Author Archive

CORN

by , posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2012 at 6:00 am

The title’s all in caps for a reason – you’ll just have to bear with me to find that reason out. It’s complicated.

My daughter tells this story of moving to North Carolina, inviting friends over for dinner, accepting an offer to help “peel” the corn, watching leaves being literally peeled back one by one, before picking up an ear and rapidly shucking it only to be met with gasps of astonishment and amazed “how did you DO that?” questions.

My son tells this story of being involved in a day-long firefight in Afghanistan in a cornfield and the dissonance caused in his mind by having terrorists fire at him from the cover of high corn that evoked for him happy childhood memories of travelling through miles and miles of cornfields to visit his grandparents on the other side of Illinois.

At the base of both of these stories is a sort of heritage you end up with if you grow up in the cornbelt, even if nobody in your family farms; it’s ever-present enough that you acquire corn stories. And these two definitely grew up in the cornbelt – the only place that can possibly be cornier than their home state of Illinois is Iowa, where I’m headed next if you continue reading.

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It’s No Katrina

by , posted on Thursday, July 5th, 2012 at 10:32 am

Nor is it an earthquake, or a series of lethal tornados, or any other sudden disaster. It is rather a natural disaster in slow motion, creeping and steady and relentless, and apparently not photogenic enough to merit your standard-issue disaster-type media coverage. drmon
They’ve got maps – along with a twelve week history rolling history of this drought unfolding – right here.

Along with juicy tidbits like “Looking Ahead: In general, July 4 – 8, 2012 doesn’t look promising in terms of relief, though the intense heat should subside somewhat.”

Here’s what intense heat subsiding somewhat looks like where I’m at:

Today Jul 5
101°F
77°F
Mostly Sunny
Chance of rain:20%Wind: W at 12 mph

Fri Jul 6
102°
74°
Mostly Sunny
Chance of rain:10%Wind: WSW at 7 mph

Sat Jul 7
95°
67°
Isolated T-Storms
Chance of rain:30%Wind: N at 15 mph

Sun Jul 8
83°
63°
Partly Cloudy
Chance of rain:20%Wind: NNE at 12 mph

Mon Jul 9
83°
60°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: NE at 8 mph

Tue Jul 10
84°
63°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: NE at 8 mph

Wed Jul 11
86°
68°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: SE at 8 mph

Thu Jul 12
89°
66°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: S at 8 mph

Fri Jul 13
89°
68°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: SW at 9 mph

Sat Jul 14
90°
71°
Sunny
Chance of rain:0%Wind: SSW at 9 mph

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Witness This

by , posted on Thursday, November 10th, 2011 at 12:31 am

This isn’t a particularly original post. In fact, I first saw this video in this diary on DKos about ten minutes ago. But I think there is cause enough within this video itself for just about every blogger out there to take a moment and post it, hell, for every citizen out there to take a moment and email a link to their acquaintance, to post it to their facebook, to tweet it, to spread it around.

We are all citizen journalists now, each in our own way now; it’s incumbent on us to spread the truth, for I doubt very much that corporate media will.

UPDATE: just saw that according to this AP story this is just a little “nudging” with batons…so no cause for concern about the police delivering unprovoked beatings to young women to see here folks. Who are you going to believe, the Associated Press or your lying eyes?? Share the truth: because corporate media will not.

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Klinkhamer Running for Kane County Board Chair

by , posted on Friday, November 4th, 2011 at 2:23 pm

Hate to say I told you so, but Sue Klinkhamer is circulating petitions for the Kane County Board Chair Dem primary. She will have a primary opponent in former Carpentersville Mayor Bill Sarto. I’d give Klinkhamer, a former mayor of St Charles, the edge on that one. Between her regional transportation work, her work in DC lobbying for the City of Chicago, and her stint as Bill Foster’s in-district director, she’s got a lot of contacts and a lot of support throughout the county and beyond.

Either way, nice to see Dem interest in stopping either Chris Lauzen or Kevn Burns continuing the Republican stranglehold on Kane County government – with Elgin and Aurora in the mix, Kane is far from a solidly red county.

Klinkhamer tells me she plans to “test the system” and run an unconventional race…can’t wait to see how that plays out.

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Occupy the Globe

by , posted on Friday, October 7th, 2011 at 12:02 pm

The Occupy Wall Street movement is spreading beyond U.S. borders. I saw a few references to Canadian occupy events earlier this week, but this morning I saw this story on CNN.

It includes references to Occupy events – some of them long-term occupations, some planned as solidarity marches on October 15 – in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth in Australia, London, Hong Kong, Beunos Aires, Madrid, Dublin, unspecified city/cities in Italy. And that’s just in this story.

I can’t find a reference to global events specifically on the Occupy Together website, but could be I’m just missing it. They do say on their website today that there are now Occupy meetups in 890 cities.

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Occupy Chicago

by , posted on Wednesday, October 5th, 2011 at 11:09 am

I’ve been watching the Occupy Wall Street movement for only about the last two weeks or so. While that’s admittedly a long time in their brief history I have to admit I spent much of it shaking my head at their lack of organization or indeed any clear articulation of what it is exactly that they are protesting. I thought the generalized messiness of it meant it was doomed to end “not with a bang but a whimper.”

I’ve changed my mind.

To me, it’s starting to have the feel a movement that has staying power. And I don’t think that’s least because they managed to get 700 people arrested in one day on the Brooklyn Bridge – but I’ll get back to that, because I think it may hold a lesson for the organizers of Occupy Chicago and this post is dedicated to them.

But first I want to get back to the two main reasons I initially conciously discounted this movement: disorganization and lack of clearly stated mission. And I want to acknowledge and address what I am now beginning to suspect was an unconscious objection: the youth and inexperience of those involved in this movement.

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Klinkhamer for which office?

by , posted on Friday, August 26th, 2011 at 12:02 pm

I kept hearing persistent rumors to the effect that former Bill Foster staffer Sue Klinkhamer would once again be running for Mayor in St Charles, a post she held for a term before going to work for the City of Chicago, and from there to a position as Bill Foster’s IL-14 District Director. So this morning I did some digging.

I couldn’t find anyone who would definitely confirm or deny the rumor that Klinkhamer is getting ready to run against current St Charles Mayor Don DeWitte – closest I got to it was an individual close to Sue who gave it as their opinion that it would be “a real step backwards” for Klinkhamer.

But what I did hear – and this from no less than four individuals so close to Klinkhamer that I have trouble disbelieving any of them, much less all four of them – is that she is by far more likely to run for Kane County Board Chair.

Meh. There is no reason she can’t do both – the Kane County Board Chair election is in 2012, and the next St Charles Mayoral election is in 2013. In fact Kevin Burns, current Mayor of Geneva, is hedging his bets in just this manner – running for County Board Chair in 2012, with his next Geneva mayoral election in 2013 in reserve if he loses.

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WI Recall: The Day After

by , posted on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 8:50 pm

My Dad was fond of that old cliche that “close only counts in horseshoes” and I have to admit that last night’s attempt to recall at least three Scott Walker Republicans yesterday, in order for Democrats to take control of the state senate struck me as that way. 2. Close, but it doesn’t count. Only it does in that it’s going to be a lot harder for Scott Walker to get reallly insane legislation through. And it’s a gain of territory.

And of course, today is not just the day after the Wisconsin recall, it’s the day the Wisconsin Democratic Party turns the bulk of its efforts to defending the two Democratic seats that are subjects of attempted Repub recalls. And after that, why it’s Scott Walker’s turn.

You can still volunteer to help.

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WI Recall: Busy this Afternoon? Too Busy for This?

by , posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 at 12:10 pm

Then how about this evening?

Wisconsin recall elections are happening today and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America have set up a website where you can volunteer to help get out the vote right from the comfort of your own home.

They provide the numbers and the script.

The next call shift is this afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. CDT. If you can’t call this afternoon there will be a last shift from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. CDT (polls close in Wisconsin at 8:00 p.m CDT.)

C’mon, you know you want to change the world – it’s really very easy – just click on this handy link and volunteer now. You’ll feel much better in the morning.

Solidarity!

UPDATE: I just found out about this site (that’s another handly link for you) belonging to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. You can make calls through this site too, and it has a handy rundown of the races.

UPDATE: Polls are closed, results will be available online here at the Journal Sentinel

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WTF S&P? Shock Doctrine? Inside Job? Both?

by , posted on Monday, August 8th, 2011 at 12:48 pm

So today S&P downgraded the credit ratings of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the mortgage giants which were taken over by the feds in 2008 after the mortgage disaster/scandal/swindling-of-American-homeowners-and-investors in which S&P was a co-conspirator. I realize some people are going to have a big problem with me describing S&P as a “co-conspirator” but hey, facts are facts: look it up.

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