07 May, 2009

Guns on the Radio, Not on Campus

Upstream Radio, produced by my fellow students in the Social Justice and Action Coalition, a grassroots organization in our very own School of Social Work, featured the concealed weapons on campus issue on tonight's show. We'll be meeting down at the Capitol at the 8 a.m. tomorrow to start working the halls again. There's still much to do, so if you have time, please join us.

Salaam.

Beach Reading

The budget's out! Happy wonky, geeky reading everybody! I'm starting with the Social Security Administration...Nobody spoil the fun and tell me how it ends, please.

Salaam.

06 May, 2009

Food Stamps Suck... Or Do They?

This excellent film was produced by a four of the students in my Social Policy course for their term project: Erika Gonzalez, Chris Babb, Adriane Clomax and Caroline Christian. These guys did an excellent job, so take a few minutes and watch.

03 May, 2009

Torture, Plain and Simple

It's been mentioned a good deal and I kept meaning to link to it here...
If you haven't read this piece by Mark Danner in the New York Review of Books, please be sure to do so. Yes, it's long, but very well worth your time.

Also, worth your time, in regards to the torture - yes, t-o-r-t-u-r-e - policies of this country is Scott Horton's breakdown at Harper's site of former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleeza Rice's comments to a student at Stanford this week.

To those of you who say all this was worth it for the intel, what kind of intel do you think somebody gives you after being forced to stand shackled for a month at a time or having their head repeatedly smashed against the wall? What would you be willing to admit to in order to end such treatment?

This isn't about revenge against the former administration. If the other party did this - if my mother did this - I would want at the very least an investigation. This is not about politics. We are better than this.

And, where is the organized, official outcry from the social work profession, with human rights supposedly at the core, since all of this starting coming to light years ago? I suppose this will go the way of the profession's response to the international sanctions against Iraq and slip quietly past. You should read an excellent article on that issue from Dr. Scott Harding of the University of Connecticut.
Salaam.

A Brief History of the Act Formerly Known as Waterboarding

Hence to be referred to by its rightful name: suffocation by water.
Any questions?
Salaam.