convention 1

I'm just now reading the highlights from the Convention---haven't really been able to watch due to a lot of other things going on here in Lancaster, but this speech by future Illinois Senator Barak Obama is incredible.

 

He'll be president someday. Watch that man.

olympics
 
For years, students at universities around the country have protested the use of sweatshop labor in the creation of the t-shirts, gym shorts, sweatshirts with some pretty good success.
 
Now, we learn that the Olympic Games are doing the same thing that Harvard and Yale and a myriad of other American universities did. They are using sweatshop labor for the official Olympic athletic wear.
 
It, of course, is a product of globalization----something I'm not always the biggest fan of.  Most people love that we can get cheap products. Don't get me wrong, I'm budget conscious most of the time. However, it doesn't seem right to use sweatshop labor (actually, I think it's rather morally wrong to use sweatshop labor period just so Billy and Mandy Abercrombie can have overpriced trendy clothing, but that's just me) for the one event that occurs every four years: The Olympic Games.
 
The Olympic Games have long stood up against oppression, racism, apartheid, and various other evils that plauged the world during its first modern century of existence. Jesse Owens ran against Hitler's Aryans (and won.) Other nations were excluded. It seems against the values of the Olympic Games and spirit for sweatshop labor to be used, period. People working shifts 17 hours long for 6 days a week. Ugh.
 
Eh I'm not just complaining. There's an organization called Play By The Rules. They have a petition and a way for people to contact the CEO's of various makers of sportswear. Here's the link. Go have fun. Oxfam America also has a report on how workers are exploited as well. It's a PDF file. Oxfam, by the way, is a non-profit dedicated to solving issues of poverty and social injustice around the world......including an area I care a lot about: Sudan. Give a look.
 
 

hate amendment vote this week

I'm predicting 55-44 against. It's an election year. Noone wants to be painted as an anti-democratic bigot. Call your senators anyway.

Funny story about Bush's visit to Amish Country yesterday.


I didn't go see him. I had to work. The protest at York surprised me. This area is so hard-headed conservative, I was surprised to hear that up to 1400 people came out to protest the man.

As a history major, he should have read more on Potemkin.

Donahower and some other stuff.

As promised months ago, here is the site of the candidate I'm helping out this election season. Give a look and send him some pennies if you can.

I was right about Edwards. Wow, what a hunch.


I'm aware that I haven't been writing. I will get back into it soon.

veepstakes

I predict Edwards. Just a thought.

darfur

the latest Kristof on Darfur.


Darfur will be an ongoing thing for me this summer. It's important to me to raise awareness.

darfur

It's become blatently clear to me that the United States along with the rest of the "Western" world will fail the Darfur region of Sudan, just like it failed the Congo and just like it failed Rwanda.

This makes me sad. And mad.

Nicolas Kristof, a columist I sometimes don't really care for at the NY Times has been bringing the horror of Darfur home to the mainstream press. It's been an excellent series. Sadly, it looks like he is more or less alone. Other than some Congressional Resolutions that never really went anywhere and a few bloggers here or there attempting to make people realize just how awful things are. The United Nations wants to push the blame away to someplace else and ignore the genocide. (let's not parse words. From what I've read that's pretty much what it is.)

One site I found is The Passion of the Present. It looks to be a fairly lone voice. However it has a ton of links where you can donate, push for action, and so on.

This is probably one of those issues you should probably call your Congressional leadership over---as exasperating as that can be.


World Vision is also collecting money to help feed Sudan. Drop them some pennies.


Lastly, the Human Rights Watch report on the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Read and be horrified.

I would have suspected something like this out of Mississippi or Alabama, or even my own state, but Virginia has managed to make my jaw drop ten thousand feet.

You already know how I feel about this, so I won't go into a long tirade. I see clear 14th Amendment violations here actually because it severs all legal contracts such as power of attorney and so on that same-sex couples may have.

Amazing.

general updates

I'm still here. I'm still watching the events of the world. Ten days until the 'turnover.' We'll see how that turns out.

At anyrate, I'm preparing to graduate (the countdown has been added to the bottom of this page.) I've been sending out a few queries here and there. Right now it looks like I will be relocating from Amish Country---even though I really do like it here. It's time to see new things even though in spring and summer, this area truly is paradise. Indeed, there's a town named just that only 3 miles away.

There's a 50% chance that I'll move to D.C., with friends, and a 50% chance I'll move to Harrisburg, PA, depending on who hires me first. I'm putting graduate school off for a year and a half---my brain hurts and the last two semesters have taxed my sanity. I haven't even begun to put my thesis on paper. That's a task for August I think.

So yeah that's what I've been up to lately. No real vacation or hiatus. I didn't have much to say about the torture crisis other than the usual "we-are-civilized-and-we-are-a-better-country-than-this" outrage that is quite justified. In reality, torture seems to be apart of the human condition--a fear of the Other. Same goes for genocide. These things are wrong and evil yet we still do them. And we still ignore them, in the case of Darfur Province in Sudan. Noone should be saying never again.

Perhaps I'll get a job where I can fight both evils at the same time. That'd be grand.

Happy Juneteenth!


(I'm not Texan, which is where it started, but it's an important day nonetheless.)

russia

I'm probably being a little bit paranoid. Indeed, I've been slightly unhinged as of late. It just seems odd to me that Russia would supply the Bush Administration with Iraq intelligence that said Saddam was going to attack the United States.




This is rather amusing actually, in a very sad and dangerous way. Two of our former(current?) enemies have manipulated us into a war that in the end will cost us dearly, financially and socially and psychologically. Those being, Russia and Iran.


There's a game being played here. Or a fool.

gmail

I have a small number of Gmail invites to give away if anyone wants one.

My thesis covers fascist and fundamentalist movements in the US and UK and how they relate to the study of geography (identity, various other theories). However I've done a lot of research into many other areas around the world. Russia was feared to head that way by some analysts back in the early 1990s. So I'm not surprised to read that the fears may not be far off.

I know I said I was staying away from politics but oh my god, read this Billmon post and be amazed and awed and frankly a little scared.


And then...

Note that fully half of the American population thinks exactly like that.