Dohiyi Mir

Walkabout

Pearl came home a few hours ago and after exploring her old new digs, took over her sister Gracey's favorite cozy spot in the laundry room.

Ericka has documented Pearl's courageous story...

ntodd

Sunday Assmussen

The only poll worth paying attention to™:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14.

Skyrocketing popularity!  A turnaround just as impressive as his predecessor's...

ntodd

Miraculous

Family life is.

ntodd

Saturday Familyblogging

Sam seems unconcerned about Pearl's Miraculous Imminent Return (her retrieval will take a day or two--long story).

ntodd

Friday In Bil'in: 249

On it goes:

The weekly demonstration, organized by the Bil’in Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, was centered on the recent endeavor of the Swedish government. Sweden, as president of the European Union, recently announced plans to discuss a draft for a Palestinian state, recognizing Jerusalem as its capital. The Popular Committee encourages the just effort and calls on other governments to support the initiative. Demonstrators marched from the center of Bil’in village, chanting slogans against the theft of Palestinian land and called for an end to Israel’s military occupation. People rallied especially as a response to the escalation of the Israeli authorities to resume an arrest and intimidation campaign against Bil’in protestors (which began on 23 June 2009).

There's nothing regimes fear more than nonviolent movements made up of regular people.

ntodd

Friday Catblogging

Gracey ate Sam, took over his boppy.

ntodd

As The Empire Dies

Sign the petition and check out 5 actions you can do in 5 minutes on Facebook. It's our job, make him do it!

ntodd

Also Sprach Zarathustra

Ericka pointed out this TAP article to me the other day and I've been meaning to address it, but we've been so exhausted that we can't muster much energy to blog about issues let alone be so actively engaged as we used to, and should be.  Anyway:

We rely on gay-rights groups to battle it out alone for marriage rights in Maine. We expect feminists to secure abortion rights in health-care reform legislation. We look to the NAACP to effectively respond to racist statements about Obama. And yes, those groups will work hard for those goals. But when they fall short, they are not the only ones to blame. It's fair to look at the entire progressive coalition and ask the hard questions about our movement: What's the use of having a community, a coalition, if you aren't going to fight for each other? Are we amplifying the voices of those whom we hope to empower or silencing them? Whose "greater good" are we really pursuing?

This immediately brought to mind Dr King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech, delivered exactly one year before his murder:

[A]s I have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns this query has often loomed large and loud: "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King?" "Why are you joining the voices of dissent?" "Peace and civil rights don't mix," they say. "Aren't you hurting the cause of your people," they ask? And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.

Liberalism's (or whatever's) strength is diversity, it's weakness can at times be the very lack of a monolithic political presence.  From where I sit, we enjoy that diversity in terms of tactical issues, but somehow the so-called movement doesn't really exist because we somehow fail to tie those components into a strategic vision. 

And of course we spend a lot of time arguing about tactics and strategies, and even dissing people who act because what they do don't fit our own particular template.  So the wheels spin and even when "in power" we haven't been able to achieve much tangible of late.

One thing I love about Code Pink is that it's not just an anti-war organization, but dedicated to comprehensive peace and social justice, and doesn't dick around (awful, sexist pun intended) debating the most perfectist action in lieu of, you know, acting.  So we have the diversity of issues and tactics, all tied together as we attempt to effect change in Afghanistan, Palestine and at home, working to end wars, protect women's rights and deliver health care.

Sadly, with Obama's announcement of another escalation in Afghanistan--which we all knew was coming because he promised during the campaign--there seems to be a lot cognitive dissonance in the ranks, further fracturing The Left and undermining our ability to end our immoral, unpopular wars.  As David Sirota noted on Twitter today, there are a good number of folks out there trotting out the same arguments we saw coming from BushCo apologists: those troops volunteered, we must support the POTUS, he has a (secret) plan to (eventually) end the war (oh, sorry, that was Nixon).

I guess it's unfair to say most of these people are Lefties, when they're really more or less just Democrats.  Absent a truly progressive and successful national third party, we are fundamentally left with center-left faux liberals to represent us.  And they will fall into the same partisan traps that Republicans do when their folks are in charge.

Changing that dynamic at the Federal level will take a lot of local work, which is where we hope to have Green Mountain Code Pink focus as we finally get our collective act together.  And I'm not just talking electoral politics: there are myriad great examples of local action against Obama's War and work on other critical issues.

The key is going to be building on these disparate efforts, tying various elements together into a more cohesive agenda and plan of action.

ntodd

First Day Of Advent

Daddy's discovery that Sam had a diaper integrity problem ended the photo session early.

Yeah so I'm posting on the Second Day of Advent, but we took this a few hours ago. Anywayz, we're just starting to play with photos for Xmas cards and this was the last of a couple dozen attempts. We'll try more in the daylight and probably in the evening before we settle on a shot.

And that's all I can muster at the moment. I've got some stuff to say about Obama's War, our fractured "progressive movement" and other such silly things, but that must needs wait until I've had what little sleep we can grab these days.

ntodd

Sunday Assmussen

The only poll worth paying attention to™:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 26% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15. This is the second straight day at -15, the lowest Approval Index rating yet measured for President Obama.

Heckuva job, Barry.

ntodd

When The Wind Blows Cold

It's snuggle time.

ntodd

Friday Dogblogging

Yes, we do still have dogs and I've been remiss in posting pics of them.

ntodd

Friday In Bil'in: 248

Happy Eid al-Adha:

Under the slogan, “Towards a Palestine free from settlements, the Wall, Apartheid roads, checkpoints and roadblocks, and for one united Palestine with no islands and cantons”, the residents of Bili’n gathered in a protest after the Friday prayer joined by international and Israeli activists. The protesters raised Palestinian flags and banners calling to hold on to Palestinian rights like Jerusalem, right of return, borders, access to water, the release of all detainees and removing the wall and settlements.

One of the representative leaders of Fatah, Mohammed al-Madaniy, and Leila Ghanam, the Governor of Ramallah and al-Bireh, joined the Bil’in residents in today’s demonstration.

A Greek group participated with the people in Bil’in to give their support.
...
The protesters marched towards the wall built on the land of Bili’n chanting and singing slogans to resist the occupation, hold on to the Palestinian rights, and a national unity among the Palestinians. When the demonstration reached the razor wire placed by Israeli soldiers to block the protesters, the Israeli army announced a closed military zone, but the protest kept moving towards the gate. The Israeli soldiers fired teargas canisters and stun grenades, dozens suffered teargas inhalation.

On the other side of Occupied Palestine, if you're interested in joining the Gaza Freedom March over the New Year, registration closes November 30.  And I'm still game to sponsor somebody to go: thus far I've donated to help send Lizzie and Kelly over there for the march, and I could spring for another "scholarship" (full or partial) if finances are holding you back.

ntodd

Separated At Birth?

We just got back a little while ago from NTodd's Pa's.  Ericka had another migraine come on early this AM and it abated a bit with some Excedrin Migraine, but returned with a vengeance so we headed home earlier than planned.  That said, it was a lovely Thanksgiving--one of the most relaxed and pleasant ever--and Sam finally got to meet Great Grammy.

GG noted that her great-grandson has some typical Pritsky features and reminds her of NTodd's Pa's Pa, Boris.  She also said, though, that his younger brother looked even more like Sam, and I think she's right, though that's not the only similarity.

A few turkeys ago NTodd's Pa's Ma gave me a picture of the family; last December NTodd's Pa gave me a couple of a little stinker who grew up to blog.  And through the magic of Photoshop:

On the right, Samuel Pritsky, 2009.  In the middle, Nathaniel Pritsky, 1970.  On the left...Samuel Pritsky, circa 1922.  We ain't triplets--and we're different ages in pictures of different quality taken at different angles and whatnot--but there is a family resemblance, da?

ntodd