ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Gee. It'll be totally different campaign with Mark Penn out. What took her so long. Can't they spin Hillary's new found anti-NAFTA stance while her chief campaign strategist is off trying to cut new NAFTA style trade deals?

Most of you probably have seen this - but if not, here is info from my email this morning from MoveOn.org:

"10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3

4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4

5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5

6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6

7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9

10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10"

I'm looking at the recent ojaiposts topics:
1. Approaching Spiritual Doom (Plus What To Do About It!)
2. An Enormous Mistake
3. Ventura County Star credibility at stake?

Other than elephants painting picassos, is there any positive news worth getting out of bed?

Stay in bed. Pull the covers over your head.

We'll wake you up when it's over!

saw the amazing The Diving Bell and the Butterfly yesterday afternoon in Ojai. it was a packed house - hopefully they'll run it again next weekend. incredible film. hope you can see it.

Thanks, Leslie, for reminding us to see this film!

My son Bo will be 40 years old tomorrow (April 8th). Yesterday he had a grand party!

Sunday was filled with great Ojai events! There was an "African Afternoon" at the Ojai Art Center --a photo reception and a lively talk on the accomplishments of Ojai's Global Resource Alliance in Tanzania.

I am kicking myself for not posting this event on the Ojai Post! There was singing and dancing and free tasty food. The photographs of Africa will be hanging in the gallery for a few weeks. Hope you can see them.

Dang! Have been so busy I also neglected to post the Ojai Retreat celebration held yesterday too!

El Al, not sure you'll like it as much as I, but the whole thing with the torch in London, Paris and tomorrow in San Francisco is so great. Like the protests of over 15 million people worldwide before the Illegal Iraq invasion in 2003, these spontaneous protests against China having the Olympics are very heartening. As usual the people are on the right side of history, if only we had an actual democracy. Let's wish the people of SF well in their bid to get the extinguish the torch tomorrow.

The only problem I have with these efforts, I am sure well deserved (I don't really know), to condemn China is that it really looks hypocritical on the world stage when we can't even take baby steps to clean up our own yard.

Kind of more of that "hey, look over there, not here" stuff.

China and every other despot justifies what they do by reference to George Bush. They can crush "separatist terrorists", because hey, we do. And they get to say, we don't torture, we don't have Gitmo, we don't indiscrimately bomb civilians, etc.

Now, if there is any place in the U.S. where we can do something like this, it has got to be San Francisco, the one major city that unequivocally condemns the war, condemns Bush and the Repugnicans, allows gay marriage, doesn't criminalize soft drugs, provides health care for its citizens, and generally shows the way.

Very cool that HRC is calling for Olympics boycott, yes spk?

curious: HRC is calling for an opening ceremony boycott by Dubya Bush.

Yes, the boycott of the Olympic Opening Ceremonies is really a half measure. I guess it would get a point across, but it seems weak. As to Clinton calling for a boycott of the opening ceremonies, I think it's an interesting move. Thought we have to remember it was during her years of "experience" in the White House that China was given most favored nation status despite its' despotic actions some 5 years earlier in Tiananmen Square. The primary beneficiary of this policy was WalMart, a company for which Mrs. Clinton used to be a board member. Against this background, her call for a boycott of just the opening ceremonies seems calculated at best.

Excellent assessment, spk.

From her Web site:

The violent clashes in Tibet and the failure of the Chinese government to use its full leverage with Sudan to stop the genocide in Darfur are opportunities for Presidential leadership. These events underscore why I believe the Bush administration has been wrong to downplay human rights in its policy towards China. At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government.

I encourage the Chinese to take advantage of this moment as an opportunity to live up to universal human aspirations of respect for human rights and unity, ideals that the Olympic games have come to represent.

Americans will stand strong in support of freedom of religious and political expression and human rights. Americans will also stand strong and root for the success of American athletes who have worked hard and earned the right to compete in the Olympic Games of 2008.

Cake and eating it too.

The real question is:

Does Hillary Clinton get to claim "experience" being in the White House AND disavow President Clinton's second biggest trade/foreign policy disaster? Admonishing Bush to have the anemic response of boycotting the opening ceremonies ONLY is a cop out. Talk about all talk.

The funny thing in that statement is how obviously calculated it is. I don't really think any of the candidates can address the issue of China's human rights record without first dissecting our own human rights record. Don't look for any of them to start doing that with any depth any time soon.

The thing about the torch protests that I like is the stark difference between the people of the "democratic" countries and their supposedly representative governments. That same stark difference can be seen between the people and the war, the economy, trade policy, and human rights abuses. The difference is so stark that I think the greatest graphic representation of this difference is the picture of Police in France running/skating with the Olympic Torch rather than athletes. Cops running with the Olympic Torch in jack boots and uniforms! The symbol for the spirit of sportsmanship and peace is being carried by paramilitary operatives. There's a political cartoon in there somewhere.

How close to a police state do you think SF is this morning along that route?

"There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down." - Buffalo Springfield