Today in the news

[annie90807]

Bush immigration chief Julie Myers resigns www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/06/dhs.myers.resignation/index.html
Myers was praised by many, under her leadership; ICE undertook more aggressive workplace enforcement of immigration laws which sometimes led to the separation of families. The agency was also criticized for providing inadequate health care to some detainees in its custody, and for sedating deportees, although that is now done only with a court order.
Myers resignation came after criticism for using bad judgment when she awarded a prize at an ICE Halloween costume party to a man in dreadlocks with tinted makeup on his face. www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/09/ice.costume.party/index.html

[Brian]

Every Sunday at 11 p.m. this year I've watched the "Meet the Press" rerun on MSNBC (and wondered what Tim Russert would be saying now). Tonight I was rewarded by another appearance by Doris Kearns Goodwin, who hung out with Lyndon Johnson at the end of his life to write his biography and recently published histories of Franklin Roosevelt's early presidency and Lincoln's "Team of Rivals."

She said Obama should heed the lessons of F.D.R. in 1933 and Johnson in 1964 and advance a progressive agenda.

Doris and her husband, Kennedy speechwriter Richard Goodwin, still embody the spirit of the early 1960's: "We've been in much worse times before. Take solace in the strength of this country."

There's a video on the "Meet the Press" homepage:

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/

[Brian]

I just heard on the Channel 5 news that activists were organizing a boycott of El Coyote Cafe after a contentious meeting with the owner, who's a Mormon and a supporter of Proposition 8. They also got a theater director fired after publicizing his $1000 donation to Yes on 8.

Now, I've joined economic boycotts like grapes and lettuce for the United Farm Workers and spent no money on that great day in May a couple years ago for Latino awareness. (When people shunned Carls Jr. because of Karcher's big contributions to anti-abortion groups -- well, I wasn't eating there anyway.)

But today's actions are something new. The only purpose they seem to serve is retribution.

This is not the way to win hearts and minds.

[Roberta]

Re El Coyote (where btw John and I held our wedding "no-researsal" dinner in 1980), read somewhere that they took back the "boycott" and called for communication/education instead.

[Brian]

I must say, we miss annie90807 and her eclectic mix of links!


So I skimmed through the special Obama section in Sunday's Los Angeles Times and was underwhelmed. It was an obvious attempt to package a souvenir for collectors (and advertisers) after people lined up outside the old Times Mirror building downtown to buy a copy of the Nov. 5 edition.

The pictures were nice and I spent five minutes enjoying the page of maps and graphs from electoral history. I'll admit that I didn't read much of stories themselves. Did I miss anything good?

Here's a shout out to Karen: Did you ever get your copy of the "It's Obama" Times? If not, I'll be glad to give you the one I saved.

[annie90807]

Hi Brian, I have not logged on for a while and may not be able to for a while. I am packing for my move to be home by Thanksgiving and I have a deadline at work. I will be reading the message board to know what is going on. Hope everyone made it through the fires. I love the picture!

Is there a way to have the last comment in a thread appear first instead of having to scroll down to page 2.

Here is an interesting story Documents say feds can track cell phones' locations without telecoms' help rawstory.com/news/2008/Documents_say_feds_can_track_cell_1117.html

Yearning for Nazi Germany? www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=75777§ionid=351020202

[Brian]

Hey, another reason I'm glad I don't have a cellphone! It never occurred to me there was a loophole in the old wiretapping laws.

Nov 18, 2008 6:48:48 GMT -8 annie90807 said:

Is there a way to have the last comment in a thread appear first instead of having to scroll down to page 2.

Roberta asked me the same thing. I can turn all the threads upside-down, so the latest posts appear on top. But I haven't done that because I think it will make the threads harder to follow, especially for new readers, and perhaps inhibit discussions and responses among the post writers.

Annie, have you tried the "25 most recent posts" link on the bottom of the homepage under Forum Statistics? There all the posts in every thread are displayed starting with the last one. I just increased the number from 10 to 25, which currently covers the past five days. And from there you can click on "reply" to post or on the title to navigate to the thread itself.

We're so glad to see you here -- and hope your move goes well!

[annie90807]

Banker Manipulation Of Gold And Silver Prices Further Exposed. www.prisonplanet.com/banker-manipulation-of-gold-and-silver-prices-further-exposed.html

Justice Department has agreed to pay for a private lawyer to defend former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. www.truthout.org/111908M

Army shreds files on dead soldiers tvnewslies.org/tvnl/index.php/news/military/5873-new-friendly-fire-coverup-army-shreds-files-on-dead-soldiers.html

Debate Flares Over Israel’s Access to American Secrets. tvnewslies.org/tvnl/index.php/news/international/5874-debate-flares-over-israels-access-to-american-secrets.html

[Brian]

What interesting links you find, Annie! I had no idea that the Daily Forward still existed -- let alone online That story is fascinating, groundbreaking and balanced. Good work.


Meanwhile, in today's news, I'm enjoying the recount in Minnesota and shedding no tears with or for Ted Stevens.

[Roberta]

Here's a letter from me to our local weekly, the CV Sun (2nd one down):

www.crescentavalleyonline.com/articles/2008/11/21/commentary/cco-letters1121.txt

The Sun is distributed free -- perhaps proving the old adage that you get what you pay for -- and their humor/local life columnist wrote way too much in support of Prop 8 before the election. I submitted a version of this before the election, but missed their deadline by a few hours, so I decided better late than never.