Poverty

COME WATCH ME change my clothes. On MTV's dime. The newest vlog titled News From Nezua [1] is freshly-shorn and waiting to entertain you with nifty editing and news of Oregon. True, a volatile mix, but Creosote is my middle name, chula. Either that or Pine Cone...it's hard to make out the writing sometimes.

This piece was originally covering about six stories, but I ditched the rest of the footage in the editing process as I suddenly realized it would be a fifteen minute spot, if not.

Program provided here. See you at the proscenium arch, baby.

Crossposted at The Unapologetic Mexican, Jesus' General, and OpEdNews.

In 2006 I wrote about the idea of a "Community Candidate," a candidate who has already shown his dedication to the community before he even asks for your vote. I based this on a conversation I had with a UAW member who attended a political event in Brooklyn. He expressed frustration at the political process because it was so often based on nothing but hollow promises. He wanted to see more candidates that have an existing track record of serving the community. In other words, he wanted to see some results in advance. This led me to the idea of a "Community Candidate." This is also the idea behind the organization who operate in Michigan and New York State. Over in Oklahoma, Democrat Andrew Rice is showing the kind of dedication to his community that I am looking for in a Community Candidate.

Oklahoma State Senator Andrew Rice (also a candidate for US Senate in Oklahoma) was a driving force in setting up a task force to study hunger in Oklahoma...and the report is now out. Those of us who have watched average Americans get hit by the double blow of two Bush recessions AND the Republican "Drown America in a Bathtub" philosophy, it is no surprise that the report is a rather grim one. You can read the report here (PDF).

Hi John,

This is not one of those letters. I've met Elizabeth and know that even though she is shorter than me, she'd easily kick my butt. Although, in truth, it's not one of those letters because I honestly am a total fan girl of your wife and there's nothing more than I would love than to see her face plastered everywhere as First Lady.

This is a letter that I've been mulling for some time because you've truly exceeded my expectations.

When I was ready to throw my support to you, the blogger fiasco happened and I was taken aback by the way it was all handled. I know, I know. There are no perfect candidates. Yet at that time I wasn't clear as to what you were bringing at the table as a presidential candidate.

Then you started talking about poverty and the state of the "real people's" economy. You evangelized about the two Americas. You demonstrated how there is a tremendous economic and political disconnect in this country. How what you've seen and talked with people in all your travels seems not to affect the people who are supposed to represent them in Washington. You talked about the evil of corporate handouts and the shadow rule by lobbyist.

You are talking about everything that nobody wants to talk about in Washington.

This diary was originally written once the lessons of Hurricane Katrina had sunk in a bit. This week is the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Two years ag...I remember watching on the weather channel as a category 5 hurricane was bearing down on the Gulf Coast and thinking, "THAT is going to be really bad."

But no one in the Bush Administration seemed to think that. They thought about celebrating John McCain's birthday, buying shoes in NYC, vacationing...while one hell of a hurricane was bearing down on America's Gulf Coast.

The people of America's Gulf coast didn't matter to the Bush Administration. Those people we watched die of neglect in New Orleans died because Republican America considered them insignificant...worthless...useless.

I think the political strength of any group comes down to three things: money, votes and volunteerism. These three things win elections, so they get the attention of both political parties. The low voter turnout among blacks is a problem, and I think this low voter turnout hurts the community. Neither party puts that large a premium on the black community because of this low voter turnout. Of course it is more complicated than that--there are vested interests that don't want a change in the status quo. But imagine the effect it would have if there was a nearly 100% voter turnout in the black community. In some areas like NYC and Virginia, for example, this would make the black community very important in elections and their needs would become higher priorities for both political parties.

Bangladesh has long been one of the earth's poorest democracies. And yet it remained a democracy. It has long been one of the clearest case studies for the ill-effects of deforestation. As the highlands became denuded of its forests, the entire nation became subject to annual cycles of devastating floods and equally devastating droughts that have helped to keep Bangladesh poor. And yet it remained a democracy. An imperfect Democracy, but who are we to throw stones.

When 9/11 happened, I was struck by something. Bangladesh was one of the poorest Muslim nations, and yet remained largely immune to the sweeping tides of fundamentalist Islam that influenced Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. Bangladesh had the poorest, most neglected population, yet remained more open to democracy than to fundamentalist Islam or what is too often its alternative: military dictatorship. Bangladesh stood out to me as a nation we needed to focus on, to learn what can make Islam and democracy coexist. We also needed to focus on it as something to nurture. Bangladesh was a place we could help and while we helped them we could be fighting fundamentalist Islam while proving that we can be a good friend to democratic Islam. Bangladesh was one of our best opportunities to PREVENT the spread of fundamentalist Islam even as we fought it elsewhere.

Bush and the Republican controlled Congress ignored this opportunity, as they ignored many others, obsessed as they were in the completely unrelated attack on Iraq, an attack that made us LESS safe, not more safe. And while Bush ignored Bangladesh, the case study in how democratic Islam can survive even under crushing poverty, that crushing poverty finally started to create cracks in the democracy. As I predicted after 9/11/01, ignoring Bangladesh led to the spread of fundamentalist Islam into Bangladesh by September 2005. Around then a wave of some 300 bombings led by a growing Bangladeshi fundamentalist movement occurred, signaling that Bush's neglect of that small nation was opening up new recruiting grounds for fundamentalists. I said in 2005 that we had missed our opportunity in Bangladesh and it would soon go the way of other poor Muslim nations: a battle ground between military dictatorship and fundamentalist Islam, two equally repugnant options.

[Note: This is an abridged version of an earlier post.]

A little known fact : even though New York has had its fair share of Democratic governors, its state government has been in the clutches of the Republicans for 150 years. The only two times the state government was all blue were in 1932 and 1964. Teddy Roosevelt said once that 'the state Senate is constitutionally Republican'; it's not, but it's been reliably Republican since that party was founded in the 1850s.

It's probably the main reason so many groups have come together to support Craig Johnson.

Another little known detail about the Albany political machine : Incumbency has become the product of anti-democratic redistricting shenanigans.

It is outrageous that NYC, the single
largest demographic in the state, does not have proportional representation in Albany. This is because for years Republicans have been able to pass legislation that favors their districts.

Only in New York would you have majority white and Republican districts inflate their demographics by counting their prison population. This is what The New York Times has to say about the practice [Ending the Prison Windfall — New York Times editorial | Prisoners of the Census]:

Two hundred and forty billion dollars in tax breaks for corporations ... but do you think there has been any consideration on the minimum wage? No... What is it about you republicans ... what is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?

Honorable Mention:
Seven Days at Minimum Wage

[Note: I am putting the video after the jump for better loading]

At around six years old, I rode a hospital elevator with George Wallace. His legs had been destroyed by a failed assassination attempt and hunkered down in his wheelchair, he seemed like a nice old man. But when we got off the elevator, Mama said he was a bad man who didn't like black people. I really couldn't reconcile that smiling face with badness. If I remember correctly, he touched my hand. But Mama didn't believe he had changed for the better. History says he did, but history says a lot of things. One thing is for sure: someone shot him. Can't dispute that.

Now I sit here and I think about another historical figure: Martin Luther King, first and foremost a preacher before he was a political activist. King and Wallace are forever tied together, perhaps not just in their struggle against each other, but also in their love of God. Both quoted the bible frequently and lived what they considered a rightous life. And this makes me uncomfortable about what side Martin Luther King would favor today regarding gay rights, women's rights, and abortion. I know some of you are gonna wanna whip my ass, but I wonder if he would support any of the other issues besides racial equality that we on this site favor.

I believe in God and an afterlife but I think I am allergic to organized religion, except for the study of it. My brother and I are 2 out of 5.5 southerners never to be baptized. In the much of the south and a great deal of the black community, life centers around the church or a jail cell. I saw a lot of people come and go from both places, baptized or not. I don't know if this heavily influenced my politics; I guess so. I certainly don't come from the usual progressive family setting. My parents are not artist elites. They are very intelligent and creative but they always worked hard. Growing up, my dad lived in a southern ghetto in one room with 11 kids; my mother lived a rural life, so the empathy for poverty and the underdog ran strong in our house. Rules were made to be broken and mean people slapped (only when the occasion arose, of course). But I grew up believing that all people deserved a fair shot and backgrounds were not used to judge. This is how my parents said it.