June 24, 2009
Nerd Up: Laugh w POTUS
@dmscott embedded this video in his blog. Hilarious 14 minutes of John Hodgman riffing on POTUS.
Good to know I have something in common with POTUS (we've both met Spock). Sadly, neither the Kohanim priestly blessing nor the Vulcan salute come easily to me.
Shalom aleichem and good night.
Posted by cj at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2009
The Human Right to Health Care
I find it frightening that the mainstream media's coverage of the health care debate includes absolutely zero advocates of single payer health care. Instead, the Sunday talk shows drone on about what a drain that would be on the capitalist system. Politicians actually lament that if we allow the government to compete in the health care industry, it's a slippery slope to creating government corporations in computer manufacturing and every other capitalist industry.
Then the moderates pipe in that it's a shame Obama is flirting with subsidized health care, but it will be okay if the public option is a thousand and one tiny co-ops, never allowed to amass the scale needed to challenge the for-profit system.
Let's get real, folks. As the majority of US'ians know, health care is a human right, not another financial derivative waiting to be cashed in on. Being a female thyroid cancer survivor should not force me to spend $55 more than the average US'ian at CVS every single month. [My average monthly spend at CVS is $89, whereas the average US monthly spend is $34, according to Mint.com].
I noted my gender in addition to my cancer status because my dear health insurance company determined that I must pay a monthly penalty for choosing name-brand birth control; I am gouged $30 more per month than I was on my previous employer's health insurance plan.
Let's be clear: I did not choose to be susceptible to the environmental damage wreaked on my hometown by decades of military contractors. Since it is vitally important for me to maintain a steady dose of thyroid hormone, and since that hormone reacts to the levels of other hormones in my body, it's necessary for me to take brand-name birth control to ensure I always get the same amount of estrogen in my system. But nevermind all that nonsense, because a profit-seeking medicine gatekeeper decided that I must take generics whenever they are available. I can only be grateful that they didn't decide to gouge me for both medicines I take monthly.
Right, so to bring this personal frustration back to the political sphere, let me just repeat: the state of ease or dis-ease in my body is something for my doctors and me to control. No one should be able to complain that I'm not a great customer because I'm a cancer survivor: I'm a wonderful customer, since I help keep those damn pharmaceutical companies in business!
Do you know the modern health insurance industry was born in the 70s? In forty short years, they've bamboozled us out of more money than any other industrial country and created some of the worst health statistics.
What is so frightening about single payer health care? Is the upper middle class really afraid the poor will over-crowd their hospitals? (This is the argument I heard while waiting 2 hours to be admitted to Cedar-Sinai Hospital for pre-scheduled radiation treatment...as I sat, slightly delirious because I was off my meds, famished because I wasn't supposed to eat 3 hours before swallowing the toxic treatment, in the admitting waiting room while other about-to-be-patients ate their lunch and the entire intake staff took lunch at the exact same time.)
Do people really think government bureaucracy is more inept than corporate bureaucracy? At least the government has citizens' needs as their number one priority. When your primary motivation is profit, what does it matter if you kill someone by denying them treatment?
I'll never understand why more US citizens don't rise up and demand single-payer health care. I'll never understand why the former darling of the Democratic party, Senator Max Baucus refuses to allow single-payer advocates a seat at the negotiating table.
Posted by cj at 9:44 PM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2009
Listening to Alternative Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Today, the Consul General of Israel, Jacob Dayan, spoke at my synagogue, Ohr Hatorah.
Israel is a very difficult topic for me to deal with, as a practicing Jew and as a peace activist. I desperately want to respect the opinions of people with whom I disagree. I want to be able to listen to opposing viewpoints without running away. I still do not know how to have a meaningful dialog on this issue and this troubles me greatly.
First, I want to review my positions. I respect that the leaders of my congregation have declared the temple to be Zionist, but I hope I am allowed to continue to participate in the community even though I disagree with them.
Judaism is my religion. I am a post-Orthodox, neo-Hasidic Jew and I go to temple almost every Shabbat. It is also my ethnicity: both of my parents are Jewish and I have never heard anyone in my family call us Ukrainian or Russian (even though most of my ancestors came from the Ukraine back when it was part of Russia), because my people were never accepted into those nationalities. So, yes, it is my ethnicity as well. But it is not my nationality.
In my view, a religious state is inherently undemocratic. Any religious state is inherently undemocratic. Why? Because the act of declaring a state religion isolates and subjugates citizens who do not share those religious beliefs.
I believe Israel is occupying Palestine. I believe Jewish-only highways are an obstacle to peace. I believe all Jewish settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to peace. I believe the Israeli blockade of Gaza is an obstacle to peace. I believe Israeli checkpoints surrounding and within the West Bank and Gaza are an obstacle to peace. I believe until US'ians recognize Israel's inherent power over the Palestinians, we will never be honest brokers, nor will we ever help create peace.
I believe all Palestinian political leaders deserve a space at the negotiating table for peace. I believe this should occur with absolutely zero pre-conditions. Negotiating occurs at the peace table, not before you sit down. Hatred abounds on both sides of this conflict, and Israeli distrust of Hamas cannot trump democratic elections.
I denounce all acts of violence. This includes Palestinian suicide bombers. I denounce Palestinian attacks on Israel. I also denounce Israeli attacks on Palestine. Violence begets violence and there was nothing just about Israel's attack on Gaza in December 08 / January 09.
Right, so now that I've gotten that out of the way, here's a bit of what Mr. Dayan said this morning. I did not take notes for the entire speech (at first I was just trying to breathe), but here's what I did catch (this is not verbatim):
With hopes for a peaceful future for all people of the Middle East, including Jewish Israelis, Palestinian Israelis, Palestinians, and Iranians.
The world is very different today than it was 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. I know this because the best rapper in the world is white. The best golfer in the world is black. The Germans don't want to go to war. And the French call Americans arrogant.We face a huge threat from non-state actors. Terrorism is the scourge of the world. There are many different terrorists, but the thing that unifies them is that they all believe in fundamentalist Islam. And Muslims suffer the most from these terrorists.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the biggest threat to peace in the Middle East. His denial of the Holocaust proves that he is an enemy to Jewish people. The possibility of Iran developing nuclear weapons is the biggest threat to peace in the region.
This threat in the region provides us with a great opportunity to work with other countries in the Middle East.
Israel made a decision not to control the lives of Palestinians.
Israel was established not because of the Holocaust, but because we have roots; 3,000 years of roots in Israel. Theodor Herzl's original Zionist plan was to create a Jewish state in Uganda. It was only after that plan was defeated at the Seventh Zionist Congress that he realized there was only one place where Jews can establish and should establish their homeland.
Israel has a three track approach to peace:
- Economy: Without a middle class, you cannot create a stable economy. The West Bank was extremely quiet during the military operation in Gaza, especially in comparison to Europe, because they see an alternative to Hamas.
- Military
- Political track
- Good governance: Israel is not a part of this track, but the Palestinians have to build their institutions. In the face of corruption, Palestinians turned to Hamas as an alternative.
The most immediate threat that we face globally today is the Iranian threat.Israel agrees with President Obama's strategy for peace in the Middle East. We may disagree on a tactical level, but that's okay. The United States remains our strongest and most important ally.
Posted by cj at 5:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 7, 2009
I'll be a Post-Feminist in the Post-Patriarchy
I don't know why I torture myself on Sundays. I've dedicated this entire weekend to self preservation, but lately I've been starting my Sundays with some mild torture.
See, on Sundays I clean (up to a week's worth of) dishes, chop vegetables, and make myself breakfast. I listen to / watch the Sunday morning talk shows while doing this. And thus remind myself of how far from the mainstream my views are.
It seems like every female pundit on the planet firmly believes she lives in a post-feminist world. They laud Michelle Obama as the poster girl for post-feminist femininity. I often wonder what alternative reality this mindless hypocrites live in. Why must they disparage the evolution of women's place in public society by denouncing all demands for equality? Why do they accept the right-wing definition of "feminism"? Why do so many intelligent people define feminism as the movement of middle-class white women to assert their ability to go to work?
Let's be clear: feminism did not start with The Feminine Mystique. Further, acknowledging your right to be a girly housewife does not make me a post-feminist. Believing that society has already achieved gender equality is the most myopic, Eurocentric statement a Westerner can make. Pray tell, how does rape as a weapon of war fit into your post-feminist construct? What about the lack of affordable child care? Or how about the fact that most US'ians can't decide to allow one parent to stay home with the kids because there is no middle class left in this country and two incomes are mandatory to survive?
Look, I fully acknowledge that I am a lucky woman who lives in an extraordinary time. My professional opportunities are not hampered by my gender (though as a thyroid cancer survivor, my need for adequate health care does limit career paths).
But there is so much more to be done. Binary gender does not adequately explain the human condition. Physical anatomy cannot be used to assign gender identities. Around the world, women are not equal. They suffer a disproportionate burden in conflict regions. Western countries daily violate United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, which mandates women's equal involvement in conflict and post-conflict resolution. Want to know why Iraq and Afghanistan are more screwed up now than 7 years ago? A major reason is that the US government and its coalition of the willing blindly ignored the women of those countries as necessary, influential, and important partners in peace building.
Stop telling me that wearing makeup on a daily basis and getting excited about going on dates with my boyfriend make me a post-feminist. Stop telling the American people we live in a gender-neutral society. Stop defining feminism as bra-burning, man-hating lesbians.
Until women hold 50% of elected offices, until every workplace is family friendly, until women are equal participants in conflict resolution, until rape and sexual violence cease to exist, feminism will continue. The movement for gender equality will not die simply because it is an uncomfortable notion to the mainstream American punditry.
I will be a post-feminist in the post-patriarchy.
Posted by cj at 4:40 PM | Comments (1)
May 17, 2009
Reading Tea Leaves: Hoping for a Shift in USG Policy on the ME
Helene Cooper stokes the fire of justice and prayers for peace in today's NYT. She calls upon people who have had contact with POTUS to determine whether there is any possibility for him to break from the US government's lock-step agreement with right-wing Israeli leaders and concludes that it's entirely possibly.
In fact, she ends the article with a quote from a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Charles W. Freeman, Jr. who compares the possible change in policy to Nixon's game-changing trip to China. [Aside: former Mormon missionary, current Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr was nominated to be ambassador to China. Is an ultra-religious man really the best choice to dialog with the world's largest atheist community?]
I want to be hopeful. I want to believe that change is coming. But words mean very little when injustice has been accepted for 61 long years.
Posted by cj at 8:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 8, 2009
Understanding the Global Economic Crisis
From an entry in the Dollars and Sense blog, I found this article by James Galbraith, "Policy and Security Implications of the Financial Crisis, A Plan for America" (pdf)
This paper gives me hope for the future. My doubt lingers because the Obama administration has largely ignored its suggestions.
Instead of tightening the regulation of financial and credit markets, the administration has poured more money into unstable and useless institutions like AIG. Instead of forcing hedge funds to acknowledge their losses, the USG wants to prop them up - using tax payer money to create private profit.
At what point will the American people rise up and denounce their government's monetary policy? Welfare for the rich, home losses for the poor is not the path to peace and security.
How do we expose the reality of the crimes perpetuated by financial institutions in collusion with the federal government? At what point will US residents wake up from their consumer stupor and realize they're being screwed? A few billion for infrastructure spending is pointless if the government continues to refuse to regulate and hold accountable the pariahs who created the mess. Forget AIG bonuses; the real crime is the USG bailout of AIG.
Posted by cj at 6:43 AM | Comments (0)
March 31, 2009
Women, Action & the Media Conference
Last weekend, I went to an amazing conference Women, Action & the Media.
Here's a breakdown of the live-blogging done at the conference:
Friday, March 27: Pre-Conference Intensive on PR
Morning Panel Discussion
Introduction to the morning panel discussion
Elements to create a good media strategy
Media Strategy 101
Getting the mainstream, niche, and ethnic media to pay attention
How do you convey your message? USE MEDIA
Media exposure on the cheap
Afternoon Workshop on Creating a Media Strategy, led by Ina Howard-Parker of Represent, Inc.
Developing a comprehensive media strategy
Creating a media strategy continued
Elements of a communications planning process
PR Q&A
PR 101 Imagery
Friday evening: The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo. The most powerful documentary I have ever seen.
Saturday Plenary: Cynthia Lopez, Insider - Outsider
Interlude: shout out to The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way
Saturday Sessions
How to work in the mainstream media - and why you want to
Get inside the minds of editors
Where are the women in the political media?
Sunday Sessions
Write and publish persuasive op-eds for a national audience
Are the messages the new media? post by Theta Pavis
Women and the economic crisis: getting beyond the corporate media narrative
Q&A on women and the economic crisis
Posted by cj at 9:11 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2009
US Policy on Afghanistan
As you know, Obama announced a new policy on Afghanistan today. Newspapers previewed this in Today's Papers, and their work was summarized by Slate.
It takes a lot more work to fully understand the Obama administration and effectively criticize their policy than say, the W admin. But still, where are the women? What about UN Security Council Resolution 1325? What about creating a sustainable model that can be supported by the local GDP rather than relying until the end of time on financial aid? Why has RAWA not updated their site since 2008?
How can we hear authentic voices of the people of Afghanistan, particularly women, as part of developing a critique of the US government's policy?
Posted by cj at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)
Live Blogging at Women, Action, and the Media Conference
Check out the WILPF blog for my live posts.
I'm at a pre-conference intensive on PR.
Posted by cj at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2009
Perennial Hope
with hope that God forgives the crimes that have been done in my name...
click the image to sign a petition from Jewish Voices for Peace to Obama
Posted by cj at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2008
People still want to be diplomats
Most popular post I've ever written continues to be my advice for taking the foreign service exam. I still agree with everything I wrote, except now I'm a direct marketing professional who shelved her dreams of being a paid writer / activist.
Sometimes I freak out that State reads my blog. Then I remember - they ain't reading my political statements, just checking out my advice on entering the hallowed halls of public servitude. I recall fondly my fervent hopes of being a career diplomat. I held onto that dream for a good 4 years before realizing that my soul feels cleaner not being shackled to a government post. [It took the illegal occupation of Iraq to pull my head out of that quicksand.]
But goodness knows I could use some federal government health insurance. Gotta love the side effects of nuclear power...
Posted by cj at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
The More the World Changes, the More it Stays the Same...
The NYT ran a long story yesterday on the utterly mundane work of bribery at Siemens. Or at least, the average reader is expected to believe it was mundane and feel bad for the poor schmuck who ended up the fall guy because he was too "ethical" to sign an oath stating he wasn't responsible for moving around millions of dollars in bribery. Apparently, the fact that he never physically handed the money to corrupt dignitaries (in far off places like Italy and Israel) is supposed to make his corruption okay.
Somewhat shockingly, bribing foreign countries wasn't outlawed in Germany until 1999. That's right, ladies and gents - a mere 9 frickin years ago. Still don't believe the tales in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man?
Then perhaps you may need a refresher course in the history of transnational bribery. Strangely, the passing of another hustler was not included in the NYT obits yesterday. But the LAT managed to wax poetically about the life of Archibald Carl Kotchian. Poor Archibald was the fall guy when the USG decided to pretend to care that US corporations were bribing foreign countries back in the 70s. Check this out:
Ya see, ladies and gents, there is no need for individual responsibility when the whole world is built on a pile of crap. Blame your own unethical behavior on societal mores. Strangely, that defense continues to work for the capitans of industry.
In a memoir published only in Japan, Kotchian said Lockheed was a scapegoat and that the payoffs -- common throughout the 1960s and early 1970s -- were part of the way the "game" was played overseas. He maintained that no payoffs were made to American officials and no American laws were violated."If we were back in those times, I'd do it again," Kotchian said in an interview with the Associated Press in 1978. "In present times, with the change in attitude and standards that are being applied now, I don't think that I would."
Here's why I get so angry about the murky lack of morality underpinning free-trade capitalism: Integrity and Honesty are Really Important Virtues. I'm honest to a fault and I can't fathom getting ahead by playing dirty. I also can't understand how the foundation for our entire economic system is dirty politicians and hustling businessmen. No wonder the good die young - criminals seem to be running the world!
Consider these other tid-bits of news: Walmart's growth plan is buying up foreign grocery chains. It already owns the biggest chain in Central America and is on its way to purchasing the biggest chain in Chile. (Inexplicably, the WSJ thinks Chile has a recession-proof economy for reasons not explained in the article describing the buyout offer.) As an aside, the chain may need to lose part of its current name if it wants to stay honest - D&S stands for Distribucion & Servicio...but since we've already determined that dishonesty pays, may as well remake the retail chain with Orwellian glee.
Retail developers want their own handout from the fumbling government. That's right, the people who paved over paradise and put up a parking lot think it's unfair they may have to lose some money in this economic downturn. And let's face it, if bankers can get fungible money to pay millions in salary while hard-working union employees have to beg to maintain their modest incomes (at both US auto plants and government offices - where brilliant Republicans like the Cali governator want to force employees to take 24 days of unpaid vacation a year to help balance the budget!), why shouldn't the paradise pavers get in on raping the taxpayer?
I want to be clear: I'm not anti-corporation. I'm anti-corruption. And yes, I do think there is something fundamentally wrong with the corporate governance system when big wigs can honestly say that bribery was the only way to keep people in their jobs. Gone is the race to the bottom. We've already reached the zenith of human morality, now we're reaching into pure, unadulterated depravity.
If this post hasn't already pushed all the holiday cheer out of you, take a gander at this history of the Shrub administration's handling of the mortgage meltdown. My favorite passage:
A soft-spoken Texan, Mr. Falcon ran the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, a tiny government agency that oversaw Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two pillars of the American housing industry. In February 2003, he was finishing a blockbuster report that warned the pillars could crumble.An inconvenient truth was told by a government regulator. Shrub tried to replace him with "Mark C. Brickell, a leader in the derivatives industry that Mr. Falcon’s report had flagged." Alas, a pesky accounting scandal (you know, tied to that liars' game of derivatives) forced Shrub to embrace Falcon and back off his nomination of Brickell. Thankfully, for Shrub's corporate cronies, he was eventually able to replace Falcon with James Lockhart, who managed to lift the restraints on Freddie and Fannie imposed by Falcon in time to allow them to implode on the taxpayers' dime.[...]Today, the White House cites that report---and its subsequent effort to better regulate Fannie and Freddie---as evidence that it foresaw the crisis and tried to avert it. Bush officials recently wrote up a talking points memo headlined "G.S.E.'s ---We Told You So."
But the back story is more complicated. To begin with, on the day Mr. Falcon issued his report, the White House tried to fire him.
Amidst all this corruption, unregulated greed, misuse of shareholder and government funds, I'm supposed to believe that changing the name in front of POTUS will change the world? Sorry, Charlie, but 20 years ago was the last time I was that gullible (and then only because I thought I'd be related to the first family)...
End note conveniently missing from the printed Siemens story, but found online: the article was a joint report of ProPublica, Frontline, and the NYT. ProPublica is the investigative journalism newsroom that employs Paul Kiel who coherently explained the Madoff Ponzi scheme on Democracy Now! last week.
Posted by cj at 9:01 PM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2008
Thinking Deeply
I've been derelict at updating this blog to a greater extent than my cultural blog. Don't take this to mean I haven't been thinking about politics. Rather, the crush of life has forced sacrifices.
First, I committed time to a few monthly emails for WILPF. And work is quite intense these days, which I'm grateful for. And mostly, I feel that my political posts should be Well Thought Out, which leads to more writers' block that simple babbling on the last movie I saw.
One of my New Year's resolutions is to blog at least once a week on each blog. I don't think anyone else is searching for new posts on these fora, but I know that this outlet is important to creating balance in my soul. So, just as I once started a blog to keep a public record of the fact that I had applied to jobs, I am now publicly asserting my need to express my own opinion on The World.
Posted by cj at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)
November 4, 2008
What about the propositions?
How on the day that a black man was elected president could the voters of California vote to limit the human rights of their fellow citizens?
How in the world can Californians vote yes on prop 8?
I shouldn't put so much emphasis in 2% of the precincts reporting...but it still puts a terrible taste in my mouth that 57% of currently counted votes are for a constitutional ban on same gender marriage. For the love of all things holy!
Posted by cj at 8:38 PM | Comments (0)
My grumpy morning voting
I got mad this morning. I woke up early to go vote before work. I was in line at 6:53 a.m. Problem was, the county workers who opened the polls decided to let 2 lines form: one at the front and one in the back by the parking lot (a parking lot that was closed on one side).
So instead of getting to move in a timely manner, I had to wait while the flow was let in "evenly" between the lines. But here's the crux: this is the first time ever a line was allowed from the back door. So those of us who have voted before were held up by knowing the "right" door to queue at.
And it gets worse - I was so angry, so frustrated about the old lady looking up my name, so annoyed that my name had to be checked twice (why twice?) that I ran too quickly through the ballot and mismarked a proposition. So, I had to request a new ballot.
Anyway, I'm glad I stuck it out and voted before any state was called. Made my vote feel slightly more meaningful for president. And you know, those LA judges couldn't get in without me. :)
Wow. 8 long years of ineptitude in the electorate and in the party machine has now ended.
Congrats Obama on creating a party machine for the 21st century.
Now it's time to push for more progressive policies.
Posted by cj at 7:46 PM | Comments (0)