cygo

Guide to Cooperative Games for Social Change

cygonaut — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:05:57 EDT

The Freechild Project announces the release of the "Guide to Cooperative Games for Social Change," a revised version of "So, You Wanna Be a Playa?"

This introductory guide offers more than 30 activities for youth people, teachers, youth workers, counselors, parents, and anyone who wants to have FUN with meaning! The guide includes descriptions, hints, facilitator notes, and more for icebreakers, initiatives, "funners," and closing games.

The "Guide to Cooperative Games for Social Change" is available FREE online.

Learn more at

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Audit: Bush reading program beset by mismanagement

cygonaut — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 00:54:57 EDT

An internal review of Bush's reading program says the Education Department ignored the law to steer money how it wanted.

The government audit suggests the department broke the law by trying to dictate which curriculum schools must use.

It says review panels were stacked with people who shared the director's views, and in which only favored publishers of reading curricula could get money.

In one e-mail, the director told a staff member to come down hard on a company he didn't support, according to the report.

"They are trying to crash our party and we need to beat the (expletive) out of them in front of all the other would-be party crashers who are standing on the front lawn waiting to see how we welcome these dirtbags," the program director wrote, the report says.

...

The audit found the department:

-- Botched the way it picked a panel to review grant applications, raising questions over whether grants were approved as the law requires.
-- Screened grant reviewers for conflicts of interest, but then failed to identify six who had a clear conflict based on their industry connections.
-- Did not let states see the comments of experts who reviewed their applications.
-- Required states to meet conditions that weren't part of the law.
-- Tried to downplay elements of the law it didn't like when working with states.

The report does not name Doherty, referring to him as the Reading First director.

It says he repeatedly used his influence to steer money toward states that used a reading approach he favored, called Direct Instruction, or DI. In one case, the report says, he was told a review panel was stacked with people who backed that program.

...

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Truth and love

cygonaut — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 18:04:17 EDT

Remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall â€" think of it, ALWAYS.
â€" Mahatma Gandhi

Liberal evangelicals begin campaign

cygonaut — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 16:38:43 EDT

Liberal evangelicals, weary of a Republican-centric image, launched a campaign Monday to promote Christian values beyond the issues of abortion and same-sex marriage.

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Reaching Military Families — Via Print

cygonaut — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 16:30:36 EDT

For political leaders, interest groups, and editors, the print media offer an extraordinary opportunity to communicate with tens of millions of Americans in military families or in military communities â€" especially with a historic election approaching.

[ Click link to read Brent Budowsky’s idea on how Democrats can win more votes in November by reaching out to military families ]

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DFA Night School

cygonaut — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 06:07:35 EDT

(From Arshad Hasan, Training Director, Democracy for America)

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DFA Night School is back in a big way! The fall semester will teach you the advanced skills you need in order to get voters to the polls this November. Participating is easy, fun, and free!

Over 1,600 activists have signed up for the first lesson, Framing the Election with George Lakoff. It will be held via a toll-free national conference call on Tuesday evening, Sept. 19 at 8:30 PM Eastern. I'm sure many of you know UC-Berkeley professor George Lakoff, author of "Don't Think of an Elephant" and more recently "Whose Freedom?" When you're standing at a voter's doorstep, or you're phonebanking voters through a call list, how do you really persuade them to get out and vote for your candidate? We'll answer that and teach you how to develop a message that will sway voters at the deepest levels. RSVP to Tuesday night's lesson now:

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We'll be holding a DFA Night School lesson every Tuesday evening for the next four weeks. These lessons are conducted through a toll-free national conference call, and you'll be asked to follow along with a slideshow which we'll post on the day of the Night School.

The Fall Semester will be focused on empowering you with the skills needed to win in November. All lessons start at 8:30 PM Eastern time. Here's the full schedule. You can click on each title to RSVP:

--Framing the Election on September 19 -- As I mentioned above, Professor George Lakoff will teach you how to apply framing to persuade voters and get out the vote.
--Winning with Social Networks on September 26 -- Karen Hicks, who directed Howard Dean's innovative House Meeting program during the 2004 New Hampshire primary, will train you in the power of social networking -- and how it can help your community before and after Election Day.
--Voting Early, Voting Easily & Voting Safely on October 3 -- Deb Markowitz, Vermont's Secretary of State, will advise you on early voting, voting by mail and absentee balloting and the necessity of delivering the vote for your candidates and campaigns well before November 7.
--Getting Out The Vote on October 10 -- Robby Mook, a veteran of local, state and presidential GOTV operations and one of the Democratic Party's most dynamic trainers, will help you put the final touches on your Get Out The Vote plans.
If you've missed the past spring and summer sessions of Night School, you can still get the DVD version of the lessons:

Link

I hope that you can join us!

Arshad Hasan
Training Director
Democracy for America

Don't Vote for George Allen

cygonaut — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:15:40 EDT

Turns out, George Allen is not just a racist, he's a compulsive boot licker. Perhaps even a potential cyanide popper.

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Virginia Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb said Sunday that President Bush's terror-detainee legislation would weaken the Geneva Conventions and potentially subject captured U.S. soldiers to torture.

"We have to stay on the moral high ground," Webb said during a debate with his opponent, Republican Sen. George Allen, on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Allen said he has not decided whether to back Bush's plan to detain, question and prosecute suspected terrorists or another measure supported by Republican Sen. John Warner, Virginia's senior senator.

The president's measure would allow classified evidence to be withheld from defendants in terror trials and use coerced testimony.

The legislation also would revise the law that interprets the nation's obligations under the Geneva Conventions, the treaty that sets the standard for treatment of war prisoners, so that harsh interrogations of detainees would not be questioned in court.

The Senate bill requires a judge to dismiss charges if evidence cannot be shared and excludes any testimony obtained by cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

"I don't want to stop these interrogations. I'm not for torture, I'm not for waterboarding. But some of these techniques have been very helpful to us, whether they are sleep deprivation or whether it's loud music," Allen said.

"I need to be absolutely certain that what the interrogators are doing now -- which is completely fine as far as I'm concerned -- will not be harmed," Allen said.

Allen, who last year voted with the White House 96 percent of the time, said he needs more facts before making a decision and hopes to be "a bridge" between the rival GOP plans.

Webb said he sided with fellow war veterans -- Warner, Republican Sen. John McCain and former secretary of state Colin Powell -- on the issue.

Powell put himself at odds with Bush last week when he wrote in a letter to McCain: "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism."

In siding with his fellow combat veterans, Webb, a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, sharpened their differences with Allen, who has no military experience, and Bush, who served stateside in the National Guard during Vietnam.

"What you see here is a split between the theorists who have never been on a battlefield or never worn the uniform" and those who have, Webb told host Tim Russert.

Russert asked Webb about a 1979 Washingtonian magazine article, in which Webb wrote that women can't lead men in battle, and criticism from five female Naval Academy graduates who blasted Webb for it at an Allen-sponsored news conference last week.

Though Webb had issued a statement expressing regret, one of the women, Kathleen Murray, said it fell short of an apology. Russert asked Webb if a fuller apology was in order.

"I don't think it was wrong to participate in the debate at that time. It's been 27 years, it was a magazine article, and, if I may say, I am fully comfortable with the roles of women in the military today," Webb said.

Russert pressed Allen on why last month he called a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent "Macaca," considered a racist slight in some cultures.

"Tim, I made a mistake. I said things thoughtlessly. I've apologized for it, as well I should. But there was no racial or ethnic intent to slur anyone," Allen said.

When asked about his fondness for Confederate flags and other Old South icons, Allen said, "There are a lot of things I wish I had learned earlier in life."

"The Confederate flag -- as a kid, I was rebellious, antiestablishment, I still am. And I looked at the flag as a symbol of that."

Allen and Webb meet again Monday for a luncheon debate before the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce.

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The British are coming - to school in Manhattan

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 23:03:59 EDT

About 50 grade-school students arrived this week for classes at the new British International School of New York, the city's only school centered on Britain's national curriculum.

Dressed in red and gray uniforms, some of the children clung to their parents while others fearlessly marched into the building on a dreary, rainy day reminiscent of the weather in England.

Nine-year-old Max Bloch, who hails from Brighton, England, seemed unfazed by the first day of school and said he was looking forward to "math, literacy, whatever we do."

The curriculum at the school differs from traditional American approaches in several ways, said the school's headmaster, David Morse.

There will be far greater emphasis on world history and geography. English classes will tackle well-known British authors. Spelling will be in British style -- "colour" instead of "color" and sports will include a children's version of cricket, among other popular British pasttimes.

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The War Against the Middle Class

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 16:26:12 EDT

A cornerstone of the cons’ movement to consolidate power in the hands of a wealthy corporate elite is the campaign to end corporate income taxes altogether…quot; and leave the rest of us to pick up the entire tab for corporate use of our institutions and corporation despoliation of our commons.Corporations are taxed because they use public services; they are therefore expected to help pay for them…quot; sort of like the example in chapter 2 of the Hershey bar in the 7-Eleven store.Corporations make use of a workforce educated in public schools that are paid for with tax dollars. They use roads and highways paid for with tax dollars. They use water, sewer, power, and communications rights of way paid for and maintained with taxes. They demand the same protection from fire and police departments as everybody else, and they enjoy the benefits of national sovereignty and the stability provided by the military and institutions like the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the same as all residents of democratic nations.

In fact, corporations are heavier users of taxpayer-provided services and institutions than are average citizens. Taxes pay for our court systems, which are most heavily used by corporations to enforce contracts. Taxes pay for our Treasury Department and other government institutions that maintain a stable currency essential to corporate activity. Taxes pay for our regulation of corporate activity, from ensuring safety in the workplace and a pure food and drug supply to limiting toxic emissions in our air and water…

Because it’s well understood that corporations use our tax-funded institutions at least as heavily as citizens do, they’ve traditionally been taxed at similar rates. For example, the top corporate tax rate in the United States was 48 percent during the Carter administration, down from a peak of 53 percent during the Eisenhower and Kennedy years.

Today it stands at 35 percent despite a May 2001 suggestion by Bush administration Treasury secretary Paul O’Neill that there should be no corporate income tax whatsoever. This was the opening salvo in a very real war to have working people bear all the costs of the commons and of governance while the wealthy corporate elite derive most of its benefits.

In a feudal state, historian Ernest Bloch reminds us, “The nobles need not pay taxes.”

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Ann Richards

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 16:21:03 EDT

Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle

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Bush and the Geneva Conventions

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 16:13:02 EDT

The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.
â€" Carl Jung

Crazy ideas sometimes work

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:53:56 EDT

Otis Hensley had to duck to avoid tree branches as he rode a 12-foot-tall Fiberglas bull around the state Capitol.

The long-shot Kentucky gubernatorial candidate had attached signs to each side of the brown and white caricature declaring that, if elected, he would "control the bull in Frankfort."

In a thick central Appalachian drawl, Hensley, a demolition contractor, said he can't afford a television advertising campaign, so the outrageous political stunt was necessary to let voters know he is running for the Democratic nomination in next year's election.

And it worked. Television crews and newspaper reporters couldn't resist watching Hensley's ride.

Such stunts by underdog candidates have been a mainstay in American politics. Some have dressed in clown costumes, debated life-size cutouts of their opponents, auctioned themselves on eBay, paid election filing fees with coins, and sent campaign workers dressed as giant rats or chickens to the opposition's political events.

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Spacewalkers finish construction job

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:47:54 EDT

Space shuttle Atlantis' astronauts wrapped up the third and final spacewalk of their flight Friday, completing installation of a 17 1/2-ton piece of the international space station and doing some other fix-it jobs on the outside.

Astronauts Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper unpacked a radiator for the space station's new 240-foot solar arrays during the 6-hour, 41-minute spacewalk. The spacewalkers also gathered up a science experiment, replaced an antenna and took video of the space shuttle's heat shield.

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Warming expert: Only decade left to act in time

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:42:41 EDT

A leading U.S. climate researcher says the world has a 10-year window of opportunity to take decisive action on global warming and avert catastrophe.

NASA scientist James Hansen, widely considered the doyen of American climate researchers, said governments must adopt an alternative scenario to keep carbon dioxide emission growth in check and limit the increase in global temperatures to 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

“I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change ... no longer than a decade, at the most,” Hansen said Wednesday at the Climate Change Research Conference in California’s state capital.

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Kansas school district steps up student drug testing

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:39:07 EDT

Random drug testing of student athletes has become as routine as study hall and lunch at many high schools across the country. But this factory town outside Wichita is taking testing to the extreme.

It is instituting random drug screening for all middle and high school students participating in -- or even just attending -- any extracurricular activity. That includes sports, clubs, field trips, driver's education, even school plays.

Those who don't sign consent forms cannot attend games, go to school dances, join a club or so much as park their car on school property.

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Health Disparities Found to Follow Geographic Lines

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:35:38 EDT

Life expectancy varies dramatically in the U.S. based on race and geography--so much so that researchers have divided the country into "eight Americas"...

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Darfur Dead Much Higher than Commonly Reported

cygonaut — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:31:35 EDT

The number of dead in Darfur should be counted in the hundreds of thousands, not the tens of thousands that are often reported...

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Fuel from CO2?

cygonaut — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 18:37:16 EDT

Carbon dioxide is part of nearly everything humans do. It comes out of the tailpipes of our cars, the stacks from most of our power plants and the nostrils on the tail end of every breath we take. From a climate change perspective, of course, all this CO2 is a problem, given the greenhouse property of the gas. A variety of solutions have been proposed, including burying the stuff deep below the earth or sea or switching to fuels that do not lead to its emission, but now a scientist from Italy has offered another possibility: turn it back into fuel.

Chemist Gabriele Centi of the University of Messina in Italy uses solar energy gathered by a titanium dioxide film to ionize CO2 in its liquid form. Mixing this ionized liquid carbon dioxide with water, chemists can create longer carbon chains, much like photosynthesis in plants. In current tests the process can create some natural gas and methanol, but the number and type of carbon chains cannot be controlled.

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No Sunshine for Global Warming Skeptics

cygonaut — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 18:33:52 EDT

Known variations in the sun's total energy output cannot explain recent global warming, say researchers who have reviewed the existing evidence. The judgment, which appears in the September 14 Nature, casts doubt on the claims of some global warming skeptics who have argued that long-term changes in solar output, or luminosity, might be driving the current climate pattern.
The evidence for human-induced global warming is neatly captured in a plot of the planet's reconstructed temperature over the last 1,000 years. The temperature takes a dramatic upswing starting 100 years ago, creating the so-called hockey stick graph. A reasonable question is whether natural changes such as solar activity could have caused or contributed to the upturned blade of that stick, perhaps because the sun's luminosity varies widely over centuries or more. "The question is, were there times in the past when it was equally warm, and the answer is no," says Tom Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. He and three colleagues compared the average of a number of temperature reconstructions based on tree rings, ice cores and other data with models of Northern Hemisphere temperature that include different levels of solar variation, from little to a speculatively high amount. In all cases, "what you get out looks very much like the observations" from real samples, he says. "The warming [of the past 100 years] is greater than any in the last 1,000 years."

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Arctic sea ice shrinking faster, NASA finds

cygonaut — Sat, 16 Sep 2006 18:31:03 EDT

A pair of new studies shows that winter sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk dramatically in the past two years and that perennial ice in particular is disappearing.

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