Month: October 2005

Help A Community Member Update

Posted by | Oct 12, 2005 |

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the cause yesterday,

we have raised $3700 for our fellow Kosmonkey’s family. Brilliant!

Still, as the bat implies, we can yet top ourselves. Can we hit $5,000? Only time and trust will tell.

I’ve reprinted the appeal from yesterday below the fold. For those of you who are Paypal shy, drop me an e-mail if you have not already done so. I’ll be sending out a note to those of you who have already written to me tonight.

Thanks so much, you all. This is amazing work.

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New Orleans beating incident only one example of abuse and forced labor since Katrina

Posted by | Oct 12, 2005 |

Via Raw Story and the NewStandard.

When Robert Davis emerged from the temporary detention center in New Orleans, his eye was swollen nearly shut, his face was bruised, and he had a couple of stitches under his left eye. He told The NewStandard that police had beaten him and then charged him with public intoxication and battery, even though he had not had a drink in 25 years and had merely asked a police officer to leave him alone.

[…]

But what did not make it into the tape or national attention was that Davis is just one of more than nearly a thousand people who have suffered in a horrific place the police call “Camp Amtrak,” an improvised jail in what used to be the New Orleans bus terminal.

Is that really why Greyhound no longer goes to New Orleans?

Update [2005-10-13 20:56:35 by blksista]: The Associated Press has released an unedited version of the beating/arrest of Robert Davis. Click to AP Videos. A list on the right shows videos for viewing; it is the second or third video in the list. It is five minutes long. They said that he was resisting arrest; but if someone is pounding on you as well as threatening and you are trying to protect yourself from the blows…see what you think.

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Lois Murphy for Congress

Posted by | Oct 12, 2005 |

If there is one thing I’ve noticed about the Bootrib community, it’s that we all want more Democrats to stand up for our beliefs and values, and we want more Democrats to come straight out and tell the truth about what a corrupt bunch of goons the Republicans have become.

If you’re looking for congressional candidates to support in 2006, candidates that fit the above criteria, you need look no further than Lois Murphy who is running in Pennsylvania’s 6th District. I just got off an hour long conference call with her and several other Philly bloggers. She had three main messages. She’s strongly and unapologetically pro-choice, she wants to focus on homeland security, health care, and education, and her opponent is a corrupt tool who is completely beholden to the criminal, Tom DeLay.

Above Average Jane has a good piece on Representative Jim Gerlach’s relationship with indicted (and soon to be indicted) members of the Republican leadership.

Gerlach has seen some controversy lately over his associations with Karl Rove and Tom DeLay. This past July Karl Rove headlined a fundraiser for him. Just getting in cost $1000, but a lucky few paid $2500 to sit in on a round table with the two…

While that might make some fodder for Lois Murphy’s campaign, it might not have long enough legs to last until next fall. Fortunately for Murphy, Gerlach also have close ties to Tom DeLay. In fact, he is ranked (by someone who sits down and does such things) as among the congressmen closest to DeLay. He voted in favor of weakening ethics rules to keep DeLay in power, and to allow him to stay in power even if indicted. For those working people who can be fired for so much as a bad urine test or being late on the job a few times, the idea that you can keep a position even after being indicted might seem a bit much. Gerlach has received a lot of money from DeLay’s PAC. Last October, the only Pennsylvanian to receive more was Pat Toomey. Plus, Gerlach was the only congressperson from Pennsylvania to contribute to DeLay’s legal defense fund.

If Gerlach is a transparent hack, Lois Murphy has a very impressive resume:

Lois, 42, was born in 1963 in Hempstead, New York, and her parents, both public educators, helped her learn the importance of education. Lois excelled in school and graduated from Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges magna cum laude in 1984. The next year, she enrolled in Harvard Law School where she graduated cum laude in 1987. At law school Lois met her husband, Benjamin Eisner, now a labor attorney who represents working people.

After graduating from law school, Lois clerked for a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She then joined the U.S. Justice Department before serving as associate legal counsel for NARAL Pro-Choice America, where she defended reproductive rights and worked to reduce the need for abortion through more effective and accessible family planning.

Lois is now on leave from her job as a member of the growing law firm of Heckscher, Teillon, Terrill & Sager, P.C. She has been an adjunct professor at Temple University’s School of Law. She has also served as president and as a board member of NARAL Pro-Choice Pennsylvania. Lois is a trustee of the Women’s Law Project and was appointed in 2003 by Governor Rendell to the Pennsylvania Commission for Women.

On top of that, she is a very personable, friendly, down-to-earth person. She’s exactly the kind of candidate that we need in Washington. With any luck, Gerlach will be swept away along with Frist, DeLay, Santorum, Rove, Libby, and the rest of the crooks running our country.

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Report From Iraq.

Posted by | Oct 12, 2005 |

When I arrived in Umm Qasr near the Kuwaiti border of Iraq,I was not very optimistic.The British, who were keeping a low profile, had recently come under attack and have announced plans to withdraw from Iraq.One of the pleasant surprises for me was to find that my friend and taxicab driver from Bangalore, Chauncey Gardner, was plying a cab in Umm Qasr. When I greeted him with a hearty handhshake and told him what a pleasant surprise it was for me to have him to talk to.He said”the money is better here than in Bangalore, Tom Sahib, you know”.”But what about all the bombs on the roadside, Cauncey, isn’t that a little dangerous?”

” Well, Tom, you know as well as I do,that the flowers bloom in the garden during spring and start falling in autumn.I am now in the autumn of my life, you may say”.

“Chauncey, this is why I like you;you simplify everything.Not to mention giving me quotes from a highly placed source for my op-ed piece that will be published in the New York Times.Now can you tell me what do you think about the Iraq situation?”

“Well Tom Sahib, here in Iraq there are a lot of olive trees and just a few Lexuses.If that were reversed, we can have peace”.

I was stunned by this bit of wisdom from Chauncey even though he drops pearls like this all the time. At long last we may have a glimmer of hope for our side in Iraq.From what Chauncey said, I gathered we need to turn Iraq into a high tech paradise( the Lexus part) and get rid of the backwardness ( the Olive Tree part). Simple.

But how does one go about doing that in a practical way?Here I recalled the insight another friend of mine, Nandan Nilekani, the CEO of Infosys Technologies in Bangalore told me: “Tom, geography is history”.That insight was so profound I remembered it and now it provided a solution for our Iraq problem. If we withdrw from Iraq and convert Iraq into the high tech paradise I talked about, everything will fall in place, just like that.And because geography is history, we don’t have to be in Iraq at all!.

What a great day! I have to call Bill Keller right away and tell him about this.May be I can give him some insights on his problems with Judy Miller too. I believe in striking while the iron is hot!

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