Happy Holiday!

To all those celebrating today, may your new year be more wonderful, satisfying, productive and loving than the last

Viva la difference

Maybe, for you, there really is no difference between the rethuglican and demoprat parties. Maybe, for you, the policies that each of them support won't effect your life directly. Maybe you think that there will be no economic difference (or you're rich enough not to care), maybe you hate the political process that exists here, or feel helpless about it. Maybe a zillion things that make you say "it doesn't matter". But for some of us, the difference is vital and direct and desperately close to the private spaces where we live our lives.

http://penknife.livejournal.com/363899.html

If I find more posts or articles that are this clear on the differences as I percieve them, I'll update this post.

Charities and Wall Street

Hurricane Ike created a TON of damage, not only in the southern states, but as far north as Ohio (where there are over a million households without power, likely for a week). In Houston, the food banks are all but bankrupt, and this comes on top of years of US food bank shortages*.

Food banks get their donations from 3 primary sources: the government, the private sector (which includes both individuals and corporations) and crop subsidies. Government sources and crop subsidies are both down - the former because of policies and the latter from a combination of crop failure and farms growing crops for ethanol rather than food. Donations from the private sector are way down too, because in this crappy economy people are too worried about paying for their own food (and gas) to feel comfortable giving funds or food away. Further, the upheavals on Wall Street are causing a distinct lack of corporate donors to these charities...not just because of the companies directly affected, but also all the companies who had investments in directly affected companies.

In short, the charities that are there to help out hurricane victims are themselves hurting. If you've got spare funds or food to give, please consider it. Cherie Priest has a good list of charities here: http://www.cheriepriest.com/2008/09/17/oh-no/ These people need help. Seriously.

*
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LOVE the Daily Show

Back in 1996, when she first became mayor, Sarah Palin asked the city librarian if she would be all right with censoring library books should she be asked to do so.

According to news coverage at the time, the librarian said she would definitely not be all right with it. A few months later, the librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, got a letter from Palin telling her she was going to be fired. The censorship issue was not mentioned as a reason for the firing. The letter just said the new mayor felt Emmons didn't fully support her and had to go.

Read these!

sums up my feeings on the subject far more coherently than I, in my rage, am able to do. Also, he's giving a really good running summary of events.

http://pecunium.livejournal.com/333085.html
http://pecunium.livejournal.com/333327.html
http://pecunium.livejournal.com/333647.html
http://pecunium.livejournal.com/334007.html

Journalist Unlawfully Arrested at RNC

More info here:
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2008/9/1/amy_goodman_and_two_democracy_now_producers_unlawfully_arrested_at_the_rnc