And the more I see, the worse it gets...

Palintology

Ethics:
o Used the power of her office to try to get her ex-brother-in-law fired, then fired the uncooperative Public Safety Commissioner and replaced him with a known sexual harasser. Yep, she's a Republican, all right.
o Shares the Bush/Cheney approach to government accountability and transparency.
o Broke state law by publicly advocating against a clean water ballot initiative. But she took her governor's hat off first, so it's okay.
o Refused to call for Ted Stevens' resignation after his indictment, even though she had previously done so with an indicted state senator (also Republican).
o Was for the Bridge To Nowhere before she was against it.
o Employed lobbyists to obtain earmarks as both mayor and governor.
Religion & Ideology:
o The Religious Right - and Grover Norquist - love her. This was exactly the kowtow from McCain that they were looking for.
o Totally anti-choice, even in cases of rape or incest.
o Opposes gay marriage and healthcare benefits for gay domestic partners.
o Skeptical of evolution and believes that creationism should be taught, or at least "discussed," in the classroom.

o Huge Pat Buchanan fan. (Apparently it's not mutual.)

o Didn't like Hillary Clinton's "whining." (What is it with Republicans and whining?)

Of course, there's MORE

Voices of the Progressives

Van Jones at the DNC

Van Jones: There is a way to fight poverty and pollution at the same time

Naomi Klein on Obama

Klein: Obama is not really a progressive. And progressives need to have a plan to pressure him immediately after the election. Because his Wall Street donors are already making demands, demands that conflict with any and all progressive agendas.

Panel Discussions

Race, Poverty and Obama

Democrats and Healthcare

behind the scenes of the DNC:

A calm political protest quickly turned chaotic as anxious Denver police surrounded protestors peacefully marching toward the Democratic National Convention Center. After trapping the crowd between two buildings, hundreds of officers used pepper spray, batons and unwarranted aggression. After being surrounded for 20 minutes, two ANP producers managed to escape after recording the whole affair.

At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Iraq Veterans Against the War marched with thousands of peace activists amid high police presence to bring a message to Obama - pull out of Iraq now.

AT&T thanks the Blue Dog Democrats with a lavish party

Last night in Denver, at the Mile High Station -- next to Invesco Stadium, where Barack Obama will address a crowd of 30,000 people on Thursday night -- AT&T threw a lavish, private party for Blue Dog House Democrats, virtually all of whom blindly support whatever legislation the telecom industry demands and who also, specifically, led the way this July in immunizing AT&T and other telecoms from the consequences for their illegal participation in the Bush administration's warrantless spying program. Matt Stoller has one of the listings for the party here.

Armed with full-scale Convention press credentials issued by the DNC, I went -- along with Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher, John Amato, Stoller and others -- in order to cover the event, interview the attendees, and videotape the festivities. There was a wall of private security deployed around the building, and after asking where the press entrance was, we were told by the security officials, after they consulted with event organizers, that the press was barred from the event, and that only those with invitations could enter -- notwithstanding the fact that what was taking place in side was a meeting between one of the nation's largest corporations and the numerous members of the most influential elected faction in Congress. As a result, we stood in front of the entrance and began videotaping and trying to interview the parade of Blue Dog Representatives, AT&T executives, assorted lobbyists and delegates who pulled up in rented limousines, chauffeured cars, and SUVs in order to find out who was attending and why AT&T would be throwing such a lavish party for the Blue Dog members of Congress.

Amazingly, not a single one of the 25-30 people we tried to interview would speak to us about who they were, how they got invited, what the party's purpose was, why they were attending, etc. One attendee said he was with an "energy company," and the other confessed she was affiliated with a "trade association," but that was the full extent of their willingness to describe themselves or this event. It was as though they knew they're part of a filthy and deeply corrupt process and were ashamed of -- or at least eager to conceal -- their involvement in it. After just a few minutes, the private security teams demanded that we leave, and when we refused and continued to stand in front trying to interview the reticent attendees, the Denver Police forced us to move further and further away until finally we were unable to approach any more of the arriving guests. MORE

ABC Reporter Arrested in Denver Taking Pictures of Senators, Big Donors

Denver Police Arrest 91, Fire Pepper Spray & Pepper Balls at Protesters

Its not THAT you're protesting. Its WHAT you're protesting


Pepperspraying protestors,

If you are a New York Times photog, try not to be mistaken for an anarchist,

What the Free Speech Zones looked like (most people completely ignored them)

In which karl Rove gets pwned

Steve Benen points out the new VP pick leaves a certain amount of egg on Karl Rove's face:

Republican strategist Karl Rove said on Face The Nation Sunday that he expects presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama to choose a running mate based on political calculations, not the person's readiness for the job.
"I think he's going to make an intensely political choice, not a governing choice," Rove said. "He's going to view this through the prism of a candidate, not through the prism of president; that is to say, he's going to pick somebody that he thinks will on the margin help him in a state like Indiana or Missouri or Virginia. He's not going to be thinking big and broad about the responsibilities of president."
Rove singled out Virginia governor Tim Kaine, also a Face The Nation guest, as an example of such a pick.
"With all due respect again to Governor Kaine, he's been a governor for three years, he's been able but undistinguished," Rove said. "I don't think people could really name a big, important thing that he's done. He was mayor of the 105th largest city in America."
Rove continued: "So if he were to pick Governor Kaine, it would be an intensely political choice where he said, `You know what? I'm really not, first and foremost, concerned with, is this person capable of being president of the United States."

Yes, the real problem with Tim Kaine is that he's only been governor of a large state for three years, and before that, he was only the mayor of a mid-size city. This, of course, made him "undistinguished," unprepared for national office, and the very idea of putting him on a national ticket was practically ridiculous.
Thanks, Karl.

Ah. I like when Republicans make complete asses of themselves.

Hurricane Gustav

Via jonquil and firedoglake, We Could Be Famous, Daily Kos, Shakesville.




There was this:

And now there is this: Gustav now Category Four

Even forecasters at the center were surprised at how quickly Gustav gained strength as it charged over Cuba. It went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 in about 24 hours, and was likely to become a Category 5 — with sustained winds of 156 mph or more — by Sunday.

"This is a little more than what we had in mind in such a short time," said Richard Knabb, a senior specialist at the center.

...

The state has a $7 million contract for more than 700 buses to carry an estimated 30,000 people to shelters.

Unlike Katrina, when thousands took refuge inside the Superdome, there will be no "last resort" shelter, and those who stay behind accept "all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones," said the city's emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed.

....

Those among New Orleans' estimated 310,000 to 340,000 residents who ignore orders to leave accept "all responsibility for themselves and their loved ones," the city's emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed, has warned.

One hopes that the fervour with which the prayers for teh soaking of the Denver Convention went up, will be applied to the miraculous snuffing a storm which New Orleans and the surrounding areas are COMPLETELY unprepared for.

Three years ago, Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29. You remember what happened.

And they are so far from being recovered that its laughable

45,000. Fewer children enrolled in Medicaid in New Orleans than pre-Katrina.

46,000. Fewer African American voters in New Orleans in 2007 gubernatorial election than 2003 gubernatorial election, according to a report in the Times-Picayune in April 2008.

55,000. Fewer houses receiving mail than before Katrina.

62,000. Fewer people in New Orleans enrolled in Medicaid than pre-Katrina.

71,657. Vacant, ruined, unoccupied houses in New Orleans today.

124,000. Fewer people working in metropolitan New Orleans than pre-Katrina.

132,000. Fewer people in New Orleans than before Katrina, according to the City of New Orleans current population estimate of 321,000 in New Orleans, according to reporting in the Times-Picayune in July 2008.

214,000. Fewer people in New Orleans than before Katrina, according to the U.S. Census Bureau current population estimate of 239,000 in New Orleans, according to reporting in the Times-Picayune in July 2008.

453,726. Population of New Orleans before Katrina.

320 million. The number trees destroyed in Louisiana and Mississippi by Katrina.

368 million. Dollar losses of five major metro New Orleans hospitals since Katrina through 2007. In 2008, hospitals expect another $103 million in losses.

1.9 billion. FEMA dollars that are supposed to be available to metro New Orleans for Katrina damages that have not yet been delivered.

2.6 billion. FEMA dollars that are supposed to be available to State of Louisiana for Katrina damages that have not yet been delivered. MORE

And now?

State scrambles to find buses for evacuation: Original contractor reneged, Jindal says

BATON ROUGE -- The private contractor the state hired to provide buses for hurricane evacuations has not come through with enough vehicles in a timely manner, causing officials to look elsewhere to meet the state's timeline for moving people out of New Orleans and other areas prior to the arrival of Hurricane Gustav, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Friday.

The state contracted for 700 buses with drivers to be made available in an emergency but has "run into challenges" with the primary bus contractor, the governor said during a news conference in Baton Rouge.

"The contractor is not necessarily doing what they promised to do," Jindal said.
State officials later identified the company as Landstar System Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla., company whose shares trade on the Nasdaq stock market. MORE

Public evacuation system might rely on school buses

Up to 400 school buses are en route to the state's staging area for public evacuation, indicating that the system might run out of charter buses to take evacuees without their own transportation to shelters across the state.

Rusty Costanza / The Times-PicayuneSchool buses line up in the parking lot at Zephyr Field in Metairie Saturday to be fueled and supplied with food and water. Up to four hundred school buses were expected to be in place for evacuation of the New Orleans metro area
About 250 yellow buses were parked at Zephyr Field this afternoon, with more arriving, according to the Louisiana National Guard. The staging area is not open to the public. Evacuees who need transportation must go to one of the 17 pick-up sites in New Orleans and two in Jefferson Parish. MORE

Blackwater heads back to New Orleans

Really disturbing announcement, courtesy of Blackwater's newsletter, the Blackwater Tactical Weekly. Looks like Blackwater is on its way back to Blackwater NOLA. Emailed to me by my very alert friend Nick.

Security for Hurricane Gustav

Blackwater is compiling a list of qualified security personnel for possible deployment into areas affected by Hurricane Gustav.

Applicants must meet all items listed under the respective Officer posting and be US citizens. Contract length is TBD.MORE

Why do I have the nasty feeling that we are going to find ourselves in trouble once again?


EDIT:GOP COnvention May be cancelled

John McCain said the Republican National Convention may be postponed as federal officials said Hurricane Gustav was gathering to a devastating Category 5 as it headed toward star-crossed New Orleans.

“It just wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion while a near-tragedy or a terrible challenge is presented in the form of a natural disaster,” McCain told Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” in an interview taped for Sunday. “So we're monitoring it from day to day and I'm saying a few prayers, too.”

McCain also said: “I'm afraid, Chris, that we may have to look at that situation and we'll try to monitor it. I've been talking to Govs. Jindal, Barbour, Riley. Chris, I've been talking to all of them.”

Officials at the convention, which is to open Monday in St. Paul, Minn., tell Politico they are figuring out how to handle the formal business of nominating McCain even if some delegations are not able to attend.

MORE

Uh? Why in the world is NORTHCOM in command of the public relations of the hurricane disaster area?

Via: Hullabaloo


What's wrong with this Hurricane?

I just noticed that the daily brief customarily done in advance of a hurricane is happening because Gustov is bearing down on the Gulf Coast…but a big shift here: the briefing is being given by NORTHCOM. So what does this tell us and why does it matter? It tells us that things are as broken as they were before Katrina.

...

When it comes to disasters, the governor is always in charge. At any point, he or she can call in their state’s National Guard, and/or ask other governors for their help in augmenting response efforts with their national guard or other resources. If a governor is worried things are getting out of control, they ask the President to provide help through FEMA at any point before or after the incident. FEMA is then in charge of coordinating the resources of the federal government to support the governor and the state. In a sense, when FEMA is working properly—as it did under Clinton—when the FEMA director tells another Federal agency to do something, it’s as if the President is calling. The government agency is expected to deliver and cut through red tape to make things happen and happen fast.

There is no allowance or legal authority for the Department of Defense to take any sort of control or command in this scenario. In a hurricane, DoD, like Human Services, Transportation, etc, all work for FEMA and the governor of the impacted state.

...

Perhaps the state governments need help. Perhaps FEMA is not up to the job. Perhaps the Bush Administration simply wants a uniform on camera, and this way of doing things is preferable to things happening the way that they should (a process, by the way, that WORKED before Bush screwed it up).

NORTHCOM taking the lead in public relations is a clear indication that nothing has been fixed in DHS and FEMA since Katrina. As a result, there is no confidence in FEMA’s ability to respond to this hurricane. With NORTHCOM at the helm, the Bush Administration either doesn’t care if, or doesn’t want, the systems to work. This Administration has issued a lot of reports since Katrina (none of which suggest the military should take control, incidentially), but no one has been held accountable and the lessons have not been learned. The priority is still on preventing embarrassment, not keeping people safe.

The other thing to remember here is that this is not a mission the military wants. Sure, they can ride in on a white horse and do what they can, but their job is to fight wars, not deal with disasters. Governors need their national guards to make this a priority (but most are in Iraq) but DoD needs to worry about the rest of the world. By dumping this on them, the Bush Administration is reinforcing the idea that the military is the only government agency that people can trust and continues to burden them with missions for which they are not trained. MORE

More people doing way cool things

Via:What Tami Said

The Making of an African Activist

Ory Okolloh is a blogger and open-government activist. She runs Mzalendo, a pioneering civic website that tracks the performance of Kenya's Parliament and its
Parliamentarians. With a vote tracker, articles and opinion pieces, the site connects Kenyans to their leaders and opens the lid on this powerful and once-secretive body. (This is a Parliament that finally agreed to have its procedings televised in August 2008.)

Okolloh's own blog is called Kenyan Pundit, and it tracks her work with Mzalendo and her other efforts as part of the rebuilding of Kenya, following the post-election violence in late 2007 (she collected a powerful series of diaries of the violence, dozens of essays from Kenyans and others -- well worth a read).

Okolloh is part of a wave of young Africans who are using the power of blogging, SMS and web-enabled openness to push their countries forward and help Africans to truly connect. Tools like Ushahidi help to link a people whose tribal differences, as Okolloh points out again and again, are often cynically exploited by a small group of leaders. Only by connecting Africans can this cycle be broken.

"We feel that Kenyans not only have "a right to know,” but also need to take a more active role in determining their country's role -- this is our effort to do more than just complain about how things are not working in Kenya."--from "What Is Mzalendo?"

Of interest

Ron Eglash: African fractals, in buildings and braids

Who is he?

"Ethno-mathematician" Ron Eglash is the author of African Fractals, a book that examines the fractal patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa. By looking at aerial-view photos -- and then following up with detailed research on the ground -- Eglash discovered that many African villages are purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with self-similar shapes repeated in the rooms of the house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village, in mathematically predictable patterns.

As he puts it: "When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganized and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn't even discovered yet."

His other areas of study are equally fascinating, including research into African and Native American cybernetics, teaching kids math through culturally specific design tools (such as the Virtual Breakdancer applet, which explores rotation and sine functions), and race and ethnicity issues in science and technology. Eglash teaches in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and he recently co-edited the book Appropriating Technology, about how we reinvent consumer tech for our own uses.

Next time you bump into one of those idiots who starts asking you questions like, 'where is the African Mozart, or where is the African Brunel?' -- implying that Africans do not think -- send them a copy of Ron Eglash’s study of fractals in African architecture and watch their heads explode.
mentalacrobatics.com

Teaching Math through Culture


Sugata Mitra: How children teach themselves.

Who is he?

In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC, and left it there (with a hidden camera filming the area). What they saw was kids from the slum playing around with the computer and in the process learning how to use it and how to go online, and then teaching each other.

In the following years they replicated the experiment in other parts of India, urban and rural, with similar results, challenging some of the key assumptions of formal education. The "Hole in the Wall" project demonstrates that, even in the absence of any direct input from a teacher, an environment that stimulates curiosity can cause learning through self-instruction and peer-shared knowledge. Mitra, who's now a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University (UK), calls it "minimally invasive education."

"Education-as-usual assumes that kids are empty vessels who need to be sat down in a room and filled with curricular content. Dr. Mitra's experiments prove that wrong."

Linux Journal

Iqbal Quadir: Mobile Phones can lift from poverty

Who is he?

As a kid in rural Bangladesh in 1971, Iqbal Quadir had to walk half a day to another village to find the doctor -- who was not there. Twenty years later he felt the same frustration while working at a New York bank, using diskettes to share information during a computer network breakdown. His epiphany: In both cases, "connectivity is productivity." Had he been able to call the doctor, it would have saved him hours of walking for nothing.

Partnering with microcredit pioneer GrameenBank, in 1997 Quadir established GrameenPhone, a wireless operator now offering phone services to 80 million rural Bangladeshi. It's become the model for a bottom-up, tech-empowered approach to development. "Phones have a triple impact," Quadir says. "They provide business opportunities; connect the village to the world; and generate over time a culture of entrepreneurship, which is crucial for any economic development."

"GrameenPhone has increased the country’s GDP by a far greater amount than repeated infusions of foreign aid. "

The New Nation