Open Thread – Department of Corrections
OOPS. A message from the Mudflats’ Department of Corrections…
Anchorage Assembly Chair Ernie Hall has appointed Tim Petumenos to review the report submitted by the Anchorage Election Commission, and the legal opinion from Dennis Wheeler, the Municipal Attorney, not to conduct the independent investigation into the election itself. He will be making a recommendation about certifying the election. He will be presenting a report at the special meeting of the Assembly called for May 3, 2012 at 5:00pm.
More information to come, and apologies for any confusion.
Great new post as always from God’s Own Party:
http://godsownparty.com/blog/2012/04/it-is-whack-a-mole-time-again-tracking-dominionist-under-the-oak-tree/
Folks might want to wander over to Alaska Dispatch when they get the chance. Something very spooky is going on at the Alaska Republican Party.
thatcrowwoman – saw this posted by Janis Ian on her Facebook and thought you might enjoy it, if you don’t have it already :
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/s320x320/575609_10151490582690075_667930074_23571148_412855369_n.jpg
I say the world needs as many radical, militant librarians as it can get !
I saved that one myself! Needs to be a t-shirt.
I know, right ? I would also love to find it in a good size suitable for framing.
Off to see if I can find one!
Krubozumo Nyankoye’s post in the previous open thread about how our corporate oligarchs are determined to turn us all into serfs inspired the search for this article, nice and long and requiring some thinking, perfect for a leisurely Sunday-afternoon cup of coffee in the armchair.
Also seemed appropriate for the title of this open thread…
http://jacobinmag.com/spring-2012/against-law-for-order/
“More broadly, policy has been re-designed to be concerned with “moral hazard.” Everything from health care mandates to laws surrounding mortgage and student debts are less about providing goods broadly to citizens than making sure nobody is shirking or behaving irresponsibly. Managing crime also becomes the best justification for advancing other, especially right-wing, policy agendas. Pro-life efforts to create “personhood” status for zygotes have failed, but efforts to create a special class of crimes against pregnant women have experienced major successes. Managers have shifted from using high “efficiency” wages in order to get the best work out of their employees to surveillance and security techniques. And those techniques, from widespread drug testing to monitoring against “time theft,” borrow their urgency from the language of crime.”
I should’ve picked this for the money quote?
“How did a neoconservative movement that describes itself as being for limited government and liberty become the engine behind a prison state more expansive than that of Russia or Rwanda? ”
We get to experience full body searches for alleged misdemeanors, now, remember…
I’ll propose an answer to that question: those same neoconservatives are fighting tooth and nail for the privatization of those prison/security services.
They don’t want those services reduced, they just want the profits from those services to go to their corporate donor friends.
I thought I should share this powerful read that guest bloger Kathleen Geieron at Political Animal dug up this morning:
Why Afghan Women Risk Death to Write Poetry
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/magazine/why-afghan-women-risk-death-to-write-poetry.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
here is a small slice:
“… Lima stood to recite her latest poem: a rubaiyat, the Arabic name for a quatrain, addressed to the Taliban.
You won’t allow me to go to school.
I won’t become a doctor.
Remember this:
One day you will be sick.
M. Paul
Powerful.
and timely, also, too.
Thank you for sharing.
*filing under Poetry Month and Women’s History Month for future reference*
How odd. I was reading about soaring college costs, the interest rate debate in Congress, and I watched Bill Maher on Friday, he did a segment on tuition. I was thinking that by not investing in college education, by viewing education as something people should “borrow money from their parents” to obtain, the Repubs are pricing it out of reach for most people, and will one day regret the educational decline in this country. And here, this woman expresses the same idea, speaking to the Taliban. so I am thinking, Taliban/RWNJ. No differance.
I was remembering a segment during the wall street fiasco and the economy circling the drain, one parent sat in front of the tv saying to his kida “There goes a year of tuition, and another, and another.” All while watching his investments and savings lose money. So when Mittens suggests kids “borrow” from their parents, which parents is he talking about? Because many of them at one time HAD the money to help their kids pay for college.
It is still just as big of a joke have “pet” involved in any capacity. He showed his worth during the Palin-Trooper fiasco. He will simply serve as a rubber stamp for the rubber stamp. Ernie Hall has proven to be a bit of a disappointment. So much for the “moderate” voice of the assembly.
As Elstun said, you have no need to apologize. The update itself is adequate. The reality is that it does not really matter what they think or recommend. It’s what the citizens want that really matters, and I think most of us want the truth.
Uh…what are YOU apologizing for? Ernie Hall was supposed to coordinate this with the Assembly, which he didn’t, The Clerk’s office sent out a media advisory that was misleading and you were informing your readers what you heard as soon as you heard it. That’s what blogs do. They update as new information becomes available. You are not a newspaper of record. A Newspaper of Record publishes ‘corrections’. You are a sentinel on the front lines of changing events and you do a damn good job at it. So stop. Thank you.
I agree. AKM is doing an admirable job an should not need to apologize. And i feel strongly that the Anchorage municipality is not capable of any over site.
Some day AKM you will get an edit tab here.