Vocabulary Lesson

Favorite new word, courtesy of yesterday's silly, muddled riff on tea and taxes by the right-wing:
Astroturf (adj): Used to describe a sociopolitical movement that is top-down organized by media, corporate or other large interests; the opposite of a Grassroots Movement.

Only it's not a movement, but rather a bunch of manipulated and confused folks wielding tea bags. Yes, these working class heroes are protesting taxes right after the largest middle class tax cut in U.S. history. Brilliant. And they are protesting taxes in general. So, I guess they don't much like roads, police, schools, and parks (which Anna Marie Cox pointed out last night is where many of these protests took place), to name just a few tax-funded extravagances.
And, most enjoyably, it's a bunch of conservatives who who have no idea that calling themselves "Teabaggers" has given many of us something to laugh heartily about this week.

Here in Texas, Gov. Rick Perry joined the teabaggers at a few tea parties in the state yesterday. Who knew Rick's a teabagger? Here's yet another reason he should be booted in next year's election. Yes, Rick, you stick it to The Man! Viva El Coif! Oh, wait...The Man is sending you billions to deal with wildfires and hurricanes and such? Well, down with him after the check clears! Wait...The Man sends more back to our state from taxes than most? Eighty eight cents on the dollar? Um....

Salaam.
And yes, my household hearts Rachel Maddow big time.

A Statistic to Chew On

According to UNICEF, 90% of people killed in recent conflicts are non-combatants and of those, half are children.

I read this a few weeks ago and I can't get it out of my head.
Salaam.

No, Pink Stormtroopers Do Not Create Change

I agree with Mackey in the NYTimes Lede Blog this morning. Raising consciousness is important, but it has to be combined with sweaty, dirty, often unsexy hard work. Street theater is a blast, sure, but is it an effective way to mobilize people other than your already dedicated base? If you watched the video from the New Yorker Conference below, he talks about the need to understand people's very different value systems to craft an effective message and campaign. And, how do we know when we've succeeded? What does a socially and economically just, environmentally sound world look like? I have as much trouble as the next person with this, but definately understand that we have to have a concrete vision to sell.

Salaam.

Really Interesting Lecture Video (I Swear)

My International Social Work prof showed this to our class a while back and it's been stuck in my head since. It's from the 2007 New Yorker Magazine conference and though the title is "Morality: 2012" there is a lot here that relates to politics, policy, international development, and a lot of other things. The player can be a bit slow to load, though.


Salaam.

E is for euphemism

Always a fan of a good euphemism, I appreciated this one from Eugene Robinson on Countdown with Keith Olberman last night:

"Dude, the guy just made you his companion*!"

*Replace companion with a five letter word for female dog.

Robinson and Olberman were discussing the way Pres. Obama ably handled a silly muddle of questions from CNN's reporter at the press conference. The CNN reporter later wrote that he had really cornered the president with his choice questions, which really couldn't have been farther from the truth. Obama's response was pretty cool, calm, and collected: "It took us a couple of days [to respond] because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak."
Boo-yah, sir.

Salaam.

Getting My Nerd On

I wonked out and downloaded the stimulus bill in its entirety. It's more convoluted than a DVD manual, less so than your insurance plan's fine print. It's not beach reading and I'm not sure it's actually written in English. This may be that Esperanto language I've heard so much about. I would love to find out if any of the members of Congress actually read more than an extensive brief on this. I'm just trying to take it in chunks. Or, as we say in Morocco, "Little by little we eat the camel."

Salaam.

AIG May Not Be Most Egregious Bailout Begger

As the old Buffett song goes, "If we couldn't laugh, we would all go insane."

"Lex Luthor Bailout" with Jon Hamm from Jon Hamm

I am a huge Mad Men fan and now love Jon Hamm even more.
Salaam.

Senator Cassandra (D-ND)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Another Great Read

Listening to: Beth Hart, Lou Reed, Nina Simone
Fighting: a head cold
Missing: My roommates from Saturday night - "Lucy and Ethel"

Just finished another great book, courtesy of my professor:
The Lost Children of Wilder by Nina Bernstein (2001)

The book tracks the lawsuit brought by the NY Civil Liberties Union in 1972 against NYC and the religious organizations they were paying to serve orphans and foster children. Only problem was the predominantly Catholic and Jewish agencies were only really adequately serving white kids, mostly of their same denominations. The case started as a first amendment violation, but was really more about skin color and would drag into the nineties with questionable results. To read that nuns at one home would take children to the Museum of Natural History for a consult if they couldn't determine the "amount of Negro blood" gives you some idea. Shirley Wilder was the young woman who served as plaintiff. She'd suffered enough in the system by the time she turned 15 and gave birth to a son who also ended up lost in the system. The book tracks all three stories: those of the case, Shirley, and her son Lamont. It's a masterfully written book. Heartbreaking, maddening, and certain parts should move anyone to profound anger. I can't recommend it enough.

Salaam.

Go Texas!

No, I'm not talking March Madness. According to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Texas has the largest percentage (28%) of uninsured workers in the country. Well, we're tied with New Mexico. Way to go Tejas! Nationwide, about one in five U.S. workers lacks health insurance. While the economics of a potential fix must be considered, how about we start talking about health as a basic human right and go from there with this discussion? Anyone?
As was pointed out in my policy class, it's all well and good that Pres. Obama has gathered another working group on this, but only LBJ, master politician and strongarmer, was able to bring about any change in the system. Maybe change requires The Treatment, not another working group.

Salaam.

Another $21 Down

Yesterday was my second shopping excursion for the food stamps project. Surprisingly, I did a lot better this time. I didn't spend anywhere near as much time dithering over choices and made a concerted effort to buy more crunchy produce, which I was sorely lacking last week. Here's the rundown:

1 1/2 gallon of milk
32oz. of plain yogurt
1.5 lbs. of oats
1 green pepper
1 cucumber
0.7 lbs of carrots
2 apples
1 box whole wheat spaghetti
6 eggs
1 packet of tomato paste
4 bananas
1 large yellow onion
2 potatoes
1 8oz. block of cheese
1 pkg. wheat bread
1 top round steak
================
TOTAL 20.90



Salaam.

Who really needs $555 million anyway?

Our esteemed governor, Rick "The Coif" Perry, has pulled a Marie Antoinette and said "No" to $555 million in stimulus bill funds because the state would have to broaden the qualifications for unemployment benefits:
(from today's Austin American-Statesman)
"To get any of the money, the state would need to adopt a new method for determining whether a worker has earned enough in wages to qualify for benefits. About 30,000 workers would become eligible with this change, which would make $185 million available, according to the National Employment Law Project.

Of the four other possible changes, only two need to be enacted to get the remaining $370 million. The two least-expensive options — and the ones most likely to be enacted — would extend eligibility to people looking for part-time employment and those who quit their jobs to move with a spouse for a new job or for "compelling family reasons," such as family illness. About 16,000 workers would be affected by the change."

Actually, this was my favorite line in the article:

"Perry said he and his staff will continue to review the stimulus package to see whether there are other aspects of it that they want to fight."

The image I get is of a petulant child. Well, Rick, you and Bobby and Haley can skulk off to your clubhouse and congratulate yourselves on jobs well done.

Salaam.

Food Aid from Ian

My roommate's girlfriend and her two young kids came over for dinner last night. Her very bright and funny 10 year-old son, Ian, and I got to talking about the food stamp project. He anticipated my food wouldn't hold out and began offering up ideas to keep me from "starving," as he put it. Luckily, I'm sure I'll more than survive because his ideas included eating roommate Robin's cat (an awful cat that nobody likes, so not really a loss if it came to that). After they finished their dinner he came up to my room, hit me up for some paper, and sat down to write. He essentially wrote an op-ed against hunger; a slightly cracked op-ed written in chicken scratch with a Sharpie on scrap paper, but enjoyable none the less. It ended with this:
"I propose we ask people, 'Aren't you hungry, Dana? Wouldn't you like to eat, Dana?' This will lead to a fatter and happier world. By the way, Dana is a made-up name I invented."
I'm extremely tempted to show it to my professor.
He also left a half eaten bag of Cheetos on our kitchen counter with a note attached:
"Eat this Dana or you'll starve!"
I declined the offer.
Salaam.

$21 down, 7 days to go

The funny thing about only having $21 to spend on groceries for the weak is that even though you can only buy a few things with it, you'll have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to spend it. I think I was in HEB for two hours. I can't be sure; colorful packaging, florescent lights and my endless recalculating made the time blur. It was darker outside when I left, though.

I thought I would breeze through this. I've lived in developing countries, in villages where the only market set up shop once a week. I don't eat out anyway and don't eat packaged stuff.
Great in theory, but meaningless here. I do suspect I would have been able to haul home more fresh produce is I was back in the ME, though.

I walked in the store and, as is my habit, I started with fruits and vegetables. However, once I started weighing things and figuring prices I thought I should go for my main meal items first. That's a huge difference right there: fruits and vegetables essentially became "garnish" for this weeks diet. And, I never really realized how much that stuff weighs.

At first I thought I could nail this by shopping from the bulk foods, but they're still not the norm in stores. I did get some green lentils and some oatmeal. I knew there could be no compromise on a filling breakfast, lest I kill somebody by noon.

Within about ten minutes my head began to hurt. This is not shopping , I thought, this is chess. Pick up a gallon of milk and think you're so smart because this will last you over two weeks and then realize that the $4 it costs means you can't buy rice, so you replace the gallon with a half gallon. You pick up the cheap wheat bread and wonder what the hell to buy to put on the bread that will last the week. Peanut butter is certainly out - my cousin recently had a homeless man turn down the peanut butter crackers she'd offered him: "That stuff'll kill you!" So, I wandered around pondering that for a while before I decided that a $0.99 bag of garbanzo beans would go far if I made another batch of my hummus (sans tahini, sadly). I wavered quite a bit on whether to spend the $4.50 on chicken, but really couldn't quite make it fit with everything. Luckily, I'm not a big meat eater anyway. I kept stopping, using my mobile phone to keep track of my tab, and stealing glances at the baskets of other shoppers and trying to extrapolate meaning from their purchases. One young family with three small, round girls went by with what looked like a side of beef in their cart. Another woman with a toddler in her cart had just eight loaves of cheap, white bread. At this point I was hungry and more than a little annoyed.

Here's what I got for $21:
1/2 gal 1% Milk
32 oz. Plain Yogurt (I blame the Turks for my addiction, but it does wonders mixed with lentils or beans)
1 5oz. block of cheese
1 32oz. bag of brown rice
1 can black beans
1 1lb. bag of garbanzo beans
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1.4 lbs. of organic steel-cut oats
0.81 lbs of green lentils
1 bag frozen, chopped spinach
1 bag frozen chopped broccoli
I loaf whole wheat bread
3 bananas
1 box black tea

I'm trying to be quite literal with this, only eating what I buy...or find or steal. I think I did pretty well, actually. Let's see how I feel next Thursday. Saturday morning I plan to hit the downtown farmer's market, which advertises as accepting food stamps, to see what somebody could actually purchase there. Based on what I've seen, I suspect not much.
Salaam.

Another Day, Another $3

I'm going grocery shopping tomorrow.
Normally, this would not rate as news or elicit a post.
However, tomorrow I'm going on food stamps. Sort of.
For the next two weeks I'll shop and eat on an average food stamp budget: $3 a day.
Even I can do the math on this one: $21 a week; $84 a month.
It's a project for my social policy course. We'll each be writing a paper on the experience.
My first observation: the easiest way to get initial information on the food stamp program is online. Which begs the question, how many food stamp households have Internet access?
The food stamp challenge has been getting a lot of press. Members of Congress, a few governors and members of the media have had a go at it. May you'll give it a try as well.

Salaam.