wheat, and rice-which are vulnerable not only to price fluctuations, but the impacts of climate change. Many indigenous crops-including millet, sorghum, sweet potato, and many others-however, are not only more nutritious than monoculture crops, but also more resilient to adverse weather events and disease.

By supporting-and funding-NGOs and research institutions, such as Slow Food International, Heifer International, and the World Vegetable Center, wealthy foodies can help ensure that farmers in sub-Saharan Africa help maintain agricultural biodiversity.

SR: Did you have any moments of extreme culture shock when you first got to Africa?

DN: We started this trip in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a place most Americans associate with war and hunger because of the famines of the mid 1980s and 1990s. Even today, more than 6 million people in Ethiopia are at risk for starvation so I think I had mentally prepared myself for seeing very desperate people. Instead, though, I found farmers and NGO workers full of hope for agriculture in their country. I think that's been my greatest surprise about the continent in general -- how vibrant, entrepreneurial, friendly, positive, and alive people are here. Six months and thirteen countries later, I'm now in Antananarivo, Madagascar, feeling more hopeful than ever that things are really changing.

The trip is surprising in a lot of different ways. While we've seen extreme poverty and environmental degradation during our trip, we've also been impressed by the level of knowledge about things like hunger, climate change, HIV/AIDS and other issues from the farmers we meet. The people in many of these countries know better than anyone how to solve the problems their facing, they just need attention-and support-from the international community. In Africa, maybe more than anywhere else we've traveled, a little funding can go a long way (if used the right way).

SR: What's your biggest goal for the Nourishing the Planet trip?

DN: We've made a point during this trip to focus on stories of hope and success in agriculture. Most of what Americans hear about Africa is famine, conflict and HIV/AIDS, and we wanted to highlight the things that are going well on the continent. There's a lot of hope out here - a lot of individuals and organizations doing terrific work - but that doesn't necessarily translate into them receiving resources or funding.

We hope to create a roadmap for funders and the donor community and shine a big spotlight on the projects and innovations that seem to be working, so that they can be scaled up or replicated in other places. Please check out our site and sign up for our weekly newsletter -- and if you know anyone or project we should visit on the continent, please email me at dnierenberg@worldwatch.org.

Thanks Danielle, and many thanks as well to Bernard Pollack for the beautiful photos!

Green Isle Hunger Strike resolved - by Frank Schnittger

Thu Mar 4th, 2010 at 07:51:41 AM EST

I understand that a unanimous agreement to end the Green Isle Hunger strike was signed at 8.00 a.m. today after all night talks. I have no details on the deal and it has yet to be reported in the national media. Indeed there has been something of a media black-out on the issue with TV3 announcing (at 9.00 pm last night) that they would deal with the issue on Vincent Browne's 11.00pm show, and then there was suddenly no mention of it on the show.

No Irish newspaper published my letter to the Editor or any other letter on the topic and other newspaper coverage has often led with the management line that this was all about pornography. Drury Communications, the corporate PR agency who are extraordinarily well connected in Irish business and politics can take a bow, particularly Paddy Hughes who never delivered on his promise to me of an interview with management!

Drury Communications - Our People

Paddy Hughes Director
Driven and determined, Paddy brings a tangible sense that he cares and that it matters to every client situation he enters; with Paddy it is always `we'. His business focus is corporate reputation management and financial PR. An Offaly native and Kildare resident, Paddy has been part of the Drury team for almost 15 years, during which he has been a pivotal player in some of the most exciting developments in Irish business. Since 2003 he has put his commitment to PR to use as a member of the National Council of the Public Relations Institute and 2008 saw Paddy elected as National President; however he insists that throwing rose petals in his wake is purely optional.

It is likely that any agreement signed will include a confidentiality clause so the details may never be publicly known. Let us hope that John Recto, the third hunger striker, will be successful in fighting his expulsion from Ireland and that all of the hunger strikers and strikers can recover their health and dignity and get on with their lives. I for one, will never be buying Green Isle products again. We need companies like this in Ireland like we need hole in the head. They have put our whole industrial relations infrastructure and social cohesion at risk.

My thanks to all who helped keep this story alive in the face of almost overwhelming odds in the small and incestuous media circus that masquerades as the fourth estate in Ireland.

Dutch Election Winners PVV, D'66 and VVD - by Oui

Thu Mar 4th, 2010 at 07:24:47 AM EST

Geert Wilders' Anti-Islam party makes major gains

Taking part in two cities it has become the largest party in Almere and the second largest in The Hague. (

Mr Wilders was visibly buoyed by the results and was characteristically combative saying this was the first step in the upcoming campaign for parliamentary elections.

"The national campaign begins today in Almere and The Hague, tomorrow in all of the Netherlands... On 9 June, we'll conquer the Netherlands," said Mr Wilders.

Election results

My comment:
[Labor Party PvdA of Wouter Bos took a beating for the city council elections, the Christian Democrats
CDA of JP Balkenende took a minor loss, although both parties should have done better at the local level.
A big loser was the Socialist Party SP of Agnes Kant nearly split in half, mainly due to their voters staying home."]

More to follow ...

Thursday Dog Blog (birdy edition) - by keres

Thu Mar 4th, 2010 at 02:56:33 AM EST

A just fledged Australian Scarlet robin chick, who didn't seem to have the whole "wing thing" figured out yet. Imogen was able to pick it up for a few photos.

Framing and the Facts - by The Opportunity Agenda

Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 12:11:54 PM EST

Here at The Opportunity Agenda, we talk a lot about values, and the importance of building communications around them. In fact, we built a whole organization around six core values that drive our work and the way we talk about it. We do this, of course, because these values matter to us. Seeing them realized and supported are central to our goals. But as NPR explained recently, leading with values is also a savvy communications strategy. In a story on people's beliefs about climate change, reporter Christopher Joyce describes findings from Yale's Cultural Cognition Project that people form their views about climate change, among other things, based more on their existing worldview - and values - than on the facts presented to them.

Slamming Doors in the White House - by Oui

Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 12:04:48 PM EST

Another Deep Look at Rahm: What Emanuel Wanted, and How He Fits In

(The Atlantic) - This has been a week of inside vision into the role of Rahm Emanuel, the charismatic chief of staff, in the Obama White House. Does the president listen to him? Does the president need him? Why did Emanuel take the job? All are questions being asked, most prominently at (and in reaction to) The Washington Post, via Dana Milbank's column and Jason Horowitz's longer piece.

Today, we get another rich, long, voyeuristic look into Emanuel's time at the White House from The New Republic's Noam Scheiber, and, with it, some take-away facts about the chief of staff's tenure: Emanuel didn't get to pick all of his own personnel when he took the job; he favored Larry Summers for Treasury secretary; he wanted to preserve the White House's alliances with health industry players ...

A fearsome foursome

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

1,000 Words About Malawi - by borderjumpers

Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 11:32:28 AM EST

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

We spent a couple of amazing days in Lilongwe, Malawi - although it was cut short because we took an emergency flight back to Canada for the funeral of Bernard's grandmother (by the time you are reading this, we are back in Africa).

We arrived after a long journey that started in Kampala, Uganda -- and there's nothing better than arriving somewhere new and having a great place to crash (at only $30 a night for a double). What makes a good hostel in Africa? If it were just the fact that it was clean and the prices fair, we would have been content with our stay at the Mufasa Lodge. Add on hot showers, friendly staff, Wifi internet, and a fun lounge bar in the back, and you have one of the best hostels we've been to so far.

After arriving we visited the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, a project, supported by companies like the Body Shop, providing sanctuary space for the rescued, confiscated, orphaned and injured wild animals of Malawi. While touring their facility we met Kambuk (which means "leopard" in Chichewa), who was soundly sleeping in his 2,500 sq meter backyard of fenced green landscape. He was rescued by the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre after poachers shattered his knee in Nyika National Park (making it impossible for him to ever return to the wild.) As we toured the facility nearly every animal we saw -- from baboons to alligators -- had a similar Cinderella story of overcoming insurmountable odds to survive and, in most cases, return back to the wild.

The Center is one of the leading organizations in Malawi pushing lawmakers to enforce and enact legislation in support of wildlife conservation and environmental protection. They also develop local partnerships and training programs with the farmers and communities surrounding national parks. The struggle between protecting wildlife and agriculture is becoming especially evident as drought, conflict, and hunger continue to affect sub-Saharan Africa.

In Lilongwe, we also met with Stacia and Kristoff Nordin who showed us permaculture techniques at their home in Lilongwe. They use their garden to promote indigenous crops as a source of nutrition to the Malawians who are currently focused on growing corn, subsidized by the government.

Malawi may be best known for this so-called "Malawi Miracle." Five years ago the government decided to do something controversial--provide fertilizer subsidies to farmers to grow maize. Since then maize production has tripled and Malawi has been touted as an agricultural success story. But the way they are refining that corn, says Kristof, makes it "kind of like Wonderbread," leaving it with just two or three nutrients. Traditional varieties of corn, however, which aren't usually so highly processed, are more nutritious and don't require as much artificial fertilizer compared to hybrid varieties. According to Kristof, "48 percent of the country is still stunted with the miracle."

Stacia and Kristof use their home as a way to educate their neighbors about both permaculture and indigenous vegetables. Most Malawians think of traditional foods, such as amaranth and African eggplant, as poor people foods grown by "bad" farmers. But these crops may hold the key for solving hunger, malnutrition and poverty in Malawi. Rather than focusing on just planting maize--a crop that is not native to Africa--the Kristofs advise the farmers they work with that there is "no miracle plant, just plant them all." Maize, ironically, is least suited to this region because it's very susceptible to pests and disease. Unfortunately, the "fixation on just one crop," says Kristof, means that traditional varieties of foods are going extinct--crops that are already adapted to drought and heat, traits that become especially important as agriculture copes with climate change.

And indigenous crops can be an important source of income for farmers. Rather than importing things like amaranth, sorghum, spices, tamarinds and other products from India, South Africa, and other countries, the Nordins are helping farmers find ways to market seeds, as well as value added products, from local resources. These efforts not only provide income and nutrition, but fight the "stigma that anything Malawian isn't good enough," says Kristof. "A lot of solutions," he says, "are literally staring us in the face." And as I walked around seeing--and tasting-- the various crops at the Nordins' home, it's obvious that maize is not Malawi's only miracle.

As an aside, the toilet at Stacia and Kristoff Nordin's house was so environmentally sustainable, you almost felt like you were doing a heroic act for the garden just by going to the bathroom. The vegetables and fruits they're growing, thrive off human manure and the water to wash your hands comes from captured rainfall.

One other thing we ought to mention is that Malawi is surprisingly expensive, or maybe we continue to feel firsthand the decline of the value of the American dollar. We found good value for lodging, but the food (maybe because all the fields were converted to Maize) was very expensive. People are suffering here from malnutrition and hunger, and we found it hard to maintain a varied diet at a reasonable price. Good vegetarian food would have been very difficult in Lilongwe if it weren't for the local Chinese restaurant near the hostel.

Week 3: Third hunger striker to be deported - by Frank Schnittger

Wed Mar 3rd, 2010 at 06:21:07 AM EST

Jim Wyse is now entering his third week on hunger strike and John Guinan his second. They are due to be joined by a third hunger striker, John Recto, today. John Recto was told he had to call to Naas Garda Station this morning, where he was informed that his work visa has been revoked. He was told he has until March 8th to leave the country. He is from the Philippines and has been working at Green Isle Foods for the past three years. His wife and three children, aged six, seven and one year old, are living with him in Naas. His youngest child was born in Ireland.

Ironically March 8th is also the day when Cork City Council, Fingal County Council and South Dublin County Council are to discuss motions on the Green Isle Foods dispute. Dublin City Council passed a motion on Monday night calling on the company to accept the Labour Court recommendation made last December as the basis for resolving the six months old dispute. The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, representing the men, has already accepted the recommendation.

Protest march in support of Green Isle hunger strikers - by Frank Schnittger

Tue Mar 2nd, 2010 at 06:43:42 PM EST

The above is a short interview with the hunger strikers, Jim Wyse and John Guinan, at the protest march against Green Isle foods yesterday. They are currently in their 12th. and 5th. days on hunger strike in protest at the unfair dismissal of their colleagues in Green Isle Foods. A third hunger striker is due to join them on Wednesday.

For those who wish to know more about the background to the dispute, please see Irish engineer on hunger strike in support of dismissed colleagues and Week 2 of Hunger Strike.

Mainstream media reports that 300/400 people attended the march are rather wide of the mark: the true figure was closer to 1,000. Speakers included Jack O'Connor, the President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, who pledged the support of 840,000 Irish Trade Union members and promised to seek to enlist the support of 7 Million UK Trade Union members as well.

Media coverage focused on the scandalous, defamatory, and scurrilous Company claims that the strikers had downloaded pornography. In fact they had no internet access and had only received some e-mails from an anonymous source. Belatedly their Union is now talking about taking legal action to halt those slanders, but such legal actions are prohibitively expensive in the Irish legal system and really only affordable by well funded corporate bodies.

The real reason for their dismissal is that they had accessed some sensitive corporate files which the Company had inadvertently made available to them. Remarkably, the manager leading the media offensive against them is JJ Ryan who had line management responsibility for the IT and audit functions directly responsible for the lack of security on corporate management information systems and the lack of firewalls and spam filters on the corporate e-mail system.

The Politics of Heartlessness - by The Opportunity Agenda

Tue Mar 2nd, 2010 at 02:44:04 PM EST

The economic collapse and ensuing high unemployment rates have reminded us that no one is immune to the vagaries of the 21st century economy. While there has been significant disagreement about how to jumpstart the economy, motivated as often as not by partisanship, most people in Congress understand that, at least in the short-term, basic human decency demands that our social safety net remain accessible to the millions enduring hardship because of the extended recession. For one Senator, though, it is simply too expensive to provide even modest support to those among us who are have been hit hardest.

In using procedural mechanisms to block a temporary extension of unemployment benefits, which passed the House on a simple voice vote, Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky made clear that he believes that compassion, even in a time of crisis, is not a value he holds in high regard. This is not a matter of parochialism or politics—Kentucky’s unemployment rate since the beginning of the collapse has been higher than the national average, and, in any event, Bunning has chosen not to run for reelection. Rather, it is pure callousness from a man who, after a successful baseball career and more than 20 years in elected office, has forgotten what it means experience economic uncertainty.

Finding `Abundance' in What is Local - by borderjumpers

Tue Mar 2nd, 2010 at 12:19:36 PM EST

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

Richard Haigh runs Enaleni Farm outside Durban, South Africa, raising endangered Zulu sheep, Nguni cattle (a breed indigenous to South Africa that is very resistant to pests), and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Check out this video from my conversation with Richard about his sheep, his garden, and the meaning behind the name of his farm:

Valuing What They Already Have - by borderjumpers

Mon Mar 1st, 2010 at 11:28:13 AM EST

Cross posted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

Richard Haigh doesn't look like your typical African pastoralist. Unlike many Africans who grew up tending cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock, Richard started his farm in 2007 at the age of 40. He quit his 9-5 job at a nongovernmental organization and bought 23 acres of land outside Durban, South Africa.

He wanted to totally change his life.

Today, he runs Enaleni Farm (enaleni means "abundance" in Zulu), raising endangered Zulu sheep, Nguni cattle (a breed indigenous to South Africa that is very resistant to pests), and a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Richard is cultivating GMO-free soya, as well as traditional maize varieties. "All the maize tells a story," he says. Like the sheep and cattle, many maize varieties are resistant to drought, climate change, and diseases, making them a smart choice for farmers all over Africa.

This sort of mixed-crop livestock system is becoming increasingly rare in South Africa, according to Richard, because of commercial farms that rely on monoculture crops rather than on diverse agricultural systems.

Richard likes to say that his farm isn't organic, but rather an example of how agro-ecological methods can work. He practices push-pull agriculture, which uses alternating intercropping of plants that repel pests (pushing them away from the harvest) and ones that attract pests (pulling them away from the harvest) to increase yields. He also uses animal manure and compost for fertilizer.

But perhaps the most important thing Richard is doing at Enaleni doesn't have to do with the various agricultural methods and practices he's using. It's about the "stories" he's telling on the farm. By showing local people the tremendous benefits that indigenous cattle and sheep breeds, and sustainably grown crops, can have for the environment and livelihoods, he's putting both an ecological and economic value on something that's been neglected. "Local people don't value what they have," says Richard, because extension agents have tended to promote exotic livestock and expensive inputs.

In addition, Richard asks himself "what can we do that is specific to where we live?" In other words, how can we promote local sources of agricultural diversity that are good for the land and for people?

Richard is also helping document the diversity on his farm. He's been sending blood samples to the South African National Research Foundation to help them build a DNA "hoof print" of what makes up a Zulu sheep. This sort of research is important not only for conserving the sheep, but for helping to increase local knowledge about the breeds that people have been raising for generations.

As a result of his conservation work, Richard and Enaleni Farm have been recognized by Slow Food International, which wants to work with the farm and local communities to find ways to ensure that the Zulu sheep don't disappear.

Richard hopes to share his knowledge about agriculture with local farmers, teaching them how to spot and prevent disease in indigenous sheep, as well as explaining agro-ecological methods of raising food.

Corporations and the Destroying of America - by Forgiven

Mon Mar 1st, 2010 at 10:27:37 AM EST

There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible. - Henry Ford

We are entering a new era in the history of American life. Never in our history have we faced the possibility of millions of Americans not only being unemployed during this recession but not being able to be employed once this recession ends. Many economists predict that even after we recover that the unemployment rates will continue to be high for years. Job growth has continued to shrink in America for decades as many corporations have elected to ship American jobs overseas in a race to the bottom for the cheapest labor. They have moved manufacturing from third-world country to third-world country with no regard for its long-term consequences to the American worker. Corporations have traded the viability of the American labor force for short-term profits and Wall Street ratings.

Canada helping Israel build Apartheid state - by shergald

Mon Mar 1st, 2010 at 09:39:54 AM EST

...and other nefarious developments.

Among the recent books published on Israel recently, several already anticipate the next phase of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Apartheid phase, in which Palestinians continue their battle for self-determination inside a group of bantustans, located within a greater Eretz Israel, which will extend from the Jordan River to the sea.

Added to Uri Davis' Apartheid Israel: Possibilities for the Struggle Within and Ben White's, Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide comes Yves Engler's Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid.

In this article, Canada's neoconservative turn (The Electronic Intifada, 26 February 2010), Engler describes a dramatic shift in Canadian foreign policy toward Israel under the right wing conservative government of Stephen Harper, which implicates Canada in helping Israel build an Apartheid state for the Palestinians.

Obama FP Converted to Clinton Real Politics - by Oui

Sun Feb 28th, 2010 at 06:27:44 AM EST

.
In a panel discussion on today's BBC foriegn policy forum came forward the following statement: "Obama succeeded in making America irrelevant in Middle East politics." I noted last summer, Hillary Clinton took the initiative when she praised Netanyahu for his bold moves on Israeli settlements "freeze".

Hillary Clinton tried, but failed, to get Sidney Blumenthal on board at the State Department as a personal advisor. Clinton Chafes at White House vetting process: "nightmare".

Obama's China visit was a debacle. Leaves China experts at home, takes with him campaign advisors.

Traitor Dick Morris is a close Clintonite and has joined the Tea Party movement with harsh Obama criticism and opposition to health care with ads by his League of American Voters.

My earlier diary: Dennis Ross Moves to NSC A Hawk Within?

With foreign-policy speech, Clinton plans to raise her profile

Clinton's planned speech is clearly meant to raise her own profile as well. In her first six months as Barack Obama's top diplomat, the secretary has faced something of an underappreciated challenge: proving that she is a loyal lieutenant to her former presidential primary rival while projecting that she owns the Obama administration's diplomatic portfolio.

Perhaps more than any other member in Obama's "team of rivals," Clinton has had to walk a fine line ...

The Many Deficiencies of the OPR Report - by danps

Sat Feb 27th, 2010 at 05:59:01 AM EST

A long awaited examination of possible ethics violations by the authors of the Bush administration's torture memos was finally released late last week. As has seemed typical on this topic, the official document raises more questions than it answers.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Massive 8.8 Quake Hits Chile - by Oui

Sat Feb 27th, 2010 at 04:47:44 AM EST

8.8-magnitude earthquake hits central Chile

SANTIAGO, Chile -- A massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake capable of tremendous damage struck central Chile early Saturday, shaking the capital for a minute and a half and setting off a tsunami.

Buildings collapsed and phone lines and electricity were down, making the extent of the damage difficult to determine. At least 6 people were killed, President Michele Bachelet said.

"We have had a huge earthquake," Bachelet said, speaking from an emergency response center in an appeal for Chileans to remain calm. "We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately."

Bachelet said early reports were that six people had been killed, and "without a doubt, with an earthquake of this magnitude, there will be more deaths." She urged people to avoid traveling in the dark, since traffic lights are down, to avoid causing more fatalities.

The quake hit at 3:34 a.m. (0634 GMT; 1:34 a.m. EST) and was centered 325 kilometers southwest of the capital, Santiago, at a depth of 35 kilometers the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

The epicenter was just 115 kilometers from Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, where more than 200,000 people live along the Bio Bio river, and 60 miles from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.

An Associated Press Television News cameraman said some buildings have collapsed in Santiago, where power was out in parts of the city. An important church was among the buildings that came down in the central city of Providencia, where window glass shattered into the streets and people ran from multistory buildings, according to TV Chile.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a warning for Chile and Peru, and a less-urgent tsunami watch for Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Antarctica. It said a tsunami could also hit Hawaii later in the day.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Saturday Painting Palooza Vol.238 - by boran2

Sat Feb 27th, 2010 at 12:05:17 AM EST

Hello again painting fans.

Bi-Weekly Public Opinion Roundup - by The Opportunity Agenda

Fri Feb 26th, 2010 at 04:31:57 PM EST

The upcoming November elections draw near, both Democrats and Republicans are in an election state of mind. Both parties are focusing on trying to appease their voter base, while Obama and his administration push forward to make due on some promises such as health care reform and the repeal of the ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell’ military policy.

According to recent surveys 32% of Americans affiliate with the Democratic Party and 26% self-identify as Republican, while 39% identify as independents. Regarding the upcoming fall election, 34% of Americans say that they will definitely vote Democratic, while 37% say that they definitely will not.A majority of the public view both Democrats and Republicans unfavorably. 51% of the public view the Democratic Party negatively, and 57% for Republicans. Three- quarters of the American public disapproves of Congress, which is their highest disapproval rating since 1977. Additionally, half of the public would like to see the filibuster rule changed, in order limit back and forth politics of Congress, and ensure sure legislation actually can be passed.

1,000 Words About Johannesburg - by borderjumpers

Fri Feb 26th, 2010 at 12:45:23 PM EST

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Been scratching our heads about how to write 1,000 original, inspiring, and exciting words on one of the most written about countries in the world. Instead of trying, we want to share with you a couple of things we saw and learned while we there.

As we traveled all the way south from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Johannesburg, South Africa, several Africans kept telling us how dangerous J'burg is. We heard the same sort of thing before visiting Nairobi, Kenya,"don't step out at night and "don't go anywhere without a taxi..." Yada, Yada, Yada.

But there was no question in our minds whether would visit or not. With a dozen meetings scheduled, nothing was going to stop us from going. And after two weeks weeks, despite the hype, and without compromising our experience, we didn't encounter a single problem (we stayed in hostels and budget B&B's), didn't witness any car-jackings, were never robbed at gun point at an ATM, and never felt that our safety was compromised in any way. Every visitor we met while in the city had the same experience as us (uneventful, as far as crime).

The Coffee Party Movement - by btchakir

Fri Feb 26th, 2010 at 09:29:18 AM EST

Let's hear it for Annabel Park of Silver Spring, MD, who, when really upset by the Tea Party Movement and it's Fox News promoters, started a response movement in her living room: The Coffee Party Movement. And, wonder of wonders, it has caught on... enough so that I've added Coffee Party to my blog rolls.

Here's the Coffee Party Mission Statement:

The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.

And here is Annabel on how she started it all:
youtube=

Interested? Then go HERE and join the Coffee Party Movement. I did.

Under The LobsterScope

Friday Foto Flogging - by olivia

Fri Feb 26th, 2010 at 08:03:12 AM EST

This Week's Theme: Rails, Trails, Roads.

Thursday Immigration Blog Roundup - by The Opportunity Agenda

Thu Feb 25th, 2010 at 04:53:27 PM EST

This week's Immigration Blog Roundup will cover new research on the economic impact of immigrants, detention issues, the March for America on March 21st, and more...

The New York Civil Liberties Union has released "Voices from Varick: Detainee Grievances at New York City's Only Federal Immigration Detention Facility" which analyzes detainee grievances and highlights the inadequate medical care and mistreatment by staff. Click here for key findings.

Last month ICE had announced that the Varick Detention Center would close this week, however relocating the 300 detainees to New Jersey has been difficult with the amount of detainees suffering from serious medical problems. Immigration officials say that the Varick Center will only be used as a processing hub where detainees would be held no more than 12 hours, however advocates are skeptical.

The Immigration Policy Center has released their research on the economic and political influence of immigrants, Latinos, and Asians in Kansas:
-Immigrants make up 6.0% of Kansas's population.
-31.2% of immigrants in 2007 were naturalized U.S. citizens eligible to vote.
-If all unauthorized immigrants were removed from Kansas, the state could lose $1.8 billion in expenditures, $807.2 million in economic output, and approximately 11,879 jobs.

Both the Democratic and Republican parties are struggling in securing the Latino vote. According to NBC-Wall Street Journal polls fewer Latinos view the Democratic party favorably than did a year ago. While the Republican Party is threatened by immigration debate hard-liners and anti-immigration activists.

Lastly, be part of Reform Immigration for America' campaign and show your support for Comprehensive Immigration Reform in the March for America on March 21st, 2010 in Washington, D.C. For more information go here.

Wanted ... Dead or Alive - by Oui

Thu Feb 25th, 2010 at 04:47:27 PM EST

Wanted
Qari Mohammad Zafar
Up to $5 Million Reward

Qari Mohammad Zafar is wanted for questioning in connection with the March 2, 2006 bombing of the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.

The attack killed three Pakistani citizens and David Foy, a U.S. diplomat. Zafar is suspected of being a key figure involved with this attack.

Al Qaeda-linked suspects emerge in Islamabad Marriott attacks

Two senior al Qaeda and Taliban-linked Pakistani terrorists are suspected of being behind the Sept. 20 (2008) bombing at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. The deadly attack killed more than 50 Pakistanis and foreigners and wounded more than 270, and destroyed the once-popular hotel.

In recent press reports, Qari Saifullah Akhtar, the leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, and Qari Mohammad Zafar, a leader of the Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, have both been implicated as being the mastermind of the Marriott bombing. Both men have extensive ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban, and have been in Pakistani custody until recently.

Baitullah Mehsud, LJ join hands in Karachi

Remember? Bush: 'Radical killers' behind Karachi bomb

The Israel Hasbara Committee and the New York Times - by shergald

Thu Feb 25th, 2010 at 08:52:42 AM EST

The only subtitle appropriate for this diary is Dick Cheney's version of the hackneyed saying: "You can put all the lipstick you want on a pig. But at the end of the day, it's still a pig." Maybe he was talking about his boss at the time. Who knows. But the saying is also well suited to the Israel Hasbara Committee, in this portrayal by Phillip Weiss of Mondoweiss.

The Israel Hasbara Committee claims it is concerned with disseminating truth about Israel and the Jewish people. Hasbara in Hebrew means, in the neutral sense, information, but in the hard sense, it refers to propaganda and when Israel is the issue these days, it most certainly refers to the hard view, propaganda.

Habib Sues Australia for Guantanamo Torture - by Oui

Thu Feb 25th, 2010 at 08:40:10 AM EST

Ex-Guantanamo detainee Mamdouh Habib to sue Australia

An Australian man who was held in the Guantanamo Bay US detention camp has won the right to sue his government for complicity in his alleged treatment.

A Federal Court said he was free to sue after rejecting Canberra's claim that an Australian judge could not rule on the actions of foreign officials.

Mamdouh Habib was released from Guantanamo without charge in 2005.

In one hideous example, Habib was suspended from hooks on a wall, his feet on a drum connected to a battery, which would send a shock through his feet. "The action of Mr. Habib 'dancing' on the drum forced it to rotate, and his feet constantly slipped. leaving him suspended by only the hooks on the wall ...

"Inflamed by his protests and indifferent to his screams, the sessions typically ended only when he admitted whatever they were questioning him about at the time -- whatever it was," the documents added. "In the midst of horrendous torture, Mr. Habib 'confessed' to it all."

Such "confessions" were than used to justify his detention in Guanánamo Bay, where he was transferred in 2002, and where the mental and physical torture continued.

United States: trade in torture

Toyoda Testifies - The Emperor's new clothes - by parvenu

Wed Feb 24th, 2010 at 09:54:36 PM EST

The Japanese contingent led by Mr. Aiko Toyoda spent 3 hours before a House Committee this afternoon. Most of the testimony and the questions behaved like ships passing in the night, where the answers given by Mr. Toyoda and his executives bore little resemblance to the questions asked except in the sense that the subject was about Toyota automobiles. Toyoda was particularly evasive when questioned about the possibility that the sudden uncontrolled acceleration (SUA) could be caused by the electronic throttle control system. It was a little disconcerting that the Congressional committee didn't have a software/systems engineer there to help guide some of the more technical questions. However, as a (retired) software engineer I am prepared to offer my own perspective on this deadly problem below the fold.

Police, Insurgents Battle in NOLA - Episode 2 - by Oui

Wed Feb 24th, 2010 at 01:51:05 PM EST

.
This was the heading of a fp story @Booman on Sept. 4, 2006. Now the real facts show a corrupt police investigation to shield officers from prosecution and liability.

Police supervisor encouraged cover-up, knew officer planted gun while still on Danziger Bridge

Lt. Michael Lohman, a supervisor who led the detective unit that first investigated the shooting of six people on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina, has been charged with one count of conspiring to obstruct justice in a bill of information that was unsealed today.

He is expected to plead guilty in a court hearing early this afternoon, after which U.S. Attorney Jim Letten has scheduled a press conference.

Lohman also participated in a plan to plant a gun at the scene, the bill of information says. The investigating officer told him that he planned to place a gun under the bridge, and Lohman "asked whether the investigator knew that the gun was 'clean,' meaning it could not be traced back to another crime." The investigator said it was, and "Lohman went along with the plan."

In addition, Lohman signed off on a report that said the investigator found the gun under the bridge on Sept. 5, the bill of information says. In fact, the document says, Lohman was so "frustrated" with the implausibility of the initial report that he "personally drafted" a 17-page replacement that included "numerous false facts."

The Disparate Impact of the Downturn - by The Opportunity Agenda

Wed Feb 24th, 2010 at 12:11:27 PM EST

While it is a deeply-held American belief that we’re all in this together, there has long been a truism that when the economy gets a cold, the poor get pneumonia. It’s a glib way of noting that any downturn in the economy has a disparate impact on those least prepared to handle it.

On February 20, 2010, the New York Times published an article on the “new poor,” millions of Americans struggling with long-term unemployment. As the Times notes, changes in the economy have stripped away some of the jobs that traditionally offered a path to the middle class for those with less education. “Some labor experts say the basic functioning of the American economy has changed in ways that make jobs scarce.” … “Factory work and even white-collar jobs have moved in recent years to low-cost countries in Asia and Latin America. Automation has helped manufacturing cut 5.6 million jobs since 2000 — the sort of jobs that once provided lower-skilled workers with middle-class paychecks.”

1,000 Words About Mozambique - by borderjumpers

Wed Feb 24th, 2010 at 11:59:17 AM EST

We love the energy of Maputo.

It's the good kind of energy where we never felt like people were trying to hustle us like in the tourist traps of Arusha and Zanzibar, Tanzania. We also felt safe to wander in the evenings unlike in Nairobi, Kenya or Johannesburg, South Africa where we would jump into cabs after evening meetings (or linger in the suburbs).

Maputo's vibrant, entrepreneurial, positive, and alive. It reminded us of Kampala, Uganda where the youth are bursting with energy, from the buzzing music scene, to the street and informal economy, and small upstart businesses.

Mozambique is not without its problems. Real poverty is everywhere, drug use rampant, many schools are dilapidated and deteriorating, and there is lots of evidence of environmental destruction and deforestation. But Maputo is clearly on the move, transforming itself and melding some of the best parts of its rich and diverse cultures.

We arrived by an Intercape bus from J'burg on an all night ride that spent an extra five hours on the road due to a closed highway from a chemical spillage and accident. And after pulling an all-nighter we jumped right into a series of meetings for Dani's research for Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

We checked into Base Backpackers largely because it was in walking distance to the Intercape bus station and twenty dollar a night for a private room. We'd be lying if we told you it was a perfect situation: we were in the lower basement (it wreaked of mold), had to walk two flights of stairs and across a hallway to go to the bathroom (twenty people were sharing the one working toilet), cold water showers, and internet so bad that old school AOL dial-up would have felt like luxury. With that said, the hostel was in the heart of the city and across the street from vegetarian friendly Chinese and Indian food. The hotel staff was extremely friendly, and the "guard" -- a mutt resembling a bijon frise named Spudd -- made for a warm, tail wagging welcome when we came home.

We spent the day visiting a workshop organized by Prolinnova, the Spanish NGO Centro de Iniciativas para la Cooperación/Batá, and the National Farmers Union of Mozambique, UNAC, about different agricultural innovations. The workshop brought farmers together from across the country to share with each other different innovations each farmer was practicing in her or his community. What I loved about the workshop was that it wasn't some NGO preaching about what should be done, the farmers led the meeting, they drove the discussion, they presented their own findings. It was really refreshing to hear from the people who know best what is working and what needs to be scaled-up across the country. Throughout the morning, farmers presented other innovations and practices--including how to prevent diseases that affect their crops and fruit trees and how to raise farmed fish. Batá/Prolinnova/UNAC plans to identify 12-14 innovations and practices identified at the workshops for a book which will be translated into three of Mozambique's languages, allowing these different innovations to spread throughout the country.

The next day we spent an awe-opening couple of hours with Dr. Rosa Costa at International Rural Poultry Center of the Kyeema Foundation in Mozambique. We know all too well how avian influenza, H1N1 and serious diseases can ravage livestock and rural communities. Newcastle disease, which can wipe out entire flocks of chickens and can spread from farm to farm, is especially devastating for rural farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Vaccines for Newcastle used to be hard to come by in Africa. They were imported and usually expensive, putting them out of reach of small farmers. And even when they were available, they required refrigeration, which is not common in many rural villages. Today, however, thanks to the work of the Kyeema foundation in Mozambique, villages have access not only to vaccines, but also to locally trained community vaccinators (or para-vets) who can help spot and treat Newcastle and other poultry diseases before they spread. With help from a grant from the Australian Government's overseas aid program (AusAID), Kyeema developed a thermo-stable vaccine that doesn't need to be refrigerated and is easier for rural farmers to administer to their birds.

Dr. Costa also talked at great length about the importance of nutrition when it comes to treating HIV/AIDS. Many retroviral and HIV/AIDS drugs don't work if patients aren't getting enough vitamins and nutrients in their diets or accumulating enough body fat. She noted that while many farmers are often too sick to grow crops, "chickens are easy." Because women are often the primary caregivers for family members with HIV/AIDS, they need easy, low-cost sources of both food and income. Unlike many crops, raising free-range birds can require few outside inputs and very little maintenance from farmers. Birds can forage for insects and eat kitchen scraps, instead of expensive grains. They provide not only meat and eggs for household use and income, but also pest control and manure for fertilizer.

On our last day we visited with Madyo Couto who works under the Mozambique Ministry of Tourism to help manage the country's Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). These areas were initially established to help conserve and protect wildlife, but they're now evolving to include other uses of land that aren't specifically for conservation. Madyo explained that in addition to linking the communities that live near or in conservation areas to the private sector to build lodges and other services for tourists, they're also helping farmers establish honey projects to generate income. In many of national parks and other conservation areas, farmers resort to poaching and hunting wildlife to earn money. He added that establishing alternative--and profitable--sources of income is vital to protecting both agriculture and biodiversity in the TFCAs.

Finally we met with Jessica Milgroom, an American graduate student working with farming communities living inside Limpopo National Park, in southern Mozambique. When the park was established in 2001, it was essentially "parked on top of 27,000 people," says Jessica. Some 7,000 of the residents needed to be resettled to other areas, including within the park, which affected their access to food and farmland. Jessica's job is to see what can be done to improve resettlement food security. But rather than simply recommending intensified agriculture in the park to make better use of less land, Jessica worked with the local community to collect and identify local seed varieties. One of the major problems in Mozambique, as well as other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, is the lack of seed. As a result, farmers are forced to buy low-quality seed because nothing else is available. In addition to identifying and collecting seeds, Jessica is working with a farmer's association on seed trials, testing varieties to see what people like best.

After only five days in Maputo, we will definitely come back for another visit. Mozambique is so vast and incredible with loads of incredible projects to visit that our brief trip simply wasn't enough time. But with meetings already scheduled in Durban, we boarded the 20 hour bus ride (had to go via J'Burg) back.

US Loses 1,000th Soldier in Enduring Freedom - by Oui

Tue Feb 23rd, 2010 at 12:39:39 PM EST

.
always tough to reach this number of fatalities.

Especially when the end goal is ever so far away ...

Hamid Karzai takes control of Afghanistan election watchdog

(The Guardian) - The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has unilaterally taken control of the country's top electoral watchdog, provoking outrage from western diplomats, the Guardian has learnt.

The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), which forced Karzai into a runoff election after it disqualified nearly 1m fraudulent votes in last year's presidential election, previously included three foreign experts named by the UN.

However, according to a new presidential decree published today, Karzai will have the exclusive power to appoint all five panel members. His decision to "Afghanise" the ECC came while parliament was in recess.

It provoked a shocked reaction from western diplomats, who fear parliamentary elections - due to take place in six months - will be fatally undermined by a repeat of last year's electoral fraud.

Power of the Pen - by The Opportunity Agenda

Tue Feb 23rd, 2010 at 12:26:39 PM EST

Last week President Obama used a strategy that should become an important part of his leadership going forward. On February 18, he issued an executive order creating a bipartisan commission on addressing the budget deficit, after the Senate failed to enact legislation that would have done so. Whatever one thinks of the commission’s mission or likely recommendations, the order should represent a rediscovery of the power of the presidency.

Perhaps because he came to the White House directly from the Senate, the President has been overly reliant on that body to achieve his goals. It goes without saying that the Senate is dysfunctional and divided—by contrast, the House has passed superior versions of many of the President’s legislative priorities, only to see more anemic version die at the other end of the building. But while the Senate is crucial to federal legislation, and federal legislation is crucial to transformative change on many issues, such as health care, financial regulation, and immigration reform, presidents wield tremendous power as presidents through their constitutional authority as executive. The executive order is a prime example.

President Obama has issued some 42 Executive Orders since he took office. But the Deficit Commission order served as a public notice—or at least it should—that the President stands ready to move solutions forward, within constitutional limits, when the Legislative Branch fails to act.

America's Terrorist Arrested by Iran's SF in Pakistan - by Oui

Tue Feb 23rd, 2010 at 11:29:55 AM EST

Iran's Special Forces using US rendition and Mossad techniques

TEHRAN, Iran (Press TV) - Iran's Intelligence Ministry says Abdolmalek Rigi, ringleader of the terrorist group Jundallah (Soldiers of God) or People's Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI), was at a US base 24 hours before being captured by Iranian forces.

« click photo
Sorry, this isn't Rigi but Iran's Interior Minister ...

Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar told reporters on Tuesday that Rigi was arrested outside the country as he was preparing for a new act of sabotage. He was consequently transferred to Iran.

In a news conference following Rigi's capture, Iran's Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi shed light on certain details regarding Rigi's arrest as well as his links with foreign elements.

Moslehi said that Americans utilized an Afghan passport for Rigi, a declaration which adds to already existing evidence on Rigi's links with the US.

Moslehi said that Rigi had contacts with CIA and Mossad and had even met the NATO military chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Afghanistan in April 2008. According to the minister, Rigi had also contacts with certain EU countries and traveled to them.

Looking Ahead - by The Opportunity Agenda

Mon Feb 22nd, 2010 at 12:05:14 PM EST

One year ago our nation, and much of this world, was in a state of panic and turmoil. Companies and industries were shedding jobs faster than we could count. The stock market was tanking in front of our eyes. Waking up every morning to look at the headlines of the newspaper was a daunting task in fear of what a new day could bring to the American people. We needed a lifeline.

And so President Barack Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on February 17, 2009. Critics have been very vocal at pointing out the persistently high unemployment rate as well as flagrant examples of waste and inefficiency. At the same time, supporters have ample evidence to defend the act—a couple million jobs saved or created, a depression averted, and billions of dollars supporting and aiding colleges and universities to invest in the future of our country. Both sides have valid arguments and substantial verification. Undoubtedly, there have been great benefits from the act, but inevitably there is also vast room for improvement in the second year of the two year plan. With a year behind us, we must look ahead and focus our attention and energy in avoiding past mistakes by demanding greater transparency, and demanding higher quality outcomes. As the White House begins to craft the new jobs bill, we must make sure the bill creates good jobs—jobs that offer living wages, provide benefits, and have the potential for long-term growth and advancement.

Wausau Daily Herald: Husband and his wife are helping an African nation farm its was out of poverty - by borderjumpers

Mon Feb 22nd, 2010 at 10:35:38 AM EST

Edgar native one of Malawi's miracle workers
Husband and his wife are helping an African nation farm its was out of poverty
By Danielle Nierenberg
For the Wausau Daily Herald

Stacia and Kristof Nordin have an unusual backyard, and it looks a lot different from the Edgar yard in which Kristof grew up.

Rather than the typical bare dirt patch of land that most Malawians sweep "clean" every day, the Nordins have more than 200 varieties of mostly indigenous vegetables growing organically around their house. They came to Malawi in 1997 as Peace Corps volunteers, but now call Malawi home. Stacia is a technical adviser to the Malawi Ministry of Education, working to sensitize both policymakers and citizens about the importance of using indigenous foods and permaculture to improve livelihoods and nutrition. Kristof is a community educator who works to train people at all levels of Malawian society in low-input and sustainable agricultural practices.

The Nordins use their home as a demonstration plot for permaculture methods that incorporate composting, water harvesting, intercropping and other methods that help build organic matter in soils, conserve water, and protect agricultural diversity. Most Malawians think of traditional foods, such as amaranth and African eggplant, as poor-people foods grown by "bad" farmers. But these crops might hold the key for solving hunger, malnutrition and poverty in Malawi -- as well as in other African countries.
Nowhere needs the help more than Malawi, a nation of 14 million in southeast Africa that is among the least developed and most densely populated on Earth.

The country might be best known for the so-called "Malawi Miracle." Five years ago, the government decided to do something controversial and provide fertilizer subsidies to farmers to grow maize. Since then, maize production has tripled and Malawi has been touted as an agricultural success story.

But the way they are refining that corn, says Kristof, makes it "kind of like Wonder Bread," leaving it with just two or three nutrients. Traditional varieties of corn, which aren't usually so highly processed, are more nutritious and don't require as much artificial fertilizer as do hybrid varieties.

"Forty-eight percent of the country's children are still nutritionally stunted, even with the so-called miracle," Kristof says.

Rather than focusing on just planting maize -- a crop that is not native to Africa -- the Nordins advise farmers with whom they work that there is "no miracle plant -- just plant them all." Research has shown that Malawi has more than 600 indigenous and naturalized food plants to choose from. Maize, ironically, is one of the least suited to this region because it's highly susceptible to pests, disease and erratic rainfall patterns.

Unfortunately, the "fixation on just one crop," says Kristof, means that traditional varieties of foods are going extinct -- crops that already are adapted to drought and heat, traits that become especially important as agriculture copes with climate change.

"Design," says Kristof, "is key in permaculture," meaning that everything from garden beds to the edible fish pond to the composting toilet have an important role on their property. And although their neighbors have been skeptical, they're impressed by the quantity -- and diversity -- of food grown by the family. More than 200 indigenous fruits and vegetables are grown on their small plot of land, providing a year-round supply of food to the Nordins and their neighbors.

In addition, they're creating a "model village" by training several families who rent houses on the property,) to practice and teach others about the permaculture techniques that they use around their homes. They also have built an "edible playground," where children can play, eat and learn about various indigenous fruits.

More important, the Nordins are showing that by not sweeping, burning and removing all organic matter, people can get more out of the land than just maize and reduce their dependence on high-cost agricultural inputs in the process.

And indigenous crops can be an important source of income for farmers. Rather than import amaranth, sorghum, spices, tamarinds and other products from India, South Africa and other countries, the Nordins are helping farmers find ways to market seeds, as well as value-added products, from local resources. These efforts not only provide income and nutrition, but fight the "stigma that anything Malawian isn't good enough," says Kristof. "The solutions," he says, "are literally staring us in the face."

And as a visitor walked around seeing and tasting the various crops at the Nordins' home, it became obvious that maize is not Malawi's only miracle.

Danielle Nierenberg is a senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute, blogging daily from Africa
athttp://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/. She can be reached at dnierenberg@worldwatch.org.

The Next Election Syndrome - by Forgiven

Mon Feb 22nd, 2010 at 09:20:08 AM EST

''In my father's day, you legislated for four years and campaigned for two; now it's full time,'' Bayh said this week. ''It never stops. My bottom line is that there are a lot of really good people trapped in a dysfunctional system desperately in need of reform.'' - Ohio.com

One of the main causes of the political gridlock that is gripping Washington and has brought our federal government to a screeching halt is the phenomenon of the constant campaign. Regardless of whether you win or lose moments after the election it all begins again. The problem with the constant campaign is that you basically invalidate the results of the previous election. You exchange long-term legislative initiatives for short-term political gains. Because you are always running for re-election or election to another office there is little if any incentive for compromise or accomplishing any legislative business. Bringing home pork has replaced solving complex political issues. Instead of running on any legislative record of accomplishments our congressional leaders are now campaigning on how much pork they have delivered to their districts.

A Song For My Father. And For Joe Stack As Well. - by Arthur Gilroy

Sun Feb 21st, 2010 at 03:22:00 PM EST

Mary4 on the Wild Wild Left wrote a comment on my piece The Joe Stack Story and the Media-The Dog That Did Not Bark. In it, she said:

The ones calling [Joe Stack] crazy are the ones that are sponges for MSM, haven't a problem in the world, and wouldn't insult their intelligence by reading the rantings of a deranged man.

Precisely.

Except of course...that he was "deranged."

He had been driven crazy by the ongoing contradictions of this system as it now stands.

Here is an interesting headline from today's mainstream news. (And it doesn't get any more "mainstream" than CNN.):

CNN Poll: Majority think government is broken
Americans overwhelmingly think that the government in this country is broken, according to a new national poll. But the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Sunday morning, also indicates that the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what's broken can be fixed.
Eighty-six percent of people questioned in the poll say that our system of government is broken, with 14 percent saying no.

Of even more interest to me are the following lines.

Of that 86 percent, 81 percent say that the government can be fixed, with 5 percent saying it's beyond repair.

Read on for more.

Much more. (Including the reason for including the above image.)

Think tank: Israel faces global delegitimization campaign - by shergald

Sun Feb 21st, 2010 at 10:22:18 AM EST

'We have seen the enemy' is a likely summary of this Haaretz article on a report of the state of Israel by the Reut Institute, a think tank. "Enemy" in this context refers to anyone involved in peace activism inside or outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories. Not surprisingly, Israel has recently begun a intensive campaign of arresting Palestinian peace activists and raiding offices of Palestinian organizations such as the venerable International Solidarity Movement, which has offices all over the world and on many US college campuses.

Irish engineer on hunger strike in support of dismissed colleagues - by Frank Schnittger

Sun Feb 21st, 2010 at 07:10:09 AM EST

Jim Wyse is a 58 year old grandfather who has been working for Green Isle Foods as a maintenance engineer for many years. The Company is a subsidiary of Northern Foods PLC which is listed on the London Stock Exchange; has a turnover of c. €1 Billion; has c. 11,000 employees in the UK and Ireland; and has received €43 Million in state aid from the Irish taxpayer. Its consumer brands include Goodfellas and San Marco Pizzas, Fox's Biscuits, Donegal Catch fish dishes, Grassington's meals and Holland's Pork Pies.

In July 2009 the Company dismissed 6 maintenance engineers (3 employed through a subcontractor) for breaches of the Company's IT policy. Their Union commenced strike action on 31st. of August and also took the Company to the Labour Court which ruled, in January 2010, that the Company should reinstate the workers concerned. (Such Labour Court findings are not legally binding under Irish law but are very rarely disobeyed).

When the Company refused to implement the Labour Court Findings or engage with the strikers in any meaningful way, Jim Wyse, the local Union shop steward, decided to go on hunger strike in support of the dismissed employees even though he was not one of the employees dismissed. It is planned that an additional hunger striker will join him each week until the dispute is resolved.

There have been corporate attempts to spin the case as concerning the handling of pornographic or adult material by the dismissed workers and this initially had an impact on the public support and sympathy the strikers received. However the facts reveal it was much more about management attempts to blame junior employees for the mistakes of their managers - and a complete contempt for the Irish industrial relations process.

What follows is based on a lengthy interview with Jim Wyse and the Union submission to the Labour Court which has never been challenged by the Company:

The Joe Stack Story and the Media-The Dog That Did Not Bark - by Arthur Gilroy

Sat Feb 20th, 2010 at 01:28:08 PM EST

Have you noticed how little big-time PermaGov media coverage the Joe Stack story has been getting?

Pretty sparse, considering...

Hmmmm...

I wonder why.

Oh.

I know.

The dog that did not bark!!!

In the Sherlock Holmes story "Silver Blaze" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Holmes was able to deduce that the killer of Colonel Ross's racehorse was the owner of the stable dog. As the fictional Holmes chronicler Dr. John Watson explains:

Colonel Ross still wore an expression which showed the poor opinion which he had formed of my companion's ability, but I saw by the inspector's face that his attention had been keenly aroused
"You consider that to be important?" he asked.
"Exceedingly so."
"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
"The dog did nothing in the night-time."
"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.
The only person at whom the stable dog would not bark warnings was the dog's owner. Hence, the dog's silence indicated that the only one who could have entered the stable and killed the horse, was the dog's owner.

Read on for more.

Gaza and the Dahiya Doctrine of Beirut - by Oui

Sat Feb 20th, 2010 at 12:10:27 PM EST

.
This piece was lying around and reading the BooMan - Hurria debate reminded me to pick it up and finish it as a diary. Yes BooMan, the actions of war by Israel in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza are meant as terrorism and should be called as such. The Israelis, through their arrogance and under the US umbrella of impunity, have publicized their actions on many occasions.

No Second Thoughts. The Changes in the Israeli Defense Forces' Combat Doctrine in Light of "Operation Cast Lead"

Two years later, in the beginning of October 2008, the Commanding Officer of the IDF's Northern Command, Maj. General Gadi Eisenkot, gave an interview to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, in which he unveiled what he called the "Dahiya Doctrine ":

"What happened in the Dahiye Quarter of Beirut in 2006, will happen in every village from which shots are fired on Israel. We will use disproportionate force against it and we will cause immense damage and destruction. From our point of view these are not civilian villages but military bases.
This is not a recommendation, this is the plan, and it has already been authorized."

"In the Second Lebanon War we used a great deal of bombs. How else were 120,000 houses destroyed?"
Most devastated was the Dahiye quarter in Beirut, a large Shiite neighbourhood which served as headquarters for the Hezbollah. According to many reports Dahiye was largely destroyed during the war.

Where the Middle East Fights Its Wars

Saturday Painting Palooza Vol.237 - by boran2

Sat Feb 20th, 2010 at 07:31:48 AM EST

Hello again painting fans.

Getting Beyond Regulation - by danps

Sat Feb 20th, 2010 at 05:46:11 AM EST

The idea of a public option has started to pop up beyond just the health care debate, and pursuing it could provide a very effective complement to the traditional means of protecting the public.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Dutch Cabinet Falls Over Uruzgan Mission - by Oui

Sat Feb 20th, 2010 at 01:14:45 AM EST

.
See my diary and excellent discussion on Uruzgan mission @ET ... [110+ comments]

Dutch government falls over Afghanistan mission

(RNW) - The Dutch government has fallen as a rift between coalition parties over extending Dutch military participation in Afghanistan could not be healed.

"Later today, I will will offer to her majesty the Queen the resignations of the ministers and deputy ministers of the PvdA (Labour Party)," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told journalists.

News of the collapse came in the early hours of Saturday morning following 16 hours of crisis meetings and days of speculation that the differences between the coalition parties had simply become too great to bridge.

Uruzgan

The issue where a compromise could not be found - whether or not to extend the military mission in the unruly Afghan province of Uruzgan - was itself not new. The cabinet decided back in the autumn of 2007 to extend the mission to Uruzgan by two years.

But the Labour Party felt it could not compromise again on an extension of the military mission. The criticism of Dutch support for the invasion of Iraq, presented by the independent Davids Commission in early January, only reinforced the Labour Party's resolve.

Former CIA: Phased withdrawal best option for Afghanistan

Pacific Progressive I/P Panels: Seattle, Hawai'i and Bay Area Sabeel Conferences - by RustyPipes

Fri Feb 19th, 2010 at 07:32:03 PM EST

In coming weeks, many Pacific Coast Progressive Christians will gather to contemplate what justice requires of US in Israel and Palestine. Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) is hosting conferences in the Pacific Northwest, Hawai'i and Northern California for the next few weekends.

Friends of Sabeel regional conferences are an effective tool for broadening awareness among western Christians on the issues relevant to the peoples of the Holy Land. Drawing on a rich pool of expertise in the fields of theology, biblical scholarship, church social justice teaching, regional history, international law, foreign policy and political currents, these educational events are able to attract wide participation from an ecumenical audience. Our speakers are individuals who represent the Palestinian Christian and Muslim communities as well as the Israeli Jewish community--religious leaders, scholars, writers and activists. American presenters come from all three religious traditions and from secular strands within the Sabeel movement.

Equality Disparities in Tech Firms? - by The Opportunity Agenda

Fri Feb 19th, 2010 at 01:40:40 PM EST

As seen in the chart below, that's been making the rounds, the stimulus is working. The Obama Administration, using numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is touting that the number of jobs lost is lessening.

This is great news, of course, but we must ensure that new jobs are equitably distributed. That's why it's discouraging to hear that five Silicon Valley companies successfully fought a Freedom of Information request for gender and race information on their employees.

Apple, Applied Materials, Google, Oracle, and Yahoo succeeded in rebuking the request from the San Jose Mercury News with the argument that "commercial harm" would be done and business strategy would be revealed to competitors.

Cultivating Food Security in Africa - by borderjumpers

Fri Feb 19th, 2010 at 12:27:04 PM EST

By Danielle Nierenberg and Abdou Tenkouano, special thanks to the Kansas City Star

As hunger and drought spread across Africa, a huge effort is underway to increase yields of staple crops, such as maize, wheat, cassava, and rice.

While these crops are important for food security, providing much-needed calories, they don't provide much protein, vitamin A, thiamin, niacin, and other important vitamins and micronutrients--or taste. Yet, none of the staple crops would be palatable without vegetables.

Vegetables are less risk-prone to drought than staple crops that stay in the field for longer periods. Because vegetables typically have a shorter growing time, they can maximize scarce water supplies and soil nutrients better than crops such as maize, which need a lot of water and fertilizer.

Unfortunately, no country in Africa has a big focus on vegetable production. But that's where AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center steps in. Since the 1990s, the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (based in Taiwan) has been working in Africa, with offices in Tanzania, Mali, Cameroon, and Madagascar, to breed cultivars that best suit farmers' needs.

By listening to farmers and including them in breeding research, AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center is building a sustainable seed system in sub-Saharan Africa. The Center does this by breeding a variety of vegetables with different traits--including resistance to disease and longer shelf life--and by bringing the farmers to the Regional Center in Arusha and to other offices across Africa to find out what exactly those farmers need in the field and at market.

Babel Isack, a tomato farmer from Tanzania, is just one of many farmers who visits the Center, advising staff about which vegetable varieties would be best suited for his particular needs--including varieties that depend on fewer chemical sprays and have a longer shelf life.

The Center works with farmers to not only grow vegetables, but also to process and cook them. Often, vegetables are cooked for so long that they lose most of their nutrients. To solve that problem, Mel Oluoch, a Liaison Officer with the Center's Vegetable Breeding and Seed System Program (vBSS), works with women to improve the nutritional value of cooked foods by helping them develop shorter cooking times.
"Eating is believing," says Oluoch, who adds that when people find out how much better the food tastes--and how much less fuel and time it takes to cook--they don't need much convincing about the alternative methods.

Oluoch also trains both urban and rural farmers on seed production. "The sustainability of seed," says Oluoch, "is not yet there in Africa." In other words, farmers don't have access to a reliable source of seed for indigenous vegetables, such as amaranth, spider plant, cowpea, okra, moringa, and other crops.

Although many of these vegetables are typically thought of as weeds, not food, they are a vital source of nutrients for millions of people and can help alleviate hunger. Despite their value, these "weeds" are typically neglected on the international agricultural research agenda. As food prices continue to rise in Africa--in some countries food is 50-80 percent higher than in 2007--indigenous vegetables are becoming an integral part of home gardens.

The hardiness and drought-tolerance of traditional vegetables become increasingly important as climate change becomes more evident.

Many indigenous vegetables use less water than hybrid varieties and some are resistant to pests and disease, advantages that will command greater attention from farmers and policymakers, and make the work of AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center more urgent and necessary than ever before.

Abdou Tenkouano is director of the Regional Center for Africa of AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania. Danielle Nierenberg is a senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute blogging daily from Africa at Nourishing the Planet

A School Made of Tires in al-Khan al-Ahmar (Palestine) - by shergald

Fri Feb 19th, 2010 at 10:44:41 AM EST

Blue Bananas - by soj

Fri Feb 19th, 2010 at 09:27:00 AM EST

Well thanks to Mr. Joe Stack, clearly the issue of taxes has once again been brought up. So I thought I'd add my two little red cents on the issue :)

School Participation @Home - by Oui

Fri Feb 19th, 2010 at 07:11:03 AM EST

.
Extracurricular activities by school principals in Pennsylvania ...

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home

According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al(pdf), the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.

Harriton High School

Child porn webcam allegations in PA school district

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Friday Foto Flogging - by AndiF

Fri Feb 19th, 2010 at 05:24:36 AM EST

This Week's Theme: Red

Website(s) of the Week: Slate Slideshow of Abandoned Buildings.

AndiF's Red

	Red Around the Corner Click image for larger version
	Would you like some beer with your red? Click image for larger version
	Escaping Red Click image for larger version

olivia's red

	Click image for larger version
	Click image for larger version
	Click image for larger version

Next Week's Theme: Rails, Trails, Roads

Info on Posting Photos

When you post your photos, please keep the width at 500 or less for the sake of our Bootribers who are on dial-up. If you want to post clickable thumbnails but aren't sure how, check out this diary: Clickable Thumbnails. If you haven't yet joined a photo-hosting site, here are some to consider: Photobucket, Flickr, ImageShack, and Picasa.

Previous Friday Foto Flogs

FFFs 1-36 Random Skies School's Out

Flowers Weather Disrepair Random

Simplicity What is it? Vacation, Staycation Brown

Sparkle Random Purple Differences

What moves you? Colors Random What is it?

Self-portraits Up Where work is done Transitions

Random Gates, Doors Aphorisms and Quotes Bridges

What is it? Random Walls, fences, fields Black,White,B&W

Thursday Immigration Blog Roundup - by The Opportunity Agenda

Thu Feb 18th, 2010 at 06:21:41 PM EST

This week's Immigration Blog Roundup will cover policy news, new research, and more...

Farmers have joined immigrant advocates in calling for immigration reform on a roadtrip throughout New York organized by the the NY Immigration Coalition and Reform Immigration for America. Despite an 8% unemployment rate in Rochester, one of the stops on the roadtrip, farmers rely heavily on migrant workers since permanent residents rarely apply for farm work and those who do often quit shortly after.

Gov. Schwarzegger's budget proposes saving $304 million by eliminating public assistance programs including emergency cash, food, and medical aid to new legal immigrants.

The Immigration Policy Center has released "The Criminal Alien Program: Immigration Enforcement in Travis County Texas" (PDF) which provides a history and analysis of the CAP program which is designed to screen inmates in prisons, identify deportable non-citizens, and initiate deportation proceedings. The report shows that a large percentage of immigrants identified through the program had no criminal convictions at all and of those that had been charged a majority had been arrested for misdemeanors.

A 3.6-mile steel fence has been constructed along the U.S.-Mexico border on Otay Mountain, east of San Diego. The $57.7 million project had been approved during the Bush administration. Critics have voiced numerous complaints doubting the effectiveness and necessity of the project as well as calling out the environmental impact the construction of the fence.

"Health Insurance and Immigrants: Obstacles to Enrollment and Recommendations" which examines the barriers immigrants (with and without legal status) face in accessing health care.

"Immigration and Wages-Methodological Advancement Confirm Modest Gains for Native Workers" examines the impact of immigration on wages from 1994 to 2007. A key finding: immigration raised the wages of U.S.-born workers by 0.4% and lowered the wages of foreign-born workers and any negative effects of new immigration during this period were felt largely by earlier immigrants.

Joe Stack, Righteous Anger and the PermaGov - by Arthur Gilroy

Thu Feb 18th, 2010 at 03:06:17 PM EST

At 1:43:55 PM EST halo0 posted the following message on Booman Tribune regarding a website where Joe Stack quite plainly offered his final thoughts before crashing a plane into the IRS building in Austin Texas. :

Joe was pissed off at the IRS. Here's his "manifesto"
http://embeddedart.com/
"We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further." - Richard Dawkins

As of less than one hour later that website has been taken down.

I offer the full posting below in the spirit of truth, as well as my own thoughts on the matter.

Read on if you are interested.

And if you are not interested...well, check your mental and spiritual antennae for serious damage. This is what is really happening here now, and it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Bet on it.

Third World State of Mind - by soj

Thu Feb 18th, 2010 at 02:40:31 PM EST

This is in response to Booman's article here in which he states (in part):

I am so tired of conservatives advising us not to emulate Europe. Yeah, maybe we do some things in a smarter way, but anyone who's traveled to Europe has been impressed...

Vegetarian Food in Zambia - by borderjumpers

Thu Feb 18th, 2010 at 10:32:53 AM EST

Cross posted from Border Jumpers.

Zambians take great pride in their local foods and--thankfully for us--many of their traditional dishes are vegetarian.

Pictured here is Danielle trying "nshima" which is a kind of maize porridge and a staple food in both Zambia and Malawi. While not very attractive looking it was both filling and delicious, tasting a bit like mashed potatoes. Nshima is cooked from plain maize, corn meal, or maize flour known as mealie-meal among Zambians.

Eating at the KuOmboko Hostel's restaurant in Lusaka, we enjoyed nshima prepared with pumpkin leaves (a delicious vegetable dish comparable to collard greens), cabbage and carrots.

Real, Uglier American Unemployment - by statusquobuster

Thu Feb 18th, 2010 at 10:00:43 AM EST

Can you trust national averages? As bad as the jobless data you hear are, you have not been told the whole truth. If you think the terrible impact of America's Great Recession is shown by an official unemployment rate of about 10 percent, think again.

Health care activists out in force in DTLA today - by Real History Lisa

Wed Feb 17th, 2010 at 06:04:49 PM EST

On my lunch hour, I was surprised to find a rally for health care being held a few blocks from where I work. Usually, when I see protests downtown, it's been hate-filled skinhead types bashing Obama or decrying gay marriage. How refreshing it was to see a bunch of progressives protesting for health care reform.

One woman carried a medical school skeleton with a sign that said, "Dying for health care." I can't recall the other signs, but there were several.

The protest was a little noisy, but definitely sane. It did, however, feel claustrophic because it was on one of the smaller corners. There's a big plaza streetcorner a few blocks away that would have served better. And heck, they should have gone to LA Live! There's a nice open plaza there, and a lot of people pass through there for lunch.

One thing I'd like to say to my fellow activists. If you're going to protest in someone else's neighborhood, dress like they do. I couldn't help but feel the campaign would have been 20x more effective had all the activists had on suits, skirts, or other professional business attire. As liberal as I am, it felt weird to see these hippie types in my business neck of the woods. It felt a little jarring, and this from someone who couldn't possibly be MORE sympathetic to the cause.

A couple of years ago, we had a march downtown for peace, and one guy showed up in a business suit. I instantly assumed he was conservative, which was his point. He wasn't, but he wanted people to assume that. It's amazing how much our brains assume that we're not usually aware of!

The action, btw, was to have people call their senators and demand health care via the reconciliation process. There's a 'new letter on Harry Reid's desk' one of the activists told me. Not sure what they're referring to and no time to check that out. Just had to share a little good news, even if not so professionally delivered..!

Race in the Age of Obama and the Economic Recovery - by The Opportunity Agenda

Wed Feb 17th, 2010 at 06:03:25 PM EST

We as a nation are at a critical juncture--we are working to re-shape America's role in the 21st century global economy, and to create the jobs and the infrastructure that will help us create equal opportunities for success for all Americans. At the same time, we are living in a moment where our traditional notions of race and how we talk about it are changing. One question keeps coming up: with an African-American President leading our country, do we still need to think about and create solutions for historic barriers to opportunity? The answer? Absolutely.

As we reflect on our first year under Team Obama, and on the one-year anniversary of the historic American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, also known as the stimulus, our goals must be clear: we need to ensure that all Americans have access to the education, training, and jobs they need to succeed; and we must make every effort to bring opportunity to communities that were already hurting before the economic crisis. Historically, the groups who've been hurting the most are communities of color and women. Unfortunately, we've seen time and time again that access to full and equal opportunity is very much a mixed reality, and these groups are being left behind in ways that hard work and personal achievement alone cannot address.

Thursday Dog Blog - by keres

Wed Feb 17th, 2010 at 05:10:45 PM EST

We're building a medium security goldfish detention center, aka pond, in our front yard. The mesh is keeping the ducks out until we can get it fully planted.

Polarizing Conditions - by Diane G

Wed Feb 17th, 2010 at 04:49:46 PM EST

I've been trying to wrap my head around something that has been bugging me since last Friday night. You see, I went of on a wee quip/tear into how the "idiots on the right" vote against their own interests on our WWL Radio show. I was using scathing sarcasm for the laugh, and used every stereotype in the book: religion, trailer parks, pickups and teeth. It was funny. It rang of truth too. I listened to the show a few days later. Yep, good radio all around. Still, it bugged me. I don't think it was from any sense of guilt for not being PC, I am as good with being the brunt of a joke as the dealer.

I stewed on it.

People trained in human psychology and marketing; think tanks, if you will, have done their job well. Even on me.

You see, the more you challenge someone, the more they are made to feel backed into a corner, the more they will dig in and fight. They will even defend the indefensible, without reason, with only the reactionary reflex humans have.

They have created such polarizing conditions between this country's denizens that we may as well be riding the bike above. We ain't goin' nowhere.

Sarkozy's Landmark Visit to Former Slave Colony, Haiti - by Oui

Wed Feb 17th, 2010 at 04:16:15 PM EST

Sarkozy makes landmark visit to Haiti

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- France's President Nicolas Sarkozy made a landmark visit to Haiti, announcing more than $100 million of additional aid to the former French colony where 212,000 people were killed by an earthquake five weeks ago.

Sarkozy is the first French president ever to visit the country which has in the past demanded huge reparations from France to compensate for slavery-era exploitation before Haitian independence two centuries ago

...
France has had close cultural ties with its former colony since independence, but diplomatic relations have sometimes been fraught, with Paris occasionally expressing concerns over instability in the Caribbean nation.

In 2004, France called for the resignation of then president Jean Bertrand Arstide , who was subsequently ousted in a 2004 rebellion, after his government demanded that France pay $21 billion in reparations.

Read on for a bit true historic perspective ...

Two reports on silencing critics of Israel - by shergald

Wed Feb 17th, 2010 at 10:56:27 AM EST

Zionist group urges donors to avoid UC Irvine

MSNBC
IRVINE, Calif. - After months of growing tension between Jewish and Muslim students at the University of California, Irvine, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is asking potential students to apply elsewhere and donors to stop sending contributions.
The New York-based organization lambasted Chancellor Michael Drake in a statement Tuesday for not condemning anti-Semitic speech on campus and enabling a years-long history of "bigotry, discrimination and the violation of civil rights" by the school's Muslim Student Union.

And what did the students do? They harassed Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador, as he defended Israel's actions in Gaza, which have been called criminal by the UN (Goldstone Report).

ZOA is the most right wing member of the Israel Lobby, a Likud supporter of Eretz Israel (Israeli colonialism), whose own Islamophobic history equates Arab and Palestinian resistance to occupation and colonialism with terrorism, begs the question of discrimination. Their pages reek with Israeli propaganda.

Creating a Well-Rounded Food Revolution - by borderjumpers

Wed Feb 17th, 2010 at 09:59:02 AM EST

Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.

Check out the most recent issue of the journal Science which takes a look at ways to improve food security as the world's population is expected to top 9 billion by 2050. To best nourish both people and the planet, the journal suggests a rounded approach to a worldwide agricultural revolution by encouraging diets and policies that emphasize local and sustainable food production, along with the implementation of agricultural techniques that utilize biotechnology and ecologically friendly farming solutions.

The Fabulous Feedback Band (Wedding band) - by charlie89fitzger

Wed Feb 17th, 2010 at 09:42:17 AM EST

The Fabulous Feedback Band is one of the most sought after live bands in Britain today.
A four-man band, featuring musicians individually successful in their own right, that play an irresistible song catalogue in a way that other cover bands can only envy. They're world renowned for blending a huge variety of material with infectious enthusiasm, humour and a genuine passion for performance.

They perform with a first class PA and lighting system and are perfect for any wedding party or corporate event.
The ever expanding set list includes modern day hits from artists as diverse as: Kings of Leon, The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Amy Winehouse and the Kooks. Alongside all-time classics from the likes of The Beatles, Stones, Kinks and Monkees all combine to deliver a show that appeals across the full spectrum of age and taste.
Put simply, they are the best there is. Each and every audience is guaranteed a fabulous night to remember....

Wedding band London, rock covers band, wedding music, rock wedding band, hire a band, live music, corporate party band, corporate band, wedding band Bedfordshire, wedding band essex

http://www.feedbackband.co.uk

FFFs 1-36	Random	Skies	School's Out
Flowers	Weather	Disrepair	Random
Simplicity	What is it?	Vacation, Staycation	Brown
Sparkle	Random	Purple	Differences
What moves you?	Colors	Random	What is it?
Self-portraits	Up	Where work is done	Transitions
Random	Gates, Doors	Aphorisms and Quotes	Bridges
What is it?	Random	Walls, fences, fields	Black,White,B&W
Red	Rails,Trails