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15211 [lbo-talk] Alito & disability -- rank: 1000

Marta, anyone - today's Note reports: >Disability rights advocates and civil rights advocates will take to >the stakeout microphones outside the hearing room to oppose Alito's >nomination. What's the beef with Alito? Doug

Document Size:	4774
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 11 08:42:38 PST 2006

15212 [lbo-talk] A Case for a Higher Gasoline Tax -- rank: 1000

Matt wrote: >Indeed, I didn't dispute the disaster either, and concur - screwing >the working class and the poor seems like a bad idea and won't go over >well. > >Sweden announced a plan to eliminate oil dependency by 2020, and it >consists of (http://www.sweden.gov.se/sb/d/3212/a/51058): > * Tax relief for converting from oil heating to renewable > * More renewable energy: increasing green certificates, investment > increase in renewables by Vattenfall > ...

Document Size:	6279
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 11 08:36:37 PST 2006

15213 [lbo-talk] new pacifica ED -- rank: 1000

Joseph Wanzala wrote: >The main question is whether Mr. Guma is an effective and tenacious >administrator. The Pacifica network, particularly WBAI, is dire need >of . I have done battle with the race essentialists, known in >Pacificaland as the 'Justice and Unity Caucus' for several years >now. I sympathize with some of their ideological tendencies, but >part ways with them on governance questions, where many of them seem >to think that Pacifica should be run rather like Rob ...

Document Size:	5760
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Wed Jan 11 06:59:07 PST 2006

15214 [lbo-talk] communist witches were not spectral -- rank: 1000

Mikhail Simkin wrote: >I am not a "little asshole", but a patriotic American, who admires >Senator McCarthy. >I think that he should be posthumously awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom. >Until this happens the battle with Communism is not over. Oh, ok, so you're a big asshole. Bye. Doug

Document Size:	4946
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 20:41:02 PST 2006

15215 [lbo-talk] the new pacifica ED -- rank: 1000

[Pacifica has a new executive director, whom the race essentialists are complaining about because he's a white guy from Vermont. But he's right up some people's alley. We're fucked.] Mission Improbable: Challenging the official story of 9/11 By Greg Guma Vermont Guardian BURLINGTON . For more than four years, the public has repeatedly been urged to ignore .outrageous. conspiracies theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that set in motion the so-called .war on terrorism.. However, the officia ...

Document Size:	17671
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 17:25:11 PST 2006

15216 [lbo-talk] communist witches were not spectral -- rank: 1000

Mikhail Simkin wrote: >Out of 159 persons in McCarthy's list at least 9 were communist spies. Wow, that's reassuring. So all the paranoia and repression were justified? Or are you just being a provocative little asshole? Doug

Document Size:	4816
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 14:53:48 PST 2006

15217 [lbo-talk] A Case for a Higher Gasoline Tax -- rank: 1000

Matt wrote: >Oil and gas run the furnaces that are used for heating in all sorts of >manufacturing facilities. Higher costs here would require such firms >to cut costs in other areas - like eliminating pensions and >offshoring. Manufacturing moves its raw material and final products >via truck, and higher fuel costs raise those costs too. With the >same disastrous effect for the working class. > >I suppose those of us working in manufacturing can move to the various &g ...

Document Size:	5501
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 14:52:21 PST 2006

15218 [lbo-talk] depopulating NO -- rank: 1000

[from Gallup ed-in-chief Frank Newport's weekly column] Katrina Victims A recent Rand Corporation estimate is that in three years, New Orleans will have a population of only 275,000, which is much less than the population of 465,000 before Katrina. But this comes as no surprise based on our study of New Orleans victims of Katrina. The poll was based on a random sample of those who had applied to the American Red Cross for assistance, and showed that 39% of those from New Orleans said that they p ...

Document Size:	4939
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 14:29:54 PST 2006

15219 [lbo-talk] Israeli Politics in a Post-Sharon Era -- rank: 1000

Bryan Atinsky wrote: >Indeed Sharon had a plan. But it would be ludicrous to call it a "peace plan." How does this unified vision of Sharon's compare with Israeli public opinion? Doug

Document Size:	4805
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 14:05:30 PST 2006

15220 [lbo-talk] A Case for a Higher Gasoline Tax -- rank: 1000

jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com wrote: > > What's wrong is that the price of oil doesn't reflect the >> environmental damage it does. Externalities and all that. > >As opposed to everything else that does capture this cost? Like farming? > >Anyway, you know we're going to burn all of it, no matter if it's >$60/bbl or $600. You're not going to "convince" people to stop >burning it until there's something more profitable to burn. Our >only hope is to get ...

Document Size:	5365
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 13:40:18 PST 2006

15221 [lbo-talk] New York Times: A Guilty Pleasure -- rank: 1000

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: >I confess that I'm devoted to the New York Times. I've been reading it almost every day since I was about 13. There are many ways in which it sucks. There are many things the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and LA Times do much better. But there's no substitute among US papers for its breadth of coverage. And its pomposity and stylistic quirks can be really funny. Doug

Document Size:	4986
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 13:31:42 PST 2006

15222 [lbo-talk] A Case for a Higher Gasoline Tax -- rank: 1000

jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com wrote: >Oil is "cheap" because it's plentiful and easy to extract, refine, >and use; what's wrong with that? What's wrong is that the price of oil doesn't reflect the environmental damage it does. Externalities and all that. Doug

Document Size:	4931
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 11:47:28 PST 2006

15223 [lbo-talk] Diabetes and Individual Choice -- rank: 1000

Chuck wrote: >Constantly. I'm exposed to it as I do things around the house, so I >can claim that I'm up-to-date on what's on Fox News. > >I believe last night they were obsessed with that traitor Harry Belafonte. Yup. As Liza pointed out during O'R's rant about Belafonte (accompanied by that scumbag Juan Williams - how does he live with himself, playing Uncle Tom for the likes of O'Reilly?), you'd miss all this important stuff if you got your news only from the NYT. Doug

Document Size:	5073
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 11:43:07 PST 2006

15224 [lbo-talk] RE: A Case for a Higher Gasoline Tax -- rank: 1000

Gary Mongiovi wrote: >I've been a little curious about why this issue is, in the >discussions of the past year or so, mainly framed in terms of taxing >gasoline rather than in terms of taxing gas-guzzling vehicles. >Taxing fuel is no doubt a sensible way to encourage conservation >over the long run, but as listmembers have rightly pointed out, the >impact is regressive. But I would guess that a tax on SUVs would be >much more progressive, and would have a much faster impact ...

Document Size:	5955
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 11:40:27 PST 2006

15225 [lbo-talk] how to write about Africa -- rank: 1000

[this was excerpted in the Sunday NYT - here's some more] <http://www.granta.com/extracts/2615> 'How to write about Africa' Binyavanga Wainaina some tips: sunsets and starvation are good Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerrillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'. Note that 'Peo ...

Document Size:	13133
Author:	Doug Henwood
Date:	Tue Jan 10 10:13:15 PST 2006