Posts by jason330

This isn't getting much play in the media (naturally).

Desmond Tutu, the Nobel peace prize winner and activist, has called for an international campaign to boycott mining companies, oil corporations and other businesses involved in the trade of fossil fuels. Writing exclusively in the Observer prior to this week's UN climate summit in New York, Tutu says the same approach that was taken by the 1980s anti-apartheid campaign, of which he was a leader, should now be adopted in the battle to halt global warming. "The most devastating effects of climate change – deadly storms, heat waves, droughts, rising food prices and the advent of climate refugees – are being visited on the world's poor," he states. "Those who have no involvement in creating the problem are the most affected, while those with the capacity to arrest the slide dither. Africans, who emit far less carbon than the people of any other continent, will pay the steepest price. It is a deep injustice."

When rounding up all the suspects who killed the "American Left" (or through inaction allowed it to die) you'd have to include American Christianity. This is from a piece at TPMCafe regarding the American Catholic Church, but it is true across denominations. American Christianity simply stopped being concerned with "the little guy" and started being about myopic self-righteousness or around January 20, 1981.

In less than two years, Pope Francis has changed the face of a two-thousand-year old institution. His emphasis on humility, mercy and social justice offer a vivid contrast to a vocal minority of U.S. Christian leaders who only see dark clouds and battles to fight. Think of it as the joy of the Gospel v. culture war Christianity fight. The latter is being kicked to the curb by a pope determined to rescue the church from self-righteous ideologues, princely clerics and conservative activists who think opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion are the only real litmus tests of authentic Catholicism.

In 1988 when Tom Carper was cruising to an easy victory over James P. Krapf he had already gotten a few pay bumps on his way to being a multimillionaire with a lifetime sinecure in the US Senate. During the same period (1988 to today), the income of the median U.S. household has remained just under $52,000. "Third Way" economics have been great for Carper - but terrible for the country. Tom Carper is an abject failure when considering what he's been able to deliver to his constituents. His "centrist" economic philosophies have been an unmitigated disaster for the people who keep returning him to Washington. I can only assume that the reason he keeps winning is that he has the good fortune to pitted against Republicans in elections.

“Excuse me, do you have the time?” “Is this seat taken?” “Do you happen to know, is this the line for registration?” Everyone has millions of these forgettable little interactions every year. To make one of these little encounters between strangers memorable, you would really have to be a huge dick.

Sher Valenzuela on why she should be (insert name of elected office here). If Ken Simpler loses the primary to this outright dumbass - the GOP really is beyond hope. Extra Prediction - The Cape Gazette will overtake the News Journal as Delaware's newspaper of record within 8 years.

This is some bullshit.

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has replaced publisher Katharine Weymouth with a co-founder of the newspaper's competitor Politico, the company announced Tuesday. Weymouth's departure is the end of an era of Graham family involvement with the Post. Her great-grandfather bought the newspaper in the 1930s, and her uncle Donald Graham sold it to Bezos last August for $250 million. She'll be replaced by Frederick J. Ryan, the founding CEO of Politico and a former Reagan administration official.

Anyone who thought that Amazon ownership of the Post was going to be good for American journalism can put away that childish naivety.

OMG - please podcast this...

Radio talk show host Dan Gaffney called a segment of his Aug. 28 morning show “damned odd,” while Republicans locked in a primary battle for the Sussex County 5th District council seat called the show "crazy" and "surreal." Call it what you want – bad timing, miscommunication or a calculated election-year ploy – an exchange on a local radio talk show has ignited swirling controversy. During the segment, the two Republican candidates running for the District 5 seat both used up airtime. According to Gaffney, one of the two – incumbent Vance Phillips of Laurel – was not invited during that time slot. About half way through a scheduled interview and call-in session with Republican challenger Rob Arlett of Frankford, Phillips entered the studio and put on headphones.