If I Was A Terrorist

h/t to my very good friend over at Open Letters to George W. Bush.

Google Has a Sense of Humor

Per my stat counter, today someone in Cape Coral, Florida, typed:

Love Poems for when ur in a Fight

into their Google search engine.

Not only did they find MY site...they found THIS post.

Wonder if it helped. :)

The Strike...A summary

Pencils Down means Pencils Down

United Hollywood

Thank You...

...to all our veterans, but especially to this one, my little brother:

Today's observance was intended not to glorify war, but as a solemn way to recognize its end. In that spirit, today I continue my commitment to advocate for a peaceful resolution to end the war in Iraq, and prevent war with Iran. We do not need more veterans. Instead, we need to honor those we have by fully funding services designed to meet the challenging and diverse needs of the men and women who have served in our military.

We can say 'thank you' with the immediate elimination of waiting lists for care and benefits.

We can say 'thank you' by ensuring that the mental health needs of returning soldiers are considered a medical priority and providing the adequately trained staff in sufficient numbers so as to guarantee that every solider receives the best standard of care possible.

We can say 'thank you' by the immediate elimination of pay and benefit inequities between U.S. military personnel and private paramilitary contractors who often perform the same work, in the same situations, for a fraction of the compensation. Those who wear our uniform deserve more pay, not less.

We can say 'thank you' by keeping our recruiting promises to help pay for college in a realistic and meaningful way that accurately compensates veterans for the true costs of higher education.

We can say 'thank you' by encouraging a real national conversation about the toll of war on the future of this country, not just in dollars and cents, but in the loss of production and innovation that will come as a direct result of the permanent disabilities of our wounded.

We can say 'thank you' by redefining what support means. Forget the rhetoric. It isn't about showing respect to the flag and it isn't about whether you wear a lapel pin. It isn't about a 99 cent magnet flung on the back of some car. This is what true support would look like: not one homeless veteran. Not one.

We can say 'thank you' by working as a nation to eliminate the stigma associated with PTSD, depression, and other identifiable and treatable mental health issues so as to eliminate this debilitating barrier to service provision.

We can say 'thank you' by finally ending the flawed 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. We must bring honor to all our veterans by allowing them the respect and dignity they deserve. Sexual orientation has nothing to do with patriotism or the ability to do one's job. Existing benefits and supportive services must be extended to the families of LGBT military personnel and they must be permitted to serve openly without fear of discrimination or harassment.

We can say 'thank you' by praying for peace.

Update: The web is full of wonderful, powerful Veteran's Day posts like this one, this one, and this one.

Happy Pride!

Today was our annual Palm Springs Pride Parade. The weather was wonderful, the crowd was amazing, and the atmosphere, well, see for yourself:

Audre Lorde said, “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences." Today my community celebrated the rich diversity it contains and I was so proud.

(More pictures coming soon!)

I take it back.

Today, in the heat of a moment filled with the stress of the demands of my graduate school program, I turned to my dogs and said in a hungry, pathetic voice:

"I am SO sick of bean burritos and Velveeta Shells and Cheese. I just want something good to eat!!"

Then I read this.

I have never been this hungry.

What the AP fails to mention is that the person in this story is not alone. It is estimated that there are more than 38 million Americans who are "food insecure."

In fact, according to this national survey, requests for emergency food assistance increased an average of 12 percent in 2005. That same year, 18 percent of all requests for emergency food assistance went unmet. In more than half of the cities participating in the survey, food assistance facilities were not able to provide an adequate quantity of food. 68% of cities report either decreasing the quantity of emergency food assistance distributed or putting limits on the numbers of bags distributed or decreasing further the number of times families and/or individuals can come to get food.

Forty-three percent of the cities report that emergency food assistance facilities may have to turn away those in need because of lack of resources.

In 87 percent of the cities, families and individuals relied on emergency food assistance facilities
both in emergencies and as a steady source of food over long periods of time.

That's some report card for the land of plenty we call the greatest nation in the world.

My mom used to encourage me to eat brussel sprouts with gratitude because, "there are starving children in China." She forgot to mention that there are starving children in America.

I have never been this hungry.

I take it back.

Charge...Clear...Still V-Tach

A thought.

It probably can be shown with
FACTS and
FIGURES
that there is no
distinctly
American criminal class
except
Congress.

~Mark Twain

(Leave your proof in the comments.)

Yup. I agree.

Minimum wage workers made $5.15 an hour when Harry Potter became a sensation a decade ago, and nothing more until July 24, three days after the final Harry Potter book release.

The same year Harry Potter and the $5.15 minimum wage made their debuts, in 1997, Business Week declared CEO pay was "Out of Control." Since then, CEO pay has gotten more out of control.Average CEO pay at the top 500 companies jumped 38 percent to $15.2 million in 2006 -- the year we broke the record for the longest period ever without a raise in the federal minimum wage.

The July 24 minimum wage increase from $5.15 to $5.85 is so little, so late, that the minimum wage is still worth less than it was back in 1997, when it was $6.67 in today's dollars.

Minimum wage workers had more buying power when Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton opened his first Walton's 5 & 10 in 1951.

CEOs make more in 90 minutes than minimum wage workers make in a year.

The two longest periods in history without a minimum wage increase have occurred since 1980. Those long draughts without a raise have left minimum wage workers in the dust. In 1980, the average CEO at a big corporation made as much as 97 minimum wage workers. In 1997, the average CEO made as much as 728 minimum wage workers.

Last year, CEOs made as much as 1,419 minimum wage workers. "As the productivity of workers increases, one would expect worker compensation to experience similar gains," a 2001 U.S. Department of Labor report observed. Instead, the gains have gone to record-breaking profits, CEOs and other have-mores.Between 1980 and 2006, worker productivity went up 70 percent, average worker wages went nowhere, the minimum wage fell 32 percent, and domestic corporate profits rose 256 percent, adjusting for inflation. A red light for minimum wage was a green light for accelerating greed. Adjusting for inflation, men in their thirties make less today than their fathers' generation made in the 1970s.

It's time to stop overpaying CEOs enough to keep their families rich for many generations to come at the expense of workers paid poverty wages today. Even the state with the highest minimum wage, Washington at $7.93, doesn't match the buying power of the federal minimum wage at its peak in 1968. Worth $9.56 in today's dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was more than $2 higher than the scheduled raise in the federal minimum wage to $7.25 on July 24, 2009.

Too bad we can't use Hermione's magical Time-Turner to send the minimum wage and CEO pay both back to 1968. The minimum wage sets the wage floor. If the minimum wage had stayed above $9, Wal-Mart and McDonald's, our nation's largest employers, couldn't routinely pay wages much lower. Wal-Mart's wages would be closer to Costco, which pays starting wages over $10 an hour. Costco CEO Jim Sinegal has long asserted, "Paying your employees well is not only the right thing to do, but it makes for good business." McDonald's starting wages would be more like In-N-Out Burger, which has a minimum wage of $9.50 an hour and has long ranked first or tied for first nationwide among fast food chains in overall excellence.
Our nation's minimum wage would be closer to Harry Potter's U.K., where the minimum wage already tops $10, child poverty rates have fallen sharply, and the economy is stronger than ours.

Overpaying CEOs and underpaying workers is bad for business. Studies show that showering stock options on chief executives lowers shareholder returns, and increases the likelihood companies will cook their books, default on debt and go bankrupt. Higher worker wages benefit business by increasing consumer spending, reducing costly employee turnover, raising worker morale and productivity, and improving product quality and company reputation. In the words of Gary Theilen, owner of Theilen Farm and Cattle in Enid, Okla., "As a small-business owner who has always paid well above the minimum wage, it has been my experience that paying living wages makes good business sense. It is good for business, workers and the community. "Theilen has joined business owners from across the nation in endorsing higher minimum wage at Business for a Fair Minimum Wage (http://www.businessforafairminimumwage.org/).

Paying workers enough to live on is the minimum employers should do.

Holly Sklar is co-author of "A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future" and "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All of Us."

She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com.