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Comments Posted By nellie

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All Wired Up and Nowhere To Go

This is my big axe and I could grind it all day.

I no longer get my news from any of the newspapers. Even McClatchy is letting us down these days. It seems our news can be reduced to four categories:

1) What somebody says. Okay so, maybe sometimes somebody says something that actually changes the world. But it’s really rare. These days, the news reports running piss offs between various high profile people. Useless.

2) Crime reports. Interesting, like a train wreck. But these events affect a very few people. And usually the news value is looky loo only.

3) Opinion. The worst of the lot. Great for blogging. Great for analysis. But dangerous. Because opinion can pass for facts and evidence and investigation. Which it does a lot of these days.

4) Celebrity gossip. “Celebrities can include news anchors, movie actors, politicians. It’s news about peccadilloes and triumphs and one upsmanships. It’s useless. I don’t need to know anything more about Gov Sanford than that he was AWOL.

So these days I get my news from the Cabinet websites. And I know a lot about what’s going on w TARP, the ARRA, health care, business, the military, and just about anything else I’m interested in. Add to that the congressional legislation watch website, and I’m set. I rarely see anything on news sites that I haven’t found in my resource sites. Unless it’s an item from 1), 2), 3), or 4).

» Posted By nellie On September 3, 2009 @ 7:02 pm

Obama to Joint Session of Congress Sept 9

Aw thanks. I feel the same!

» Posted By nellie On September 3, 2009 @ 11:24 am

Hi Kalima. It’s good to see you, too! Hope all is well.

After eight years of Bush, a lot of people are still very angry — with good reason — and some of that is spilling over to this president. But we also have to remember that he wasn’t elected without a lot of help, and he won’t get his agenda passed without a lot of help. He needs even more support now because he has a whole congress pushing back against his agenda — not just one political opponent. I don’t see that his agenda has changed or that his values have changed. But I do see the effects of a very well financed opposition. And a perpetually hostile media.

» Posted By nellie On September 3, 2009 @ 9:16 am

I guess I’m one of the few people around who isn’t disappointed in this president. After 30 years of GOP or GOP lite, I’m glad to see a progressive agenda handled with some finesse. I’m still waiting for Mr. Obama to get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, but otherwise, I haven’t seen anything to make me impatient with how things are going. I’m convinced health care will pass. And I’m pretty sure the public option will be a key feature of any health care legislation.

I’m looking forward to the speech. And I’ll make some phone calls afterward. That’s what really gets congress to move.

» Posted By nellie On September 3, 2009 @ 4:05 am

The Case of the Abandoned Shopping Carts

Personally, I love seeing abandoned shopping carts. It means two things: 1) the person didn’t drive to the grocery store. Instead, they walked, giving themselves a little exercise and giving our environment a break. Also giving a raspberry to the oil industry. 2) The guy they hire to go around the neighborhood and retrieve shopping carts is still employed, boosting our economy, as well as the employee’s bank account and self esteem.

On a good day, I am one of those people who leaves a shopping cart on the sidewalk. And it will be right in front of my house.

» Posted By nellie On September 3, 2009 @ 3:52 am

The Many Ways to Fight for Real Universal Healthcare Reform

Thanks, KQuark. It’s very helpful. I was hearing the other day that one of the most important things we can do is sign petitions so that congress members have proof of the broad support for health care reform and the public option in particular. There’s not much more I can do in terms of calling my reps (which I have done). Surprise of surprise, Jane Harman SUPPORTS this reform and has made a strong statement in favor of the public option. Battlin Barbara Boxer is one of my Senators, and she’s always with the public .And DiFi just doesn’t care what her constituents tell her!

So I’m left with signing petitions, joining a march, if there is one, sending emails to the White House. This list gives me good direction.

» Posted By nellie On September 15, 2009 @ 8:09 am

Those Were the Wet Old Days

The water industry is already a violent one. Coca Cola is a good example, boycotting for murders at bottling plants in Columbia and now for stealing water in India.

I agree. This will be our next oil industry, and it’s already starting. Bottled water becomes more and more expensive while tap water is increasingly rationed when draughts are prolonged. Any essential commodity that can be made scarce, can be made profitable. It will be interesting to see whether the water industry stands in the way of technologies such as desalinization, water transport, or even more advanced purification in order to protect its own profits.

» Posted By nellie On September 3, 2009 @ 4:22 am

That’s excellent, Kalima. This kind of home conservation should become commonplace — conserve water from the bath or from the kitchen for watering lawns. Desalinization and small scale water purification technologies are probably in our not-to-distant future.

» Posted By nellie On September 3, 2009 @ 4:12 am