The new UFC light heavyweight champion of the world is Forrest Griffin. While Rampage is beloved and great for the UFC and for marketing, Forrest Griffin has been billed as perhaps one of the most beloved and popular mixed martial artists in the world. Forrest’s win was great for the UFC. It was great the The Ultimate Fighter. And it brings up the question as to who will Griffin fight next? I do not know how bad Griffin was hurt, but I would have to think the UFC would love to see him fight in September in Atlanta. He is a Georgia native and it would be awesome. I do not know if the timing is right and that card already has one huge main event fight with Chuck vs. Rashad. I still look to see him fight again by year end. In my opinion there are 4 fights that could happen for him at his next fight…
1. A Re-Match with Quinton. Quinton is now the number one contender. I am sure he would love the re-match and would love to get his belt back. The question for him will be 2 things. 1. How is his leg? 2. Will the UFC want him to win a fight before he gets a title shot? I would say a re-match would make tons of money and people would run to see it, but I’d kind of like to see it built up a while and see Quinton win a fight to earn it. If you do that you make for 3 blockbuster fights rather than one because Forrest would get one title defense, Quinton would fight once and then ideally you woul follow up with the re-match.
2. Chuck Liddell. A Liddell vs. Griffin fight would be a huge blockbuster. You could market it as the coach vs. the student of the Ultimate Fighter. You could bill it as the two most popular light heavyweights. That fight would be huge, and if I was Dana I would hope that somehow Rashad gets out of that UFC 88 fight and you could make a huge fight in Griffin’s backyard. I doubt it will happen like that, but some have suspectd a Liddell vs. Griffin year end fight. Chuck has to get through Rashad first.
3. Lyoto Machida. He has earned a top 3 spot in the divison. However, many people feel like his fights won’t sell. He is an awesome fighter and is feared by many. He deserves a shot, but Forrest is on record as saying he wants nothing to do with Machida. I don’t look for this to happen, but I do look for Machida to be scheduled for a big fight soon.
4. Anderson Silva. If and only if Anderson Silva steam rolls through James Irvin you could see this fight happening. Silva wants to fight more and this could be his ticket. His next fight is July 19th and after that he is expected to fight Yushin Okami at UFC 88 for the middleweight title defense. A December fight between Silva and Griffin could happen, but I don’t look for it. The reason: I doubt the UFC would sacrifice Forrest that readily even to Anderson Silva.
The UFC could shock us and put Griffin against some other good contender. I never expected Forrest to get the title shot and he did. It won’t be Wanderlei Silva. They could pull out someone like Dan Henderson, Thiago Silva, or Sokoudjou, but I doubt it. We could see someone like Keith Jardine come in and fight him for a re-match or Shogun, but I doubt it. I think Forrest’s next fight will be between the four names I mentioned above (Jackson, Machida, Liddell, or Anderson Silva).
As I try to analyze my life – who I am, what brought me to the point I am now and where I can go and who I have the potential of becoming in the future – I have resorted to quick dua’s during periods of stress and I’ve kept my eyes open for any sort of sign. Any reassurance I’m going the right way, or any new enlightenment of some sort. Here’s some amazing things alhamdullilah that I have come across during this period of contemplation.
1. The ability to perceive, gain, or attain any sort of new knowledge - this is a sign from Allah(swt) in our lives because it stands firm with the idea that knowledge is never-ending. From this realization, we realize that us, as human beings, will never attain complete knowledge or understanding. Because knowledge is infinite and we are bound by our fate and the limits of time, there is no way that we can know everything that there is possible to know about this life, this universe. In simpler, everyday terms – why a bus route may change in our neighborhood, the rules of basketball, research on space exploration, etc. While many of these everyday things seem trivial knowledge pursuits and we may be able to find out the answers to all of them quickly. It is those new ideas, thoughs, research in progress that we may never be a part of unless we dedicate time to develop our knowledge and perhaps even actively participate in pushing the boundaries of what we already know to discover something else that was already there. “Something else that was already there” – what does that mean? Think of it this way: space, stars, planets were already a part of this universe before man actually confirmed the discovery. Everything to reach a new level of knowledge is before us. It is there. It is up to us to discover it.
Why do I call this a sign? Have you ever just gone about your life and then come across something that changes the way you think, the decisions you make. It is this knowledge, whether you gain it by talking to someone, reading a newspaper, publications, etc., no matter how it comes to you – it shakes your world just by you ‘merely’ thinking about that piece of information. Nothing is trivial in the pursuit of knowledge. Knowing that most golf balls for example are white, whereas someone who’s never seen the sport before, doesn’t necessarily put you at an advantage of any sort, but this mere distinct difference, even though it is extremly minuate, actually helps develop your level of perception and reality. Reality is based on what we know to exist. Never belittle knowledge – it is a blessing, just like the five senses: touching, smelling, seeing, feeling, hearing.
My Take: This past week I had the opportunity to gain an inside view on the world of investment banking. Is this where I see myself in the future. To be honest, no. But then again I’ll leave all judgments to my lord. Even we can’t be sure that we know ourselves as well as might believe we do. Does this sound confusing? Think of it this way – have you ever though you wanted something, then realized down the road that you may have or may not have wanted it. Your confused – you don’t know what you really want from this life, because that knowledge is only with Allah(swt). But thankfully (shukar-Alhamullilah), He guides you if you have good intentions and you believe. In this life we have many, many open doors and opportunities we can take that will in turn change our lives for the better or worse. But with all these opportunities comes the responsibility of thanking the One who has given them to us. And who will guide us to righteousness. The One I am talking about is Allah(swt) our creator. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
2. The Verses of the Quran – These are most definitely a sign. And I can bear witness to profound statements that I have come across in the Quran that I can relate to my life. The knowledge and the relationship between you and the Quran has potential to always be developed. Take the time to read it, to understand it, and to apply it. Take the time to just look at a translation of a few lines – even if your life is busy. This is a starting point. That’s all I did – I looked at a few lines a few days ago and Allahu Akbar – Allah(swt) spoke to me through the Quran. This is the Best of Signs. Believe and you will realize so much more than what you know now.
The verse that I found absolutely relevant, to the thoughts going through my mind about my life, at the time I was reading the Quran were the following from Surat Al-Kahf (The Cave) –
“Be patient with those who worship their Lord in the mornings and evenings to seek His pleasure. Do not overlook them to seek the worldly pleasures. Do no obey those whom We have caused to neglect Us and instead follow their own desires beyond all limits” (18:28)
3. The Signs you see everyday – Just today I said Bismillah before putting a golf ball and it aligned perfectly with one that was 4 ft away. Before saying Bismillah, I had tried to get it perfectly aligned several times with absolutely no success. Coincidence, I think not – this is a sign that my Lord is watching me and all of us.
By Jeremy Kirk
If in doubt, go visit the CRF parallel thread: http://minimsftcrf.blogspot.com/ 2009/05/comment-stream-microsoft-layoffs-cinco.html.
microsoft layoffs – Google Blog Search
When Microsoft announced in January that the company was cutting 5000 jobs, it wasn't clear how many waves it would take to realize that count. It lo.
Mini-Microsoft
3 Nov 2009. News, profiles and commentary on Seattle technology startups, Microsoft, Amazon. com, gadgets, PCs, software, venture capital and Internet.
Are the Microsoft layoffs over now? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
We're hearing from unofficial but reliable sources tonight that Microsoft is poised to make additional job cuts this week, with the affected employees expected to be notified as early as Wednesday morning.
Exclusive: More Microsoft layoffs
6 May 2009. With Tuesday's second round of layoffs, Microsoft had made almost all of the 5000 job cuts it had planned to make, including 1200 local.
Microsoft Layoffs: More Job Cuts Loom, Sources Report
Now, it seems that Microsoft is about to prove it's still in recession mode, as rumors of imminent layoffs are circulating. Microsoft Logo Todd Bishop wrote late last night (or early this morning, to those of us a few time zones east of
Microsoft, Latest round of Microsoft layoffs may not be last.
5 May 2009. Top of the News: The rumors turned out to be correct — Microsoft said today it would begin a second round of layoffs..
More Microsoft Layoffs On The Way | WebProNews
Microsoft Layoffs: More Expected. A recent article posted on TechFlash is reporting that Microsoft will be laying off additional staff, the source of this information is a reliable source, however there has been no official announcement
Sound Economy with Jon Talton, Microsoft layoffs send mixed.
23 Jan 2009. With sales of PCs falling, Microsoft said it would lay off 5 percent of its work force, and warned that technology spending could wane for.
Microsoft Layoffs: More Expected : Product Reviews Net
Microsoft Layoffs Continue. Microsoft announced today that it has just cut 800 jobs worldwide, with most positions being at their Seattle office. On the bright side, "Microsoft has continued to hire in some areas even as it has cut back
Decline in PC Orders Leads to Microsoft Layoffs – NYTimes.com
1 Jan 2009. The latest rumor puts the possible job cuts at 15000, or nearly 17 percent of Microsoft's worldwide operations, with MSN getting hit hard.
TechEBlog » Microsoft Layoffs Continue
Microsoft (MSFT) is planning to make more layoffs this week, according to TechFlash.com, with employees expected to be notified as early as this morning.The report says the number of job cuts will be “in the hundreds,” but less than
Microsoft planning big layoffs for January?, Microsoft – CNET News
6 May 2009. In Wednesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches phase II of the Microsoft layoffs: another 3000 redundancies worldwide.
Microsoft: 800 More Layoffs, Company Confirms (Updated) – Tech
We are mostly but not all done” with layoffs. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that in May of this year at the start of a second round of cuts that claimed the livelihoods of some 3000 employees. Now, six months later, the company is
Microsoft layoffs, round two. 3000 heads roll – Computerworld Blogs
15 Jan 2009. Rumors of layoffs at Microsoft continue to swirl ahead of the company's quarterly earnings report slated for Jan. 22.
Microsoft Sacks 800 [UPDATED] | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily
Microsoft will begin its third 2009 layoff round as soon as this morning, TechFlash reports, because the software giant's growth has slowed. Conference rooms are already reserved. If you learn anything about the reboot, email us.
Report: Microsoft layoffs could come next week – Network World
I'm happy to hear 5000 layoffs at Microsoft in Redmond. I wish it would have been a much higher number, something like 25000. Maybe over the next 6 months .
Sluggish Microsoft to Fire Hundreds This Morning – Microsoft – Gawker
Microsoft's Latest Layoffs Take It Beyond Initial Targets for 2009. November 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment. Seattle-based TechFlash last night got wind of impending layoffs at Microsoft, and those were confirmed today by reports at
Most of Thursday’s Microsoft layoffs centered in Redmond
4 Nov 2009. We're hearing from unofficial but reliable sources tonight that Microsoft is poised to make additional job cuts this week, with the affected.
Microsoft's Latest Layoffs Take It Beyond Initial Targets for 2009
Microsoft lays off 800 more workers worldwide. REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. says it is cutting 800 more jobs. That's in addition to the 5000 layoffs it announced in January. Lou Gellos, a Microsoft spokesman, said Wednesday the cuts
Microsoft Layoffs: More Job Cuts Loom, Sources Report
AP has just called the NJ Governor’s race for Christie(R). The overall tallies are not far off of my pre-election forecasts, which were posted on Sunday 11/1/09. From the results, it appears that the election was in fact a referendum on the incumbent, which of course, benefited Christie who is the major party challenger.
My forecasts were Christie (R) 49%; Corzine (D) 46%; and Dagget (I) 5%. Below are results as of now…more to come.
Governor – General
5565 of 6305 Precincts Reporting – 88%
Name Party VotesVote %
Christie GOP 998,41649%
Corzine Dem 910,21645%
Daggett Ind109,7045%
Have you heard? Oilman T Boone Pickens is not only committed to planting the world’s largest wind farm in the fertile soil of Texas. He is not only committed to working to stringing a meaningful electrical grid to move electricity from that wind farm to lush markets for harvesting serious profits. T Boone has a plan to save America (while making a bundle) and has committed some serious dough to convincing Americans that his plan is the path to a better future. T Boone restates forcefully what George W Bush said in the 2006 State of the Union address about America’s oil addiction. According to T Boone,
America is addicted to foreign oil.
It’s an addiction that threatens our economy, our environment and our national security. It touches every part of our daily lives and ties our hands as a nation and a people.
The addiction has worsened for decades and now it’s reached a point of crisis.
Here is one of the nation’s leading oil men, a fossil fuel fortune-maker, laying out quite clearly that America’s oil habit is centerpiece of risk for the nation in the years ahead. Is the addiction’s solution to be found in Newt’s Drill Here! Drill Now! Pay Less (a decade from now … maybe)? Not according to T Boone:
Can’t we just produce more oil?
World oil production peaked in 2005. Despite growing demand and an unprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn’t enough of it to keep up with demand.
The simple truth is that cheap and easy oil is gone.
Maybe Newt and the Republicans should be listening to people who actually know at least something about energy?
Let us be absolutely clear: Legendary conservative oilman T. Boone Pickens says oil is a dead end!
Oil is dead, T Boone tells us (the US), what should we do?
T Boone Pickens isn’t stopping with defining a problem, he is outlining (forcefully) a proposed solution path. ThePickensPlan is a concept for reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil, to carve into the $700 billion+ per year heading out of the United States to ensure top-offed McSUVs. As T Boone expresses it, “the largest transfer of wealth in human history.” The PickensPlan has a mixture of extremely good and important elements, and concepts that simply don’t comport with energy reality. Let’s take a brief look at some of this.
Centerpiece of this effort is green power and green jobs: a drive for moving wind from roughly 1% of the US electrical supply to 22% by 2020. Construction and maintenance jobs for rural America with cleaner electricity for all Americans. Connect this wind produced in the center of the nation to major urban markets with HVDC cables (much like the European TREC concept). What would it take to do this?
Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns.
That’s a lot of money, but it’s a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it’s a bargain.
A true bargain and a vision which this author can share with T Boone.
The next stage of the vision, however, is more troubling.
T Boone makes a direct relationship between reaching 22% wind electricity with the 22% of electricity currently produced with natural gas turbines. For T Boone, the goal is to use the wind electricity to displace natural gas electricity to free up that natural gas for displacing petroleum currently used for transport. What’s the problem here? On first brush, multiple items jump out:
- Natural gas is already a tight resource, already “peaked” like oil, which we could well likely have supply problems in the years ahead. Should we create / foster a new demand?
- Natural gas and wind power are, in fact, complementary electricity sources at this time. Unless there is a major storage system (such as hydro storage), wind’s challenge is its intermittentcy, that the wind isn’t always blowing. Natural gas turbines can be turned on / off quickly to work as a partner with wind to support electrical demand.
- This plan seems to ignore one of the most fruitful paths to cut into America’s oil addiction: plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and moving transport to electricity. Why not use that wind generated electricity to directly fuel America’s ever-more electrified transport sector?
- “Natural gas is simply too useful and expensive to squander [in transport].“
Okay, T Boone, I’m ready for this conversation. I can go a long with you in defining the problem. I see the value and importance of planting turbines and harvesting the wind for decades to come. But, you’ve lost me when it comes to natural gas.
With all of your investment in outreach, advertising and fancy website, something is truly impressive on first brush: the Forum looks truly open to real conversations, supportive and critical of your ideas. Eric raises the question of your role in the Swift Boating of John Kerry (with 94 comments last that I checked). Tim Martin demonstrates how partisanship can led to denial of reality as he calls on T Boone to Quit Drinking the Kool Aid from the Liberal Media spinning many of the classic fantasies and truthiness of those caught within the first stage of denial. And, so on … Over 160 posts, many with 10s and some with 100s of comments, as of this writing. A hat tip, Mr Pickens, for embracing the new media to such a degree that you’ve opened your website to such an open and strong debate.
To return to T Boone’s own words
I’m T Boone Pickens. I’ve been an oilman all my life. But this is one emergency that we can’t drill our way out of.
This is a serious problem that requires serious solutions. While not in accord with the natural gas portion of T Boone’s vision, he is bringing much of value to national attention. And, I fully agree with him:
It’s our crisis. And, we can solve it.
Inexperienced
lawyer defends teenagers
accused of murder.
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports:
Talk about change. The doctors and the seniors don't get their way — and neither does Wall Street.
Don't look now — but did taxpayers (or at least the ones telling pollsters they care deeply about government spending, deficits, and debt) win a couple rounds?
On a tactical level, it's not a good thing to start losing votes right before the big ones roll in. It's hard to envision the American Medical Association — still holding plenty of cards, as one of the last big allies Democrats may have left in the health care fight — supporting health care reform unless its doctors are taken care of.
But could these be some early signs that Washington is getting the message when it comes to public anger over runaway spending?
Bills rarely go down simply because they're not paid for — but that's exactly why doctors are left still fighting for their Medicare payments.
The move by the pay czar cuts in a roughly similar direction: Economists can debate it, and pure free-marketers can loathe it, but imagine the public outrage if the Obama administration essentially co-signed for billions in bonuses to firms that are still on the public dole?
Consider as well how “stimulus” has become a dirty word… There's an “unusual political and policy tension in the White House and Congress these days as the politicians deal with an economy that has begun a slow but jobless recovery and a public that is increasingly fretful about the accumulating debt,” The New York Times' Jackie Calmes writes.
“Not since the early 1990s have Washington's policy makers faced this balancing act between demands for immediate economic stimulus and pressure for longer-term plans to restore fiscal stability. But this time is a lot worse, both in the severity of the economic downturn and the size of the deficit.”
For the administration, not a bad side to be on: “The Obama administration's pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, will demand that seven companies receiving ‘exceptional' amounts of taxpayer aid cut the annual salaries for their 25 top executives by an average of around 90 percent from 2008's levels,” per ABC's Matthew Jaffe.
“The seven companies in question received more money from the US taxpayer than the entire Gross Domestic Product of Portugal,” ABC's Jake Tapper said on “Good Morning America” Thursday.
“Responding to the furor over executive pay at companies bailed out with taxpayer money, the Obama administration will order the firms that received the most aid to slash compensation to their highest-paid employees,” Stephen Labaton reports in The New York Times. “The pay restrictions illustrate the humbling downfall of the once-proud giants, now wards of the state whose leaders' compensation is being set by a Washington paymaster. They also show how Washington in the last year has become increasingly powerful in setting corporate policies as more companies turned to the government for money to survive.”
“Mr. Feinberg's ruling, expected in coming days, will provide fodder for the long-running debate about whether the Obama administration is being overly tough or overly lenient on Wall Street,” The Wall Street Journal's Deborah Solomon and Dan Fitzpatrick write. “An executive at one of the seven companies under Mr. Feinberg's authority said the terms came as a shock, especially because they changed so suddenly. The compensation restrictions ‘were clearly much worse than what had been anticipated.' ”
Not the president's call, but the president's policy: “It will go down in history as one of Barack Obama's signature decisions on the economy, a dramatic move to slash corporate pay at bailed out banks and automakers. But on Wednesday night, administration officials said that the president of the United States didn't have all that much to do with a decision that will, in many ways, come to define his relationship with Wall Street,” Politico's Eamon Javers writes.
Not much outrage from the other side: “I opposed [TARP]. But now I want to protect the taxpayers. That is not a contradiction,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, ABC's Z. Byron Wolf reports.
On health care — the fix wasn't in, after all, for the “doc fix.”
“With budget anxieties pervading the congressional healthcare debate, the Senate on Wednesday sidetracked popular legislation that would have increased Medicare payments to doctors by nearly $250 billion over the next decade,” Janet Hook and Noam N. Levey write for the Los Angeles Times. “Even as the Senate voted on a simple and popular bill to help doctors, Democratic Party unity frayed; the once powerful American Medical Assn. did not get its way; and fiscal conservatism scored a rare triumph.”
The New York Times casts it as a “test vote” for broader health care reform: “The Medicare bill has become a proxy for larger issues in the debate over legislation to overhaul the health care system,” Robert Pear and David M. Herszenhorn report. “Mr. Reid said the bill, by averting big cuts in physician fees, guaranteed that doctors would continue accepting Medicare patients. But since none of the costs were offset or paid for, Republicans said it was fiscally irresponsible, and some Democrats said they shared that concern.”
Bipartisanship, at last: “Although sympathetic to fixing the root problem, lawmakers concluded that the legislation's $247 billion 10-year price tag was too steep in an era of record deficits,” Shailagh Murray reports in The Washington Post.
“Without proposing a way to pay for it, they lost support from moderate Democrats, signaling that cost could become a significant hurdle to a reform bill,” Jennifer Haberkorn and Kara Rowland report for the Washington Times.
Statement from the AMA: “Permanent repeal of the Medicare physician payment formula is essential to comprehensive health system reform.” (Yes, “essential.”)
Next spending item up (with prospects darkened, in the wake of the doc fix): “President Barack Obama's plan to give $250 checks to Social Security recipients next year is being criticized by some congressional Democrats worried that it could swell the deficit,” Elizabeth Williamson and Henry J. Pulizzi write in The Wall Street Journal.
And then: “Within the next few weeks, probably as soon as the votes on health-care reform have been taken, the Senate faces the painful duty of once again raising the statutory limit on the national debt, as the House already has done,” David S. Broder writes in his Washington Post column. “It is never fun for the party in power, but this year will be harder than ever on the Democrats. The final accounting on the just-ended fiscal year, delivered last week, showed a record deficit of $1.4 trillion, a gap that is the largest since the end of World War II when measured against the size of the overall economy. The Republicans are poised to pounce.”
Where else the deficit may matter: “The reservoir of Democratic support for legislation to stimulate the economy — while adding to the deficit — is drying up,” The Hill's Jared Allen reports.
The president's day, per ABC's Sunlen Miller: a videoconference meeting with Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, plus meetings with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Ron Brownstein unearths a fascinating insight: Those who vote against health care reform are most likely to see their constituents benefit from it. “Yet many House members from both groups [Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats] represent districts with an elevated number of people who lack health insurance,” Brownstein writes in the new National Journal. “That dynamic creates the likelihood of a deeply ironic result: If health care reform passes, many of the districts that benefit most from the federal subsidies to expand access to coverage will be those represented by members who voted against the bill.”
Check out the map HERE.
Those you probably can't win over — from Gallup's latest poll: “In general, Americans who are undecided on healthcare legislation predict it is more likely to make their own situations worse rather than better — especially in terms of cost (45% worse to 22% better), but in the three other areas as well.”
In the Senate, tough cats to herd: “Obama and Democratic leaders have modest leverage over several pivotal Senate Democrats who are more concerned about their next election or feel they have little to lose by opposing their party's hierarchy,” the AP's Charles Babington writes. “One is still smarting from being forced to abandon next year's election. Another had to leave the Democratic Party to stay in office. And some are from states that Obama lost badly last year.”
But did Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., really lose one he thought he'd win? “Reid is hyper-skilled at knowing almost precisely how each member of his Democratic caucus will vote on an issue,” Lisa Mascaro writes in the Las Vegas Sun. “That is why it left Washington shaking its head Wednesday afternoon when the so-called doctors' fix bill went down in defeat.”
New, new pressure on Reid, coming Thursday, from the left: “Today the FDL Action PAC launches an online phone bank effort to call 40,000 of the most progressive Democrats in Nevada, asking them to contact Harry Reid and let him know they support a public option.” Said firedoglake founder Jane Hamsher: “He's the only one who gets to make that decision. And if he decides to kowtow to powerful DC lobbying interests and hike up health care costs for individuals $2000 a year by jettisoning the public option, he's the one who will have to shoulder the blame.”
Just because Vice President Dick Cheney hasn't spoken publicly for a while doesn't mean… well, see for yourself: “President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission,” Cheney said in accepting an award Wednesday night from the Center for Security Policy, ABC's Jake Tapper and Ely Brown report.
And: “I consider the abandonment of missile defense in Eastern Europe to be a strategic blunder and a breach of good faith,” the former vice president said.
Plus: “The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in danger.”
Cheney should totally meet this guy: “Mr. Obama is right to ask tough questions about Afghanistan. But he needs to act soon to defend vital American interests in a troubled region that gave safe haven to our enemies before 9/11. Decisive support of his previously announced strategy in Afghanistan is what is required,” Karl Rove writes in his Wall Street Journal column.
Gotta love a Nixon reference: “I'm seeing the same seeds now that I saw then,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former Nixon White House aide, said Wednesday on ABCNews.com's “Top Line.” “My suggestion — friendly suggestion — to the Obama administration is, don't create an enemies list.”
More on a theme being pressed by the right: “When you're on their side, it's all OK, but if you're not, they rain hell down on you,” R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, tells the Washington Times' Jon Ward.
Now Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., is ready to name names. Of dead people. The new project from the lawmaker of “die quickly” fame: www.namesofthedead.com.
Beating Sarah Palin's memoir to bookshelves: “Going Rouge: An American Nightmare.” “It includes work by regular Nation contributors, including Katha Pollitt, Katrina vanden Heuvel and Naomi Klein,” the New York Daily News' Olivia Smith reports.
And help NBC's Chuck Todd out, now that his Dodgers went down to the Phillies. “So maybe I need a professional. Old school barber? Ideas?” Mr. Todd Tweets, as he prepares to make good (we presume) on his “goatee gamble” bet with ABC's Jake Tapper.
The Kicker:
“I take it the senator from Tennessee is suggesting that this administration is Nixon-fying the White House? Is that correct?” — Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., President Obama's almost-Cabinet member, picking up on Sen. Alexander's theme.
“We'll have to leave it there — at the urinal.” — The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, concluding a panel discussion sponsored by Third Way on after a screening of “HouseQuake.” Former DCCC executive director John Lapp, a panel participant, had just discussed Rahm Emanuel's pestering him about PA-08 while he was in the restroom.
For up-to-the-minute political updates check out The Note's blog . . . all day every day:
Happy El día de los muertos!
Isn’t my little brother cute? This was taken at the St. Marks-in-the-Bowery Church last night/Halloween. And is that a full moon I see out there (at 5PM) over a quickly darkening Gotham? Hmm, mischief indeed. So, before I honor Mexican and Mexican-American/Chicano literature for this post, some quick news. A month full of readings (readings galore) has come to an end. And although I enjoyed every single one of them, they took me away from my main joy—which is hiding and working on my next “thing.” So that’s what I’ll be doing for the rest of the year, in addition to reading lots of books for the Publishing Triangle—who have asked me to be a judge for the 2010 awards, in the gay and lesbian non-fiction categories. What an honor!
PANIC! at the library (la segunda parte) will take place at the Mott Haven Public Library on Saturday, November 7th, 2:15PM, and will feature Cristina Izaguirre, Charles Rice-González, Karen Jaime, and me, your host. This reading will wrap up the blitz! November 25th will be the year’s finale for PANIC!, which takes December off. November readers for DREAM PANIC! will include the (my) lovely John Williams, Chadwick Moore, Vincent Bernard, Tom Cardamone and perhaps one more reader (confirmed list will post on the 15th). The readers have been asked to read stories and poetry that feature dream sequences or similar aspects of the subconscious…
Okay…los libros…
Esperanza’s Box of Saints (Simon and Schuster, 1999)
by María Amparo Escandón
One of the fun things about reviewing books isn’t always getting your claws on the latest hot title, but finding something you somehow missed and playing a nice game of catch-up with it. My gym has a lender’s library and it’s a habit of mine to peruse it for random treasures. Esperanza’s Box of Saints is one such find. By page twenty or so I wondered why I was even reading it, but by the time I got to the middle I could not put it down.
So, small town in Mexico…
Esperanza is a woman plagued by tragedy and loss. Her father drowned when the local river flooded, her husband died in a nasty bus crash, and her daughter was taken to a hospital for a simple procedure and did not make it out alive. Esperanza becomes convinced that the doctor lied about her daughter’s death when she’s not permitted to view the body—but is presented with a coffin nailed shut. After she sneaks into the cemetery at night and digs down to the coffin (which she taps on and is convinced it is empty), she insists that her daughter Blanca is alive and has been kidnapped and enslaved in a brothel.
Esperanza leaves her small town of Tlacotalpan with her box of saint statues (which divine knowledge to her) and arrives at the whorehouses of Tijuana, where she begins her determined investigation and search—which takes her illegally across the border (in the trunk of a car owned by a lawyer who falls in love with her). Once in Los Angeles, however, Esperanza’s quest for Blanca nets her an unexpected prize—one which I cannot tell you, but something that helps to heal all of the wounds that make her such an adorable character. Think love.
Memory Fever (University of Arizona Press, 1999)
by Ray Gonzalez
Ray Gonzalez is a sorcerer with words and imagery—and to the highest degree. He is an organic force of literary nature whose work sucks you in like quicksand that cannot be denied, defeated, or conquered. His very excellent Memory Fever is an essay collection that reads as a broken-up memoir, one decorated with compelling excursions into family history, the subcultures of youth, religion, poetry, and the absolute and endlessly inspiring reverence of the complex desert ecosystems and environments in which he’s chosen to call home. Most of the book takes place in and around El Paso, Texas—an epicenter of border politics, racism, and middle-class Americana aspirations.
Gonzalez begins with an ode to the deserts that once claimed the lives of conquistadors and weaves his personal history into that of the colonizing of the New World—he places himself (through his words) at the very beginning—before New Spain, Texas, and New Mexico even existed. Throughout these poetic time-capsules he is made to slaughter rattlesnakes, resides in a haunted house by the Rio Grande, buries hundreds of sparrow killed in an unusually powerful rainstorm, buys his first Beatles record, works at his father’s billiards hall, ponders the politics of celebrating Columbus Day, and makes his mystical forays into the worlds of psychedelic drugs and literature.
This collection will shine for anyone interested in the Chicano perspective that dominates the Latino experience in America (two-thirds, I believe). Not only does Gonzalez seduce with his words—you learn things in his spells. He knows much about desert creatures for instance, and the myriad trivia tidbits he releases make his work that more fascinating. His introduction to popular culture, via the Beatles, rang with a degree of innocence I simply do not observe anymore. His connection to our planet and all of the magic inherent to it breathes life into his words and hurls them over the line, from mere observation and identification (seeing/reading), to empowering them to open doors to your own memories and emotions (perceiving/feeling).
This was taken after the Halloween/Day of the Dead festival at El Museo Del Barrio, NYC. If you didn’t make it this year I recommend you try next year…fun for everyone…
See you sooooooon!
Charlie
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Too young to vote, but old enough to understand the November 3rd alcohol vote could change their community, Highland Park Baptist Church youth produced and posted a YouTube video this week touting the dangers of alcohol abuse (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO9J296YIMk ). The 5 minute and 17 second movie in which many of them appear logs almost 500 YouTube viewing hits so far, and has premiered on Facebook’s social networking avenue with its poignant political appeal to a hometown community to “Vote ‘No’ on Propositions 1 and 2.”
The kids quote these stats:
* “Three million kids 14-17 are regular drinkers.”
* “Twice as many kids use alcohol than any other illegal drug.”
* “One person every minute is injured in an alcohol-related car crash”
* 30 percent of all Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related traffic accident
* Alcohol kills more kids than all illegal drugs combined
* Alcohol is the leading contributor to injury death and the main cause of death for people under age 21.
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