art's blog

I realized awhile back that if an article was good enough for me to forward to one or more of my friends, that I should probably post a link to it in my blog because others might be interested.  I recently had a conversation with a friend about campaign finance reform, how candidates are often beholden to corporate interests who provide money, and what could be done about it. 

I told him about this article about Paul Hackett, the Marine Corps reserve major who came back from the Iraq War and immediately ran for congress as a Democrat in his home district in Ohio.  He raised over $500,000 mostly through the internet, with 9000 people giving an average of $50 each.  He lost the election this time, but came within 4000 votes of beating the Repubican candidate, in a district that normally goes Republican by 20-40 percentage points.  Read More »

DART is now accepting applications for the 2006 DART Organizers Institute, the paid, four-month field school for people interested in launching a career in community organizing. Participants will undergo a combined classroom and field training covering such topics as:

· Entering a community
· Identifying and training local leaders
· Strategic planning and issue cutting
· Relationship and community building
· Direct Action on community issues
· Fundraising

The DART Center, has built coalitions throughout the country that have won important victories on a broad set of justice issues including:  Read More »

Here's another positive sign: an article on CNET talks about how more and more teachers are using blogging in the classroom as an educational tool.  High school and middle school teachers, and even some fifth grade classes have started blogs. 

"They're learning the technical skills, but they're also learning that they have a voice online," said one teacher. "They may be from a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, but they're writing online, people are commenting on it, and they're learning that they have a voice."  Read More »

My father recently saw a presentation by a colleague on 'fair trade' projects.  The presenter wrote a book on the topic, entitled Social Responsibility in the Global Market:  Fair Trade of Cultural Products.   The concept is a good one, but it needs to be extended to many more industries and products for it to have a major impact (mainly I've seen it applied to coffee, textiles and clothing, and arts and crafts products).  Read More »

A couple of weeks ago I blogged that I may have watched my last episode of The West Wing.  I resisted last week, but when I heard that last night's show was a "live debate episode," I had a relapse. 

At first the idea of a staged live debate seemed hokey.   It was a bit artificial, but it was also pretty interesting.  Even though the context in the show is different from real-life (we are not at war with Iraq in the show), they managed to cover virtually all the issues that typically come up in Republican-Democrat debates.  Some highlights:  Read More »

Latest evildoer: 'The Onion'
The White House Counsel's office, headed by former U.S. Supreme Court justice nominee Harriet Miers, has been busy recently with matters of great national importance.  No, we are not referring to time spent on Miers' detailed responses to the senate questionnaire related to her nomination.  What keeps the White House Counsel up at night these days is the 'War on Satire.'

'The Onion,' a popular newspaper and online magazine that features political satire, received a cease and desist letter from the White House Counsel's office for displaying the presidential seal on its website next to its parody of the weekly presidential radio cast, according to the New York Times.  Read More »

If you liked JibJab's animations, you'll love this animation about Arnold and his friends. 

This is clearly partison (put out by the Angelides campaign), so if anybody has anything this funny about the Angelides or Westly campaigns, I'll be glad to post it to give equal time.  Since when did politicians get a sense of humor?

The thirteen-year-old twins who make up the singing duo Prussian Blue look innocent enough.   You might expect to see them on a Wheaties box, or maybe at the tryouts for American Idol.  But ask them about their goals in life or listen to the lyrics of their songs, and you get a far different picture. 

"We want our people to stay white … we don't want to just be, you know, a big muddle. We just want to preserve our race," says Lynx Gaede.   Read More »