The Devil's In the Details

The Devil's In the Details

The Dismissal of Romney - 1860 & 2011

"99 percent" - TONY B. CONSCIOUS

Live Today: Clinton Global Initiative America to Focus on Job Creation & Economic Growth

At 1pm today EDT, President Bill Clinton will open CGI America. More than 700 leaders from businesses, nonprofits, and all levels of government will participate in the two-day meeting, which is the first Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) event to focus EXCLUSIVELY on driving job creation and economic growth in the United States.

Twitter: Follow @ClintonGlobal http://twitter.com/clintonglobal for meeting news and highlights. The event hash-tag is #CGIAmerica.

Live Webcast: All CGI America plenary sessions will be webcast at http://live.cgiamerica.org/

Photos: Photos from the meeting will be available on CGI’s Flickr account at http://www.cgiamerica.org/flickr

Facebook: Highlights, news, and photos from CGI America will be shared on the CGI Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative

cgi_plenary on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

"The Honored Dead" by Joseph Braude

"The Honored Dead" by Joseph Braude comes out today. It's the true story of a man named Muhammad who lost his best friend, a homeless man in Casablanca named Ibrahim, to violent death and couldn’t go on until he learned the reasons why. The author's drawn into the mystery. As they draw closer to secrets behind the crime, assumptions about friendship and their own lives began to unravel.

The author's own words about his new book:

"I’d like to tell you about my new book, The Honored Dead.

It’s about a murder in the Arab world. It’s about the Arab detectives who cracked the case. It’s about why the murder happened, and why the police tried to cover it up. And it’s about the culture and politics of North Africa and the Middle East that formed the backdrop to the killing.

But at the heart of the book is the story of a man who lost his best friend and couldn’t go on with his life until he learned the reasons why.

I met him a few years ago when I was embedded, as a journalist, with a police precinct in an underclass section of Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco. I was there to get a street-level glimpse of an Arab security service and its strained relationship with the people it controls. Though the language and customs were different, in many ways what I found was much like life in the American inner city: poor families struggling to survive, young people trapped in a cycle of stark choices, and the global scourge of drugs and crime.

The remarkable man I met there is Muhammad Bari – unemployed, 57 or so, with a wife, eight kids, and some cats. Every morning after prayers in the local mosque, he used to meet up with his best friend, a homeless man named Ibrahim Dey. They would pass the time together in a rundown coffeehouse, watching Al-Jazeera and talking about anything and everything. One night, Ibrahim Dey was killed – beaten to death with a stick, in the warehouse where he had been sleeping for the past five years.

The cops told Bari it was a common homicide, a robbery gone wrong. They told me the same thing. But Bari didn’t believe it. He said he was sure there must be a dark conspiracy behind the crime, involving terrorists, drug cartels, or both. I wasn’t sure what to make of his theory at first, but something about Muhammad Bari and his sadness touched me deeply, whether what he believed made sense or not. Maybe I was moved because I had once lost my best friend too. Maybe I was ready to entertain the idea of a conspiracy because, back when I worked on counterterrorism cases for the FBI, I learned some dark secrets myself.

Muhammad Bari wanted to reinvestigate the crime, right under the noses of the Moroccan police, braving the authoritarian system he had learned to fear since he was a child. He felt it was the only way he could hope to regain his peace of mind, and the best way he could imagine to honor the memory of his friend. His plan was daring and revolutionary in a part of the world where state secrets are viciously guarded. It seemed like a sign that change might be stirring in North Africa.

Bari knew his plan would put him in jeopardy. He wanted me to help.

As we drew closer to the secret behind the crime, our assumptions about friendship and our own lives began to unravel."

~ Joseph Braude

Spring Flowers [Photo Slideshow]

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Camillus NY Memorial Day Parade [Slideshow]

Skaneateles, NY [my photo slideshow]

"Peace" by Sara Teasdale

Morning Meditation

artistic credit: Rural Colors, Music by Jannick Schou

Nicholas Kristof Speaks at Syracuse University, Warns of Likely Violence and Brutality in Sudan

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof was at Hendricks Chapel at Syracuse University last night to talk about some of the topics he has discussed in his book "Half the Sky", written with his wife and partner-in-journalism, Sheryl WuDunn.


He started his talk, much of it about weighty topics such as global poverty and the plight of exploited women around the world, with a light touch. Speaking about the contest he runs at the NY Times annually, choosing a college student to accompany him on his travels, the Harvard-educated, Rhodes scholar, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner said, "One thing you should realize is that, within the New York Times, behind my back, the story goes that First prize is one trip with me; Second prize is two trips with me. Be careful what you wish for."

The audience at Hendricks Chapel


He went on to talk about a brave nomadic woman who gave birth in the desert and developed a fistula, having been perceived as something evil and isolated from her fellow villagers, left to fend off hyenas and make her own way to a hospital where she was given care and an opportunity to eventually become a nurse and care for others.


He showed the audience a photo of a young woman named Long Pross, of whom he spoke glowingly as a heroine in a story of her enslavement in sex-trafficking in Cambodia and the gouging out of her eye by her captor when she would not cooperate with her own exploitation. Today she works with the Somaly Mam Foundation to raise awareness of a cruel and continuing modern-day slavery.




Mr. Kristof took a good number of questions, but the one in which Mr. Kristof's reply was most memorable for me was the one where an audience member, who'd met Mr. Kristof in Darfur, asked him to try to tie in the upcoming referendum in southern Sudan and how it might play into international politics.


This was Mr. Kristof's reply:

If you think about things around the world that may go badly wrong over the next six months or so, what might be the bloodiest war in 2011, it may very well be a bloody war between north and south Sudan.


The situation there is that north and south Sudan had a terrible war that went on for twenty years and ended in 2005 after two million deaths. Under the terms of a peace agreement, south Sudan was given a right to have a vote, a referendum to secede from the rest of Sudan.


That vote will happen on January 9, 2011.


It is overwhelmingly clear that southern Sudan will vote to secede. The problem is: it's hard to imagine the north will allow the south to leave, because the south has most of the country's oil, about 80% of the oil. So there is a fairly widespread expectation that, in one way or another, the north will block that vote, block that referendum, frustrate that, not let that happen, and that in that case the south will declare a declaration of independence and have renewed fighting.


If you think Darfur was bad [with 2 million dead], you could quickly have a level of killing and a level of brutality that makes Darfur look just like a prologue.


What has been so frustrating about this is that we've known, for years now, that this referendum was coming up. There are ways we could have worked internationally with other countries, and it's not just the United States' role, it was all countries that needed to do that.


And nobody really did.


I believe the Obama administration was not aggressive in holding Sudan's feet to the fire until very recently - until a month ago. About a month ago the administration got very, very active and has been doing a lot of last-minute diplomacy. I think that helps, but I'm afraid it may have been "too little, too late."


I think there are things we could do that would minimize the risk of war. They're going to have to involve working with other countries. I fear they're not going to happen and I fear there is going to be a really brutal new war in north and south Sudan in the coming months.

See: "Chronicle of a Genocide Foretold" by Nicholas Kristof - NY Times, Sept 29, 2010



* Mr. Kristof and Ms. WuDunn have also written two previous books, both about Asia: Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia and China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power.


Want to become active?


Half the Sky Movement - how to become involved


"How to Change the World" by Nicholas Kristof, NY Times, October 20, 2010



Groups in the Syracuse area:


- She's the First (at Facebook)


- She's The First (blog)


- Dining For Women (at Facebook)


- Dining For Women (Skaneateles Chapter)


- Dining For Women (Ithaca Chapter)

On An Autumn Afternoon [video]

Autumn is such a lovely time of year. I created this video today, using footage from a walk I took yesterday. ♥ Enjoy!

Film/Music Premiere: 33 Miners (Mision Cumplida Chile)

I put together this film with scenes from the Chile mine rescue, set to music created in honor of the event by Woodrow Williams.

An original song written by Woodrow Williams, dedicated to the 33 miners of Chile and the people who rescued them.

33 Miners (Mission Completed Chile) [English translation]
A song and poem by Woodrow Williams
Film by Jude Nagurney Camwell

33 miners lost underground
All hope lost in the Chilean town
Loved ones and members of their little town
would not give up until they were found

so they started to dig
until they were found

They dug and they dug
they hoped and they prayed
they found the miners
two months in the grave

then one by one they rose from the ground
spirits they raised - spirits around
and the world joined in and they helped where they could
spirits they rise for the better and good of mankind

33 miners lost underground
now join their families above the ground
and the world rejoices for the lives that they found
and everyone loves along with our small Chilean town.

_____________________

Robert C. Byrd Spoke With Clarity Through Fog of Post-9/11 Days

"Truth has a way of asserting itself
despite all attempts to obscure it."
~ Senator Robert C. Byrd

Senator Robert C. Byrd was one of my heroes in the dark days of post 9/11 Bush-led America. I chronicled his words as I blogged from day to day at Iddybud. I'm sad to hear he has passed away and wanted to share some of the lines of his that I heard clearly when so many of my leaders seemed to be speaking in vague, cowed whispers. Senator Byrd gave us far more than whispers. Thank you, Senator Byrd. May you rest in peace.



From "We Stand Passively Mute" - by US Senator Robert Byrd - Senate Floor Remarks on February 12, 2003:

"..To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences. On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war. Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war..."

"...war must always be a last resort, not a first choice. I truly must question the judgment of any President who can say that a massive unprovoked military attack on a nation which is over 50% children is "in the highest moral traditions of our country"..."



From The Truth Will Emerge - by US Senator Robert Byrd, Senate Floor Remarks - May 21, 2003:

"'Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again, - -
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers.'

"...Was the American public deliberately misled? Was the world?"

"...Democracy and Freedom cannot be force fed at the point of an occupier's gun. To think otherwise is folly. One has to stop and ponder. How could we have been so impossibly naive?"

"..I contend that, through it all, the people know. The American people unfortunately are used to political shading, spin, and the usual chicanery they hear from public officials. They patiently tolerate it up to a point. But there is a line. It may seem to be drawn in invisible ink for a time, but eventually it will appear in dark colors, tinged with anger. When it comes to shedding American blood - - when it comes to wreaking havoc on civilians, on innocent men, women, and children, callous dissembling is not acceptable. Nothing is worth that kind of lie - - not oil, not revenge, not reelection, not somebody's grand pipedream of a democratic domino theory.

And mark my words, the calculated intimidation which we see so often of late by the "powers that be" will only keep the loyal opposition quiet for just so long. Because eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall."


From "The Road to Coverup is the Road to Ruin" by Sen. Robert C. Byrd - US Senate Floor Remarks - June 24, 2003

My Note - Senator Byrd had a way with words. I loved the use of the word "massaged" in this part of Senator Byrd's speech. It was quite colorful. [Iddybud blog]

"..Whether or not intelligence reports were bent, stretched, or massaged to make Iraq look like an imminent threat to the United States, it is clear that the Administration's rhetoric played upon the well-founded fear of the American public about future acts of terrorism. But, upon close examination, many of these statements have nothing to do with intelligence, because they are at root just sound bites based on conjecture. They are designed to prey on public fear."


From A Nation with Questions - by Robert C. Byrd, September 29, 2003

"..The Bush Administration's single-minded focus on Iraq has ignored, in large respect, the terrorist threat that produced the attack of September 11, 2001."



From The Emperor Has No Clothes by US Senator Robert Byrd - Senate Floor Remarks on October 17, 2003:

"...the time has come for the sheep-like political correctness which has cowed members of this Senate to come to an end."



From - Senator Robert C. Byrd's remarks, delivered in the Senate on April 17, 2007:


"...I was quite surprised recently to hear some Senators take the position that this body is wasting its time in drafting and passing legislation which the president threatens to veto. Let me remind all who listen that the Congress legislates for the people, and has a Constitutional obligation to act independently from the White House. As Senators already know, there are three separate but equal branches of government.

The Constitution's Framers never considered a president to be the final arbiter of the public good. Whether the question relates to military, foreign, or domestic affairs a presidential veto threat is not the last word in what should become the law of our land. Those decisions are left to the representatives of the people, along with the power over the purse and other Constitutionally enumerated congressional powers.."

"Let the President issue his veto threats, but also let the Congress dutifully represent the will of the people."

"Members of Congress are elected to make laws based on sound public policy, not to capitulate to presidential threats. The Senate must never become a rubberstamp for any president."

"...members of Congress and officials of the Executive Branch have a duty to try to find common ground, especially when the issue is a violent and controversial war, with our troops in harms way every day. I shall hope for a more reasonable and more realistic tone from our President in the coming days. More light and less heat on this matter would truly be in the best interests of our troops and of our sorely divided country."



From Unprepared for Peace in Iraq - By Robert C. Byrd
Thursday, January 15, 2009 [Washington Post]: Also posted at: [Iddybud blog]

"...A hallmark of true leadership is the ability to admit when one is wrong and to learn from errors. Candidate George W. Bush spoke about the need for humility from a great and powerful nation. He said, "Let us reject the blinders of isolationism, just as we refuse the crown of empire. Let us not dominate others with our power -- or betray them with our indifference. And let us have an American foreign policy that reflects American character. The modesty of true strength. The humility of real greatness." It is time for the Bush administration to swallow its false pride and return to that philosophy of humility before it is too late."

RIP, Dennis Hopper (reciting Kipling)

The late Dennis Hopper when he appeared on "The Johnny Cash Show," September 30, 1970. As Mr. Hopper points out prior to the reading of the Rudyard Kipling poem, "If" is the middle word in life.



*tip of the hat to Fung-Lin Hall.

Iddybud's Connections [Pearltree]

Universal Child Annie Lennox

Momentary Prophets (video)

Iceland Volcano - Lightning (photo)

Photo: National Geographic

I'm A Social Justice Christian (video)