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January 11th, 2009
 | 06:49 pm - a mixed bag of hope and despair, with some coyote in the corners
Congressman Conyers proposes a Truth Commission. More details here.
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases concerning laws providing special protection for minorities in the workplace and in the voting booth. More here and here.
Dalliance and double standards -- why is it that sexual misbehavior only seems to matter if it's not a Republican who's doing it?
The privatization of water.
What you need to remember, whenever you see something like this talking about unemployment rates, is that the numbers are not comprehensive. The government tracks the number of people who are receiving unemployment insurance payments, and to some degree the ones who have been turned down for such payments because they were fired rather than laid off (or it used to, at least) or because they didn't work enough hours in the week for their jobs to qualify (all too common when jobs have been made part time and someone is working two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet.) But those who are not receiving unemployment, those who have been job-hunting for more than a year, or those who are trying to come back into the working world after time out are not included. The standard assumption is that the real unemployment rate is, at minimum, double what is calculated by the government. So, if it was 4.2 percent (6 million) when Bush took office and is now 7.2 percent and 11.1 million, that's only the official numbers. Double it to find reality.
In London, up to 200,000 protest Israeli aggression. Bill Moyers has measured, well-considered words to say about the Israel/Gaza situation; this link includes video and a link to transcript. The commentary is toward the end of the transcript: ( here ) Thoughts on what Obama should do to take action are here.
Italy privatized its retirement financing, the way Bush wanted to do here. How's that working? Not well.
Tattooed bikers, a dog's best friends. ( behind cut )
In China, waste recyclers are losing their jobs. That's going to affect us, too, when the market for recyclables collapses.
A manifesto on magical education.
Stephen Colbert debates copyright law with Lawrence Lessig.
Happy Birthday, Alice Paul.
What happens to the people who seek asylum in Australia whom Australia's government turns away because they're not "refugee enough"?
Patrick Swayze has pneumonia.
Google creates and releases blog converters for Blogger, LJ, Movable Type and WordPress formats.
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