Bob Morris @ Jan 14th 2006 19:57 - Category: Unfiled ;
Sue and I are in Bethesda, Maryland now. She has a job interview on Monday. The total trip, including flying time to/from L.A. will be 2 1/2 days.
Walking to the car tonight from dinner in DC, it was about 30 with quite strong winds, and tomorrow will be in the high 20’s.
Could we live here? Effortlessly. We’ll see how the job interview goes!
Bob Morris @ Jan 14th 2006 08:07 - Category: Unfiled ;
KCRW host is suspected of drugging and trying to kidnap a girl, 14, but has not been charged.
KCRW-FM radio host Chris Douridas, an influential Grammy-nominated musical tastemaker who has consulted on such Hollywood films as "American Beauty" and "Shrek 2," was arrested last week outside a popular Santa Monica bar on suspicion of drugging and trying to kidnap a 14-year-old girl.
Douridas, 43, was arrested shortly after midnight Jan. 6. Witnesses, who reported seeing Douridas put a substance into the victim’s drink and carry her out of the Circle Bar on Main Street, flagged down police.
Douridas, a Pacific Palisades resident, was released by police after posting $1-million bail.
KCRW is a hugely popular and influential public radio station in L.A. Douridas is one of their most popular DJs. I’m not sure if I was more startled that his bail was one million or that he could post it. (I volunteered at KCRW some years back and knew him slightly.)
Bob Morris @ Jan 14th 2006 00:05 - Category: Anti-war, Imperialism, Socialism ;
From my friend Ian Thompson writing in Socialism and Liberation magazine.
The anti-war movement and Congressional ‘opposition.’
Nearly three years after launching the war on Iraq, the Bush administration has a crisis on its hands. The war has proven to be unwinnable militarily. Bush’s goal of setting up a stable client Iraqi regime remains a distant fantasy.
The Iraqi resistance to foreign occupation grows stronger every day. It enjoys broad support among the country’s population.
Inside the United States, most polls show that a majority opposes the war. Massive anti-war demonstrations in recent months, combined with daily casualty reports have contributed to this sentiment. The brutal economic and racist realities exposed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have diminished the government’s ability to present a “united effort” behind its imperialist project.
His major points:
Murta spoke for the generals (who can not directly criticize a President, their commanding officer, thus this pro-Pentagon Congressman spoke for them.)
Democrats are not anti-war. Like Murtha, some Democrats now question how the war is being fought. This is because the US is losing. Were the US winning, they’d be even more silent than they are now. Nor do they question the decades-long US policy of imperialism and invading countries.
Does Congress matter? No.
The answer: build an independent movement
Bob Morris @ Jan 14th 2006 00:05 - Category: Torture ;
A Swiss senator carrying out an inquiry into claims the CIA has run illegal secret detention centres in Europe has said he has no doubt they exist.
Dick Marty accused the US of violating human rights and attacked European nations for their "shocking" passivity in the face of such violations
The US has refused to confirm or deny the allegations over secret prisons. It has denied using or condoning torture.
That BushCo is not furiously attacking these charges speaks volumes.
Bob Morris @ Jan 14th 2006 00:05 - Category: Unfiled ;
Maryland is now the first state in the nation with a bill that would require large employers to spend a fixed percentage of their payroll on healthcare for employees, after the state Legislature voted to override the governor`s veto
The law requires employers with more than 10,000 employees to spend the equivalent of 8 percent of the total payroll on healthcare for workers. Employers who spend less than that on employee insurance would be required to pay the balance into a state fund to offset their medical costs.
The bill was aimed directly at Wal-Mart, as they are the only employer of that size in Maryland that does not spend 8% on healthcare.
Now Wal-Mart can no longer get away with forcing county, state, and federal governments to pick up the tab for healthcare they are too sleazy and cheap to pay for. In order words, under the old system, governments were subsidizing health care costs that Wal-Mart refused to pay - and that is socialism for corporations only, a perversion of the idea.
In a fair system, there would be universal healthcare available to all in the US, which is what most industrialized nations have. Everyone pays in, everyone gets health care.
Spread the meme! Make corporations to pay their fair share and not dump their costs on the rest of us.
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