We cannot tolerate intolerance, but how do we avoid the trap of Liberalism?

It seems in some way the discourse has caught up with this blog. Major media outlets are speaking about these issues. Is two years too late? Don't know yet.

What I do know is we need some serious change.

More and more people are voicing that the dominant paradigm is broken. The two party system is one party with two heads. You are hearing talking heads on CNN saying the things we've been writing about for years.

We cannot tolerate intolerance, but how do we avoid the trap of Liberalism?

I've been standing out in Left field for a long time. Watching the game. The infield dominated by the Dems and Repubs. Watching them throw the ball back and forth. The Dems just are trying to keep the game alive while the Repubs just want to keep the ball.

Me?

Sitting here with the Outfield - Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, and Lenora Fulani among others. Lenora got my vote for my first Presidential election. Why? In 1988 it seemed overdue for a black woman to be President. It just seemed right. Others have wandered into the Outfield. I met Kucinich before his own party filleted him.

Mostly we watch the game going on in the infield.

The fans don't really see us in the Outfield. They are busy rooting for their teams in the infield. To do our job we have to cover much, much, much more ground and at a much faster pace when the ball comes in our direction. The frenetic energy at that time is intense and we come off as maniacs doing voodoo.

To succeed in the Outfield, you need to be much, much better than the infield. Quicker on your feet. Better at judging when the ball might come your way and damn sure your not going to drop it and not shy about fumbling it a bit if you can't hold on because most of the time you can't. The fans just want to see you throw it back into the infield. Makes you think "Why the fuck am I all the way out here?" The old timers tell you - 'You can see the whole field. Every part of the game. It is really the only place you are meant to be.'

So that is our dilemma.

Stupid is as stupid does

This is way off topic for my blog, but I had to put it down for posterity.

The rail project on O'ahu is the biggest waste of money in the history of the State of Hawai‘i. $5.5 BILLION for steel on steel rail system.

There is no proof that anyone will ride this system and given the costs, it is pretty sure that no one will pay to ride on this system.

Let's look at a solution that cost less than 10% of the above project which includes free ridership for the first 5 years (to get people used to using it)

1. Buy 1,000 Solar Electric buses @ $120,000 each = $120,000,000
Buses can be more flexible as far as routes go which increases the likelihood of commuters using the service.

2. Build a 300MW Solar Power station to charge the buses = $300,000,000
This way we not only green the island with free public transport, but green the power system

3. New Bus Stations with solar powered cooling fans = $5,000,000
Another enticement to the commuters

4. Free public transportation for 5 years $50,000,000
That is a lot of money, but when you are thinking of spending billions, it becomes quite attractive.

Total cost $475 million

Why is O'ahu digging itself such a deep hole? A $5000 hole for every man woman and child on the island.

Banks are gutting the country for record profits

Every still thinking American should watch



If you're wondering where your money has gone?

Goldman Sachs set aside about $16.7 billion for compensation so far this year.

"When CEOs of corporations make 400 times what their workers make- this is not what America is supposed to be."



I can't agree with you more fully.

Remembering 9/11

I don't think revenge is ever a good plan and 3,000 people dying in an act of terrorism, though truly horrible, is dwarfed by the casualties of the wars in Africa and those that sprung from that one attack.

Never forget where the hijackers were from:

Mohamed Atta al Sayed (Egyptian)
Waleed al-Shehri (Saudi Arabian)
Wail al-Shehri (Saudi Arabian)
Abdulaziz al-Omari (Saudi Arabian)
Satam al-Suqami (Saudi Arabian)
Marwan al-Shehhi (from the United Arab Emirates),
Fayez Banihammad (from the United Arab Emirates)
Mohand al-Shehri (Saudi Arabian)
Hamza al-Ghamdi (Saudi Arabian)
Ahmed al-Ghamdi (Saudi Arabian)
Hani Hanjour (Saudi Arabian)
Khalid al-Mihdhar (Saudi Arabian)
Majed Moqed (Saudi Arabian)
Nawaf al-Hazmi (Saudi Arabian)
Salem al-Hazmi (Saudi Arabian)
Ziad Jarrah (Lebanese)
Ahmed al-Haznawi (Saudi Arabian)
Ahmed al-Nami (Saudi Arabian)
Saeed al-Ghamdi (Saudi Arabian).

Not a single Afghani among them. Not a single Iraqi. 'Nuf said.

A Top 50 list to make you sick

In a time when people seem to be working more, earning less, and life savings vanishing - take a look at these guys suffering through these tough times:

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0909/gallery.women_men_highest_pay.fortune/index.html

Notice how Goldman Sachs guys hold some of these top spaces.

An Understatement for Our Time

My fave part of article?

“The public will perceive this very poorly,” said Frank Glassner, chief executive officer of pay consulting firm Veritas LLC.

Maybe this is an overall understatement for our times.

American International Group Inc., the insurer criticized by Congress for handing out retention bonuses after its U.S. bailout, said the awards will cost the company $249 million in the last two quarters of this year.

The earmark includes $93 million for the division with AIG’s Financial Products, the unit that sold derivatives blamed for the firm’s near-collapse last year, the company said today in a regulatory filing. AIG said the entire retention program will cost $1.09 billion, including $824 million already incurred through June 30 and $19 million for 2010 and 2011 combined.

Sick for Profits

More at: Sick for Profit

Some added data from Forbes magazine:

If you total the compensation of the top five executives at UnitedHealthcare for the years from 2006 to 2008, it is almost $1 billion dollars with over $700 million going to CEO Stephen Hemsley

And if that isn't enough to piss you off, at the end of 2006, it was announced that William McGuire would step down as CEO of UnitedHealth Group due to his involvement in the employee stock options scandal. McGuire's exit compensation from UnitedHealth was around $1.1 billion.

The Cannibal Planet revealed

A little snarky, but still has the cannibal planet ideals:

We are DEVO

The time soon approaches when we reach the 40th anniversary of putting a man on the moon. A huge feat for humanity. A huge feat for science. At the time we hadn't solved some of the more pressing problems on Earth like poverty, pollution, and war, but when those images came back of the Earthrise- most of humanity was inspired.

I barely remember the moon landings. Not the first one, but definitely the following ones. What I do remember is how they affected me. Seeing the Earth as just an island planet in a sea of void. "We're all in this together. So we might as well get along." Struck more deeply than it seems most of my fellow humans.

I say this because instead of being inspired by this event and evolving socially and ethically, as a species, we are devo. We began to de-evolve soon after the vividness of those memories faded. We didn't conquer hunger and poverty. It has grown 20 fold. Wars have become an economic necessity for our government and pollution has grown to the inconvenient truth that most in the world continue to deny.

Forty years ago a man walked on the moon a quarter of a million miles away. Within ten years we stopped sending our astronauts further than a few hundred miles into space. Thirty years ago you could cross the Atlantic in less than 3 and half hours including your time at the airport. Those planes have been grounded and you have to wait almost that long to get on your international flight. Thirty years ago there were solar panels on the White House. They were taken down by the following President and have not been put back. Our public transportation has barely changed and our educational system has gone from a national priority to a nation of apologists.

Without equal rights universally for people of all genders and sexual orientations we cannot say we have won against intolerance.

Some say we have made great strides in racial equality, but then why is Africa, with its vast natural resources of gold, oil and diamonds, the most impoverished of continents?

Forty years is not a long time, but it is the average lifetime of a man in West Africa.

What have we done in that lifetime?

While we remember that incredible moment 40 years ago, we should reflect not on the achievement of the moment, but the perspective it gave us. One bright blue and green island surrounded by the lack of color.

We share it.

If we don't care for it, the color will fade and so shall we all.

iCoverbook from Charlie Berendsen on Vimeo.

Keeping with the theme of the last post

You think Universal Health Care is costly? Well, you probably wouldn't be reading this blog if you did, but here are some numbers for you if you encounter someone who things private health care is fine and dandy:

ANNUAL COMPENSATION (2006 and 2007):

-Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
-H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
- David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
- Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
- Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
- Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
-Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
-Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
-William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
-Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
-James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
- Cleve L. Killingsworth, President/CEO Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3.6 million
- Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
- Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $ 1,061,513
- Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
- Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
- Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
- Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
-Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825

These people came to help and help themselves they did.

Thanks Liz for the numbers.