Lauren's Blog

investigate the White House movement

It's all over the internet:

MoveOn started out as a "censure and move on" campaign during the Clinton administration. Now it's saying Investigate the White House.

The DNC is also running a petition here.

Tell Congress: No $87 Billion Blank Check for Bush

You can do it here.

AI reports forced sterilization of Romani women

"Amnesty International is concerned about allegations of forced sterilization of Romani women in Slovakia. The organization is particularly concerned that in spite of its repeated appeals the investigation into these allegations is not being conducted independently, thoroughly and impartially as required by international law. Furthermore, Amnesty International is concerned about the continued reported harassment and intimidation of victims, witnesses, and human rights defenders, in breach of international law and internationally recognized principles."

You can take action here.

no good news for arnold

The treating women badly story broke yesterday.

Today I've seen five blogs saying that Schwarzenegger admired Hitler: "I admired Hitler, for instance, because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education up to power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker."

librarians and pornography

Apparently Ed Meese said, "librarians are more interested in promoting pornography than they are in promoting patriotism."

Nader

Ralph Nader is apparently still undecided if he will enter the next presidential race. He would like to wait to see how dems and republicans respond to his agenda. I value his right to enter the race and the rights of those who want to express displeasure with the two party system. I question how smart it would be to pull "left" voters away from the best chance to remove Bush from the White House.

hot water for Limbaugh

First comments on McNabb, now drug charges. I hope those who judge Limbaugh are as compassionate to him as he is to others.

Overtime was saved at the House of Representatives

From the Union Voice:

"People power beat corporate power today when the U.S. House of Representatives voted 221-203 to oppose the Bush administration's overtime pay take-away. We won because hundreds of thousands of people spoke out. Since Bush announced his overtime pay attack, people like you have sent more than 1 million letters, faxes and e-mails opposing the overtime pay take-away."

"Today, AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney called on President Bush to "withdraw his assault on overtime and withdraw his threat to veto any legislation that protects overtime.""

"You can do the same thing. Please take one minute right now to SEND A MESSAGE to President Bush by clicking on the link. Tell him to surrender!"

time off from blogging

I didn't blog yesterday, and I'm not going to this weekend. The reasons:

Yesterday I went around town applying for several jobs in person. I also saw Angels in America Part I: Millennium Approaches (A Gay Fantasia on National Themes) by Tony Kushner. This Pulitzer Prize winning play was a fantastic look at issues of the eighties (& today): sexuality, religion, conservatism, race, environmentalism, AIDS, it was really fantastic. It was also a testament to how the American culture has shifted over the past two decades. Apparently when this play was first performed, there was a lot of resistance and protest. Today there was relatively little fanfare. (I would have hoped for more, so that more people would come and see it.)

This weekend I won't be blogging because I'll be in Raleigh. The capital city will be hosting the 18th annual Compassionate Living Festival coordinated by the Culture and Animals Foundation. It's sure to be a fun-filled Vegan time for all.

& If there's time we may make it to the UU church!

the rise of the liberal media?

According to Taegan Goddard's Political Wire: Gore May Buy Network. He is working to acquire Newsworld International for $70 million dollars. The network is currently very small and owned by Vivendi Universal. Gore and those working with him on this deal would turn the channel into a network that is liberal-leaning. It's about time we bring some balance to the media.

empowering citizens

The Washington Post had a great article about Howard Dean, "Empower Play: The Pitch that Works for Dean."

The article claims that Dean is doing well because instead of focusing on their humble roots or heroic feats (like other candidates), Dean talks about the voters. "He tells them they're okay. Instead of trying to get them to love him, he tells them to love themselves."

His supporters love it. One said, "I liked it when he said the election wasn't about him, it was about us. He's empowering me."

Dean explains that this works because. "people feel horribly disempowered by George Bush. I'm about trying to give them control back. This is not just a 'campaign,' it's a movement to empower ordinary people. I don't say, 'Elect me.' "

This is a radical paradigm shift in politics. Candidates typically market themselves to their voters, and treat them like consumers. Karen Hicks, Dean's New Hampshire state director, says "Dean treats people like participants."

This makes sense. Every one of my mentors and rolemodels has focused on empowering those you interact with. I've seen the difference it can make in band, crew, and residence life. Of course it works in a political environment. I'm glad that Dean has tapped into it & hopefully help people feel empowered enough to take the country back from Bush.

"With friends like these....

Amitai Etzioni noted (from the Wall Street Journal) that there is a book on the bestseller list in Germany that suggests that the U.S. government staged the 9-11 attacks so that they might go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The author, Andreas von Bulow, was a German cabinet member and is a well-known lecturer.

von Bulow has said that it is "simply 99% false" that Al Qaeda launched the attacks. Germany’s leading broadcaster recently aired a "documentary" voicing similar views, and a recent public opinion poll found that 20% Germans believes this perspective as well.

Apparently similar books are also on bestseller lists in France, Italy, and Spain.

worse than watergate

As I checked blogs today, I found that four of my regulars made this comparison between Plame and watergate.

The DNC quoted from Hardball:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Don't you think it's more serious than Watergate, when you think about it?

RNC CHAIRMAN ED GILLESPIE: I think if the allegation is true, to reveal the identity of an undercover CIA operative— it's abhorrent, and it should be a crime, and it is a crime.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: It'd be worse than Watergate, wouldn't it?

GILLESPIE: It's— Yeah, I suppose in terms of the real world implications of it. It's not just politics.

& Lean Left quoted Larry Johnson:

"I say this as a registered Republican. I'm on record giving contributions to the George Bush campaign. This is not about partisan politics. This is about a betrayal, a political smear of an individual with no relevance to the story. Publishing her name in that story added nothing to it. His entire intent was correctly as Ambassador Wilson noted: to intimidate, to suggest that there was some impropriety that somehow his wife was in a decision making position to influence his ability to go over and savage a stupid policy, an erroneous policy and frankly, what was a false policy of suggesting that there were nuclear material in Iraq that required this war. This was about a political attack. To pretend that it's something else and to get into this parsing of words, I tell you, it sickens me to be a Republican to see this."

I'm glad that this is something that people are taking seriously.

more on time travel

Apparently metaphysics isn't the only place time travel is discussed. Wesley Clark apparently thinks it's possible. Maybe he should take Dr. Carroll's class.

time travel

I just stumbled upon an article about time travel, which made me reminiscent of Dr. Carroll's metaphysics class at NC State. I even sent him an email about it.

Dr. Carroll used time travel to explore various issues associated with metaphysics, which was interesting to non-philosophy majors, but gave philosophy majors enough theory that we were generally pretty pleased, too.

Geez, that was a good class.

Rove's sketchy past

BuzzFlash says, "Karl Rove, As They Say, Has a History."

"Sources close to the former president (Bush) say Rove was fired from the 1992 Bush presidential campaign after he planted a negative story with columnist Robert Novak about dissatisfaction with campaign fundraising chief and Bush loyalist Robert Mosbacher Jr. It was smoked out, and he was summarily ousted."

creationism in public schools

The Mensan listserve has been hot with the issues of creationism in public schools lately. There is a growing contingent pushing for the introduction of intelligent design and creationism to be taught alongside of evolution as an equally viable explanation to the history of the world. Students would be learning the lessons, and the lessons themselves would undermine the scientific method.

The curriculum currently teaches evolution in both the earth science and biology classes and does not include creationism or intelligent design. A small, well organized, growing, conservative group is pushing to give equal time to alternate theories of evolution, and is marketing itself well to state leaders and educators.

There are many letters in favor of creationism and intelligent design and a lack of letters from those that feels this type of teaching undermines and damages science instruction and scientific thought. (Not to mention that when the lines between church and state are blurred, it becomes a slippery slope.)

If this issue does concern you, please take five or ten minutes of your time to be spent composing an e-mail or writing a letter. As a NC taxpayers you are entitled to an equal voice.

I took a class in the Philosophy of Science at NC State, which really was a class about the lack of viability in intelligent design and creationism theories. If you have questions about them, or how the addition of these viewpoints into the science curriculum may be harmful, please feel free to email me.

Otherwise, please direct all correspondence to the address below

Dr. Eleanor Hasse
High School Science Consultant
Division of Instructional Services
NC Department of Public Instruction
6352 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-6352
e-mail: eehasse@dpi.state.nc.us
Tel: 919.807.3845
Fax: 919.807.3823

in some places Medicaid coverage is expanding for abortions

Just in from the Feminist Majority Foundation, the Indiana Supreme Court expanded Medicaid coverage for abortions for low-income women, when the pregnancy poses a serious risk to the woman's health. Medicaid used to cover abortions only when a woman's life was at risk or when the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.

The Supreme Court did not hold that all medically necessary abortions must be funded, but at least it's a step. I'm glad that the Indiana Supreme Court can see pregnancy as a medical condition, rather than a political and ideological playing ground in which the voice of patriarchy has prominence. I hope other states can begin to see pregnancy this way.

On another note. I just went to Dean's site, to look at what he says about reproductive rights. The sight used to have a list of issues and platforms, and one dealt with women's issues. This one included his liberal view of abortion, breast cancer, &c. It's no longer listed. I wonder if it was because his views were so liberal (and therefore scared off more moderate voters) or if his campaign decided women's issues aren't as important (as is so often the case).

special counsel for Mr. Bush & co.

The DNC blog says that Senate Democrats are calling for a special counsel following the CIA operative Valerie Plame's unmasking.

Yes. & we shouldn't expect less considering what the Republicans put the Clintons through during Bill's presidency.

more on academic blogging

Crooked Timber has an entry about blogging in academia. I thought this may be of interest to John re: blogging at universities. This post is about legality and privacy issues that arise when requiring students to post for a class. I thought the broad spectrum of answers in the comments areas was very interesting. There were many different approaches to the use of blogs in academia, as made apparent by the varying tones of responses.

Right-wing postmodernism

John Quiggin's Right-wing postmodernism quotes John Marshall, saying, "Marxist who pick apart mainstream economics and anthropology as the creations of 'bourgeois ideology' or Frenchified academic post-modernists who 'deconstruct' knowledge in a similar fashion, revisionist ideologues seek to expose 'the facts' as nothing more than the spin of experts blinded by their own unacknowledged biases."

It's interesting to me to consider that the Right is practicing postmodernism, but incorrect. Many of my concerns were voiced in the follow-up comments. There were several saying that the Right is not postmodern, but rather the old fashioned Marxist. In this case there is a truth but the general public isn't smart enough to get it, and people have access to the truth only once they've signed onto the ideology.

I've seen several blogs now, (I wish I could remember where so that I could link to them) that suggest that the Bush administration knows no truth, that they just buy into whatever the highest bidder has to say. In this case the last argument doesn't stand, because the Bush administration doesn't believe in a truth, they just advocate one perspective.

Another follow -up comment that interested me was that pop culture doesn't create one big culture that everyone is assimilated into, but rather reinforces the divisions between people of different ideologies and cultures, which makes for big differences between communities. This has affected the Right, which is growing and more powerful than ever before.

As any anti-commercialism advocate would think, I've always agreed with the idea that advertising in a capitalist culture creates a desire to be part of something that many people don't have the means to be part of, and therefore creates a counter culture to the pop-culture. In the case of the above comment, I agree that everyone can't be part of the mainstream culture and therefore the divisions between people of different ideologies and cultures is reinforced, making big differences between communities. I had not taken the step to look at the Right (who are typically part of the class who can buy into the commercialized ideal of culture). Perhaps they are growing as a distinct community because there is no way to be part of culture as it is portrayed, no matter how well of one is economically. It's no longer just about buying the right soda, but also getting the right house, plastic surgery, job, psychologist, etc. It's become so much that even people in the upper-class feel disenfranchised from the "correct" images being sent by the advertising culture.

understanding Derrida

Today the Language Log discusses an interview with Jacques Derrida and explains a parlor game that academics used to play, back when more people took Derrida seriously:

"[open] Derrida's works to a random page, pick a random sentence, write it down, and then (above or below it) write a variant in which positive and negative were interchanged, or a word or phrase was replaced with one of opposite meaning... then challenge the assembled Derrida partisans to guess which was the original and which was the variant. The point was that Derrida's admirers are generally unable to distinguish his pronouncements from their opposites at better than chance level, suggesting that the content is a sophisticated form of white noise. On this view, as Wolfgang Pauli once said of someone else, Derrida is 'not even wrong.'"

Which makes me feel a whole lot better about the struggle I've had to come up with a concise and accurate explanation of what it is that I understand Derrida to believe.

Panopticism

Blue's blog for today discussed his use of Bowling for Columbine in a Composition course to help students understand some of Foucault's ideas in "Panopticism."

Makes me want to read "Panopticism!"

Foucault, Derrida, and postmodernism

Foucault, Derrida, and postmodernism all in one day!

It isn't heaven, but it's close.

"Life as a product placement"

Ahh, CNN. Their article, Life as a product placement is filled with scary omens regarding our future as consumers.

TiVo is growing in popularity. It is anticipated that American use will rise from less than 4 percent now to more than 20% by 2007. TiVo is delightfully subversive because viewers can skip past all commercials to get to the show they want to watch. The increase in TiVo use may cost television networks $5.5 billion annually within four years. Add more sophisticated audiences and viewer burnout and television stations have a lot to worry about.

So companies are getting creative. They're paying people to wear temporary tattoos, to act strangely (but not scarily) in public, and playing off of individual's kindness. Here's an example:

"When Sony Ericsson rolled out its picture-taking T68i mobile phones last year, for example, the company launched a promotional campaign and hired 120 actors to explain photo phones. The actors weren't on TV; they played their roles live. In various crowded places -- New York City bars, the Space Needle in Seattle Center -- the actors posed as tourists, going up to people and asking them to take pictures using the T68i. They were never identified as Sony employees, just friendly folk with nifty new cameras. They were taking advantage of the kindness of strangers to get the product in the hands of unsuspecting consumers," says Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a consumer watchdog in Portland, Ore.

So we may need to be wary of even the kind stranger on the street. Thank goodness organizations such as Commercial Alert and Adbusters exist.

go get 'em, GOP!

Sunspot.net reports that the republican Senate will have a showdown with Bush over the new FCC expansion rules. This act would be extraordinary (and wonderful) as both a "rare GOP showdown with President Bush and an unusual display of grass-roots opposition threatening corporate might."

Republicans, Democrats, and liberal and conservative groups have formed a coalition to oppose the new Federal Communications Commission rules.

This would be a rare measure that has only successfully used by Congress once before. Fantastically, that would amount to a congressional veto of the Bush administration rules.

Yipee!

domestic partner rights

Domestic Partners Gain Rights in CA says the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Last Friday Governor Davis signed into law a bill that grants same-sex couples rights in issues such as "family care leave, child custody, property ownership, gift/estate tax exemptions, and making arrangements in the event of a partner's death" in the state of California. This is being hailed by LGBT advocates all over the country. Davis said, "[a] family is a family not because of gender but because of values, like commitment, trust and love,"

This bill will take effect on 1/1/2005, however domestic partners will still lack married couples' rights such as filing for joint tax returns, Social Security, Medicare, and veterans' benefits.

Now State Sen. Knight has filed a lawsuit in the Sacramento Superior Court, seeking an injunction to a bill that "would force the state of California to promote unnatural family units that are not in the best interest of our children," though I know through my own research that this claim is unjustifiable for many reasons.

This bill is a great first step. I hope there comes a time when same-sex domestic partnerships are seen (legally) just as marriages are seen.

I also wonder why "same-sex" provisions don't extend to heterosexual couples who choose to be domestic partners rather than take part in marriage. I think that there are a lot of very good reasons to be married, but there are some negatives aspects as well, and I feel all people (regardless of sexuality) should be allowed to practice their idea of "family" in any way they feel fit.

at least i'm not alone in this whole job search thing

The Daily Misleader hit me close to home today. It claims that job losses are now at the level of the Great Depression. Instead of creating 510,000 jobs in 2003, as Mr. Bush predicted, the economy has suffered a loss of 473,000 jobs so far this year.

Some Dare Call It Treason

BuzzFlash gets it right:

"A Story of Two Unidentified 'Senior Administration' Officials Who Allegedly Betrayed the National Security of the United States: No Response from the White House, and No Coverage in the Mainstream Press.

"If David Corn, the Washington editor for The Nation is correct in his suspicions, two unidentified 'senior administration officials' are guilty of betraying our national security. (see A White House Smear)"

i ::heart:: greyhounds

No no, not because we took the long bus trip this summer (though it was fun).

It's because a long time ago I wanted to adopt a greyhound. I did a lot of reading about it, but as a college student in the residence halls, I knew I would need to wait. Today I've started looking again (though I will want to wait until I know that I have no plans of being a full time student in my future). This site is FANTASTIC.

master degree programs in library science

During this job search I've applied for a few library jobs. I volunteered in school and public libraries from elementary through middle school, so I know I generally appreciated the personalities of the employees and the spirit of the work. I don't plan on making the library my life, but I wonder what would happen if I were to get one of those jobs and love it.

So, I've looked up MLS programs in NC. Apparently you *need* a MLS to move up to any kindof respectable rank, so it's the logical next step to consider (if I were to get a job &c). There are a surprising number here:

Appalachian State
East Carolina University
NC Central University
UNC Chapel Hill
UNC Greensboro