It’s really a sight to behold:
A day after scolding Russia for retreating on democracy, Vice President Cheney flew to oil-rich Kazakhstan yesterday and lavished praise on the autocratic leader of a former Soviet republic where opposition parties have been banned, newspapers shut down and advocacy groups intimidated.
Why don’t we have this in DC?
For me, the aftermath of Chernobyl was that all of the playgrounds in my town, Eichenzell, were closed. For others, it was much more real.
ITV tells us that:
“[the]woman who heckled Chinese President Hu Jintao on a visit to the White House has been charged with a criminal offence by a US court.
Wang Wenyi, 47, could face up to six months in jail for “harassing, intimidating and threatening a foreign official”.”
I’m so glad to see that the US is showing China how serious it is about human rights abuses.
Slate’s Ryan Grim highlights the effects of the Federal law denying financial aid to any student that admits having been convicted of possession.
Add this to your Tivo assignment list – Paragraph 175, on HBO. Referring to the section of the German penal code that criminalized male homosexuality, this 2000 documentary explores the memories of five men (of 10 known living at the time) who survived being sent to concentration camps for being gay. It’s a very personal journey – the anger of Pierre Seel at what happened is shaming, and the scene in which Heinz F. (93 at the time) cries for having been unable to talk about his experience with his father is heartbreaking.
It had never occured to me that the drive through window would be outsourced. According to the NYT article, McDonald’s is experimenting with routing the drive through orders of 40 locations to workers at call centers in Mississippi and Wyoming. The audio is routed from the drive through board mic/speaker to a call center, and the order is sent back to the restaurant over the Internet. I’m rather doubtful that the claimed speed efficiencies justify the costs involved. Minimum wage workers take the order in either place, no? But if you change Mississippi and Wyoming to Kerala and Punjab . . .
Interesting.
I joined what I expect will be pegged at 50,000+ fellow Americans on the Mall today. I, along with everyone else there, went to stand in opposition to the attack on common sense, American values, and basic human dignity that is H.R. 4437. You’ve almost certainly heard a lot of (mis)information about it, but just in case you haven’t, this is a good start. I agree – our immigration system is most certainly broken – but H.R. 4437 and its relations aim only to smash the system to bits.
Instead of listing out the abominations contained in that bill and proposed by its supporters, I’ll offer something different here: hope. The people – the energy – in the march was amazingly positive. While recent protests such as Operation Ceasefire were full of passionate believers in freedom and decency, there was a palpable sense of futility, of raging against the wind. This? This was very different. I had forgotten what it was like to hear “U.S.A! U.S.A!” chanted with hope, instead of fear and anger. It was the same excitement about America that I heard on a flight so long ago. It was the sound of people thinking that the America we know and love will win this one.
SÃ, Se puede. Yes.we.can.
Just finished two days at Freedom to Connect – two stimulating, motivating, and educating days. It was good to catch up with some folks I’d not seen in a while, and great to meet a number of really interesting new people. My plan was to recap some of the highlights – Martin Geddes well-constructed argument against net neutrality, the Dave & Doc show, and the rather entertaining James Salter. (Update: Priceless.)
But the Powerbook (with all my notes) simply refuses to work (thankfully, its problems only started at the end of the day), and the onset of sick has robbed me of further enthusiasm for the evening. Manana.
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