Pictures for a Rainy Day

Cool Stack ... Starburst ... Can't STOP

Pay Toilets on Airplanes?

Ireland's discount airlines Ryanair is considering it.

Energy Financing Rip-Off

UPDATE: The House passed the bill yesterday. Here's the list of who voted for this outrage:

Those who voted for SB 31 were - 107 votes: Amos Amerson, Anderson, Terry Barnard, Battles, Tommy Benton, Ellis Black, Mark Burkhalter, Jon Burns, Charlice Byrd, Amy Carter, Buddy Carter, David Casas, Mickey Channell, Mike Cheokas, Mike Coan, Jim Cole, Brooks Coleman, Doug Collins, Sharon Cooper, Clay Cox, Hardie Davis, Steve Davis, Dawkins-Haigler, Katie Dempsey, Tom Dickson, Matt Dollar, Karla Drenner, Earl Ehrhart, Terry England, Carl Von Epps, Melvin Everson, Gloria Frazier, Fullerton, Harry Geisinger, Mike Glanton, Tom Graves, Mark Hamilton, Ben Harbin, B. Harden, Heard, Joe Heckstall, Bill Hembree, Calvin Hill, Cecily Hill, Doug Holt, Billy Horne, Wayne Howard, Sistie Hudson, Lynmore James,Sean Jerguson, Jan Jones, Darryl Jordan, Jerry Keen, Mike Keown, David Knight, Tom Knox, Bob Lane, Kevin Levitas, Edward Lindsey, Barry Loudrmilk, John Lunsford, Billy Maddox, Gene Maddox, Judy Manning, Chuck Martin, Howard Maxwell, Jeff May, Tom McCall, John D Meadows, Fran Millar, James Mills, Greg Morris, Howard Mosby, Quincy Murphy, Jay Neal, Randy Nix, Larry O'Neal, Butch Parrish, Don Parsons, Allen Peake, J. Powell, Jimmy Pruett, Matt Ramsey, Nikki Randall, Tom Rice, Jay Roberts, Tony Sellier, Ed Setzler, Jay Shaw, Donna Sheldon, Barbara Sims, Chuck Sims, Bob Smith, Lynn Smith, Richard Smith, Tommy Smith, Vance Smith, Calvin Smyre, Willie Talton, Len Walker, Weldon, Joe Wilkinson, Wendell Willard, Al Williams, Mark Williams, Roger Williams, John Yates.

Any sane Georgians in the house? Call your rep and tell them to vote NO on SB31 - the GA Power rip-off bill. Regardless of whether you support nuclear energy or not, there is no need to pay for the possibility of building new reactors in advance of even the design being approved.

Shame, shame, shame on the State Senate for passing the bill. Now, it's up to the House to stop this insanity. The audacity of Georgia Power with their 70 (yes SEVENTY) lobbyists under the Gold Dome seems to be paying off by the millions .... are we really going to authorize another huge corporate bailout style payout on the backs of everyday Georgians? Hear Howard Clark break it down for us here (audio only).

Going Backwards in Georgia

Last week I spoke at a press conference led by the GA Legislative Black Caucus, the Economic Justice Coalition at the Peoples' Agenda and MALDEF against so-called "anti-discrimination legislation," HB 291. The bill would remove all references to race, gender, ethnicity reference from the GA Code, especially in government contracting and education, a classic anti-affirmative action effort. Never mind that minimum women and minority targets in Georgia - where they exist - are in the 5% range and are still not met. Never mind that Georgia has a legacy of racism and a long history of "good ole boy" business dealings.

The lead sponsor, Rep. Clay Cox (R-106th-Lilburn), seems to believe that we have achieved true equality in GA. As a 40-year-old CEO of a private probation services company and rising star in the ruling GA Republican party, life probably looks pretty good. His tough law and order stances are probably helpful to his business interests as well. He seems nice enough when I met him yesterday, and until I learn otherwise, I choose to believe he is misguided and misinformed on this issue. And so it seems are his co-sponsors who include the only two black Republicans and the only Latino and Asian Republicans as well. His own rainbow coalition.

You probably didn't see the press conference or even a mention of it, despite the fact that more than 30 or so people participated, including a dozen or more legislators, and Rev. Lowery. Only Channel 2 showed up, no other stations and no AJC.

Gender in the News #3

Gender and Islam in America:

• Imams speak out against domestic violence and the horrific killing in Buffalo, NY
• Interesting story on youtube about the first Islamic-based sorority in the US
  

Literary Obama swears on tape

Click here for the details that are being tweeted and blogged everywhere. The comments and links in the comments give you an idea of how viral it's going. WARNING: Lots of foul language in print and recorded.

DTV Conversion Today for Macon and Albany, GA

Those in Macon and Albany without a new TV or a converter box will wake up today without Sesame Street, Teletubbies, Dora the Explorer, Frontline, the News Hour and all the other public TV programs.... or any other programs for that matter. Today, they flipped the switch rather than wait until June 12th. Will there be a massive outcry? Should more money have been allocated to help with the conversion? Some say Throw the Switch Already! and envision some positive results:

Rather than issue another coupon that may or may not get used, Congress should have saved the taxpayers some money and just let broadcasters throw the switch. Americans will survive. TV, after all, is a powerful motivator. The second screens go dark, no doubt clueless TV owners will leap off the couch and find out what’s going on. It will probably take people about a nanosecond to find out what happened to Law and Order and remedy the problem, without any help from the feds.

That’s pretty much what happened in the first test. In September, Wilmington, North Carolina, volunteered to be the first market to make the full switch from analog to digital. Both the FCC and student researchers from Elon University studied the changeover closely. The Elon students, who surveyed people who called local TV stations on the day of the switch, found that the largest number of complaints did come from people over 60. But the elderly often had someone else calling on their behalf. They weren’t as isolated as the FCC might think.

Even the elderly, it turns out, will find a way to get their TVs turned back on. If they can't, the problem is not one of TV service but of larger social failings that won't be fixed with a coupon, though there's a chance it could be remedied by pulling the plug on some TVs for a while. Who knows? The digital switch might provide a unique opportunity for stitching together isolated communities. (In fact, something along those lines happened in Wilmington as people consulted with their neighbors about antenna angles, signal strength, and other aspects of the switch.) It's entirely possible that a dark TV could prompt a humanitarian intervention as people reach out for help to get their tubes turned on.

Perhaps the cable companies and all the others who will benefit from this conversion should have paid to provide free converter boxes (which probably cost all of $5 or less to produce) rather than our tax dollar subsidies. And, if we were going to provide the $40 coupon, then how about requiring a standardized high quality (rather than a poor minimum) product available at that price. Yes, price controls. Otherwise, it's just a taxpayer subsidy to converter box manufacturers. Sound familiar? (think Medicare prescription drug plans, bank bailouts, cost-plus Pentagon contracting, oil company subsidies, etc.)

Gender in the news #2

The glass ceiling is being lowered... would love to see the Georgia stats on this.

Twisted and sick: Rape as a recruiting tool for female suicide bombers in Iraq (see paragraphs 3 and 4).

Hot off the press: New research shows limiting access to abortion does not decrease the numbers, but does increase health risks. More proof that contraceptive access and comprehensive sex education are really the answer.

Xe Xe Xe - Not So Funny

So Blackwater can change its name, but will any one be fooled? Hopefully not. Especially the contracting officers at the Pentagon and the State Department.

Flashback: Aeroflot

The legendary drinking habits of Russians were not comforting to passengers when the captain arrived drunk to fly the Moscow-New York route. Their mutiny was inspiring, though the initial response of the airline was not. Reminds me of when I lived in Russia and traveled regional routes. Memories like the drunk flight attendant who tossed boxed meals across the rows, and drunk passengers downing two bottles of vodka and being loud and obnoxious until they passed out. Yes, those were the days.

Cure for Oscar Fever

See all 5 Oscar-nominated movies and a bottomless bucket of popcorn this Sat the 21st - $30 at a theater near you! http://www.amctheatres.com/promos/showcase/

Octuplet mom or greedy bankers

What bothers you more? See update on Gender in the News below for some thoughts.

Voting Rights Under the Gold Dome

So, I dropped my work and headed over to the Gold Dome for a subcommittee hearing on voting rights legislation, in opposition to the latest poll tax requirement to add to GA's voter registration. But my efforts were to no avail. Even after taking time out of my day to go down to the Capitol to testify on behalf of the Peoples' Agenda .. as did reps from four other organizations as well, there was NO public testimony allowed. Typical Georgia democracy in action.

HB 139 would require anyone registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship before being added to the rolls. Never mind that non-citizens are NOT voting and there is no proof that the SOS office could present of even ONE case of such. Never mind that a person must sign an affidavit under threat of perjury (a felony) that s/he is a citizen both at voter registration and EACH time s/he votes. Never mind that obtaining a copy of a birth certificate costs money, time and inconvenience. Never mind that poor people, older people, and many more will likely be more adversely affected by this requirement. Putting up a significant barrier to voter registration in the name of "fraud protection" and passing it like a country club with the partisan Secretary of State's office and Republican legislators in lockstep seems to be a way of life in the state of Georgia. Despite the sponsoring legislator's concern that they do not want any more voting rights litigation, we'll definitely be bringing this to the attention of the DOJ Voting Rights Section if they are foolish enough to try to pass it. Even though similar legislation was approved for Arizona, we'll be looking forward to reversing some more bad precedent from the Bush Administration DOJ if it comes to that....

There was a bit of good of news though on two other items of legislation. Bipartisan legislation was passed out of the subcommittee - without any public comment either - on (i) adding photo IDs from private colleges and universities to the requirements for voting (HB 209) and (ii) providing for the availability precinct level voting data for the early/advanced voting period.

This is Not the Answer

Gender in the news

As a gender specialist, different types of news stories catch my attention. They seem to call out the injustices and inequities and hypocrisy in our midst... and then there's the differences in how men and women are socialized. Here are a few "gender" stories (a triple play from Time.com):

Iraqi Women's Minister Resigns in Protest. So what exactly was the "Mission" that we "Accomplished" in Iraq?

What Men Really Think In case you were wondering...

Calling a Truce on the Octuplet Mom. Why has has everyone been hating on her so much? Is it because she had so many kids? Others have been celebrated with gifts and TV reality shows. Is it because she wanted to procreate? Others have done so in the name of an evangelical movement called Quiverful without such vitriol. Is it because she was artificial inseminated? Others, including scads of Hollywood types, have been birthing kids. Could the difference be that she's a single woman? When Ricky Martin had a surrogate mother birth two children he plans to raise alone no one seemed to care. Could it be that she has a foreign/Muslim sounding name? Do we as a society believe that the right to have children is directly connected to the financial resources one has?
2/12/09 UPDATE: Now, that more details have been uncovered about the cost of the octuplets and how public dollars will be used for health care, food stamps and disability insurance, the conversation could get more interesting. While I certainly don't agree with what she did, I find it fascinating to see how much newsprint and airtime is devoted to how much she might "cost" the public ($1.3 million over a lifetime by one estimate), compared to the $66 million in bonuses (called retention benefits or something like that) that was paid out by investment banks to 6 individuals, basically from US taxpayer dollars. Seems that a nuttysingle mom is more interesting than the wealthy banker class that's used to mega millions on an annual basis. Interesting morality play.

SoCon 09 - Still searching ...

"In Search of the Southeast’s Social Media Niche" was the theme for SoCon 09 at Kennesaw State University ...

My motivation for going to SoCon 009 was to figure out how best to use social media tools to further community organizing for social justice and civil rights. And, how to apply new concepts of communicating within diverse communities - in terms of race, gender, socio-economic background, issues of interest, level of participation, etc. In that respect, I felt a little out of place.

The Friday night Big Eating Big Networking Dinner was a nice way to kick off the conference, and I appreciated there being tables for Social Media for Social Good. Unfortunately the $50 price tag for dinner was a bit steep for the typically underfunded "social good" sector. Saturday was reasonably priced, but the distance from public transportation was still a challenge for some.

The good stuff was meeting some cool people, having interesting conversations, learning about twitter basics, and being inspired to start blogging again. One of the most memorable lessons was provided by Jeff Haynie - who bluntly declared "your idea sucks," encouraging everyone to execute rather than hoard ideas.

As a community organizer, however, I was surprised that discussions seemed to begin and end with communicating for communication sake. Only once during the plenary sessions did I hear a term like "social responsibility" and it was by a participant sharing her story about being genuine when joining groups and contributing to them without just expecting to get something back. The more generic communication lessons were certainly applicable to social justice work, such as the recommendation to have a credible consistent champion of a topic, and to engage the community beyond one person.

The low point for me was definitely the "brand Atlanta" presentation that in less than an hour managed to dis Hip-Hop and rap music, ignore the civil rights legacy (that has consistently drawn more visitors than the new aquarium), make a weak joke that accentuated the black-white divide (trying to "balance" the Black Arts Festival with the Dogwood Festival), and insult those who believe that social media is somehow "accountable." Also disappointing was the lack of diversity among the keynote speakers.

As for social media accountability, I found myself agreeing though for different reasons than the speaker intended. To me, the self-regulating aspect of social media as it now stands suffers the similar problems that mainstream media suffers - the over participation by dominant culture and the lack of awareness of who is not speaking or who is not in the room. For example, a more inclusive approach would have listed MySpace (which has far more minority participation) as well as Facebook and LinkedIn when referring to social networks.

Overall, it was fun to step into another world of people passionate about the power of communication. SoCon 09 was a great motivator and helped open a world of viral communications I'm hoping to put to good use. As for the "southeast's social media niche," only time will tell. Maybe next year, SoCon can take on the diversity challenge by reaching out to to more communities and moving ITP to Georgia State or the AUC.... Hope to see you there!

See AJC article HERE. Visit Twitter room #socon09.