:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Friday, January 23, 2004 ::

Californians rake in the money - 2004-01-23 - Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal:

"Residents of the nation's largest state earned a collective $1.13 trillion in 2001, the latest year for which official income breakdowns are available. That amounted to more than one-eighth of the money earned by all Americans that year. "

Contrary to popular propaganda... the rich want to live here too! Progressive taxation isn't the scrouge of the ball after all...

:: Jim Nichols 1/23/2004 05:53:00 PM [+] ::
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TNS: International Union Body Slams US Labor Practices:

"An international trade union coalition has condemned what it says are continuing labor rights violations in the United States. In a report released yesterday, the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) condemned the US for 'insufficient protection against anti-union discrimination,' charging that 'the right to strike and the right to collective bargaining are severely restricted.'"

:: Jim Nichols 1/19/2004 10:29:00 PM [+] ::
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Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US opens new front in war on terror by beefing up border controls in Sahara:

"The US is sending troops and defence contractors to the Sahara desert of west Africa to open what it calls a new front in the war on terror. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/19/2004 09:28:00 PM [+] ::
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tonypierce.com + busblog:

"maybe one reason that some people have a hard time grasping the importance of mlk is that when many of us look back at the 60s we see it as a time of great change in civil rights and social acceptance, but the summer of '63 wasnt the summer of '69.

'63 was the year that valium was invented. a year that the andy williams show, the dick van dyck show, and walt disney's wonderful world of color were winning emmys in variety, comedy, and childrens programming respectively.

the most aggressive thing happening in music was that the beatles were writing i wanna hold your hand.

tony bennet and ella fitzgerald were winning grammys for best male and female solo vocal perfomance respectively.

the grammys named peter paul and mary the best group due to their hit, if i had a hammer.

so when martin luther king got on that podium and said that he had a dream of little black kids walking down the street holding the hands of little white kids, that was probably as punk rock as it got in those lilly white days before the civil rights act."

:: Jim Nichols 1/19/2004 09:12:00 PM [+] ::
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MORE:

"Drake University student union. Student Dean rally and concert with Joan Jett and Janeane Garofalo. A decent turnout. Crowd quietly milling about. A few minutes into the set, Joan Jett is interrupted by a troupe of young men (with identical short haircuts) and young women -- all dressed in business suits. They wave Bush/Cheney 04 signs. Anti-Dean slogans are yelled. A Flat George replica bandied about. A second group joins in and soon, the chants drown out the music. They are surrounded and shifted away from the hall. One grabs a Dean sign and rips it in half, smiling and posing for cameras. The music returns. The crowd is still jagged from the interaction. Murmurs in the crowd. ... muffling dissent ... censorship ... taste of what's to come... this is why we need our country back... Fox News cameras are there at the concert before the disruptions begin. At a small student gathering. Go figure. "

:: Jim Nichols 1/19/2004 06:03:00 PM [+] ::
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Watching Iowa on CNN. Its kind of fun(ny). How about a Kerry/Edwards ticket? Or a Kerry/Clark ticket?

:: Jim Nichols 1/19/2004 05:33:00 PM [+] ::
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" In general, it's easy to externalize problems: to ask whether someone else is doing the right thing. What's far more important is to look into the mirror, and ask what we are doing to allow others to do the right thing if they choose. The major power center is here. If it operates without internal constraints, that's our responsibility and our fault." -- Noam Chomsky

:: Jim Nichols 1/19/2004 01:04:00 AM [+] ::
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Glowing example of why Health Care should be public
Industries & Communities - bizjournals.com:

"Kaiser Permanente has contracted with a national advertising firm to build a $40 million image campaign intended to reverse a slide in membership. It will be the health plan's first image advertising campaign in nearly 10 years. "

What a waste of $40 million...

:: Jim Nichols 1/19/2004 12:43:00 AM [+] ::
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