America Is A Senator Country

America Is A Senator Country

When you write a letter to your Senator trying to influence his or her vote on a certain issue of interest to you, you are acknowledging a vertical degree of separation between the two of you. The Senator has the power to influence the eventual outcome way more than you do. Hundreds of thousands of Hispanics have marched in immigration rallies all over America the past two years trying to influence the 100 individuals on Capitol Hill.

America, among the family of nations, is a Senator country by virtue of being its oldest and most vibrant democracy. Wealth has been a byproduct of that democracy, but wealth is a substantial attraction in its own right. That wealth has made possible a mighty military, film and education industries that impact all continents. But democracy is the mother lode. Democracy is the fountain.

Somewhere down the decades all countries will have transformed into becoming democracies. After that a democratic world government might take shape. And at that point America will still be important, perhaps the New York or California of the world, but it will no longer be the Senator country that it is today. But until then it is. It has to lead the world, it likes it or not. When it does not choose to, it is forced to. Ignored parts of the world rise up as security threats.

Imagine your Senator telling you, stop bugging me, why don't you go and vote the way you want to vote, why bug me! Imagine America telling the world, stop bugging me.

Spreading democracy is America's number one global goal. It has always been. Too bad every previous wave for democracy has been a result of big wars. Neocons are referring to that history whey they espouse a military way to spread democracy into the Arab world, democracy's newest frontier.

My contention is that if all the non military options are made the best use of, the military option becomes unnecessary. But you can not fight bad policy with no policy. You fight bad policy with an alternative, better policy.

Terrorism, Immigration

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have said those two are going to be major issues next fall. Both are to do with the world.

You can't send 12 million people back home. But you can legalize them, put them on a four year path to earned citizenship. And you can help them organize themselves to become the champions of political, economic, and social reform in their countries of reform.

Evrybody you need to spread democracy into all countries of the world are right here in New York City. I believe that.

Anti-War Left: Half Right

The antiwar movement is correct about being antiwar. But it misses the other half of the picture. It refuses to connect the dots. It refuses to invest itself in helping spread democracy the grassroots way.

A case study organization that I got to know after I moved to the city was DFNYC. It was amazing to me how much pride the organization took in its lack of interest in the Nepal democracy movement I was working on at the time. Another lame excuse I heard was that it was Democracy For New York City, not Democracy For The World.

The French Revolution And DFNYC

I would not have gone out of my way to single out the organization except that it is no different today. It was recently a co-sponsor of a major antiwar rally in downtown Manhattan. Iraq is not in New York City.

War On Terror = Cold War

The two are of similar magnitude. And the only way to conclude the War On Terror is by ensuring a total spread of democracy in the Arab world. The progressives can agree on those two counts.

And then we part ways. We say the neocon way of spreading democracy - military invasion - is wrong, expensive, and counterproductive. There is a progressive way, a nonviolent way, a grassroots way, Nepal's magical April Revolution 2006 way.

The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal

Arab World, Africa, China, Russia

The Arab world is a major one. And Africa is related. And there are parts of Asia too that are not there yet. Burma was recently in news. China and Russia are two big ones that are complicated.

America, China

I believe the two have to meet half way. America needs total campaign finance reform. China needs pluralism. Otherwise China needs to get into the business of teaching all poor countries how to achieve double digit growth rates year in year out for decades.

I have been thinking, China loans so much money to Bush at 5% or so. Should it not instead focus on the idea of universal and lifelong credit for its own 700 million poor? Maybe at 7%? If it were to do that, I believe it could achieve a 15% growth rate.

Education, Health, Credit: Universal And Lifelong

China could also become a lender to the countries in the Global South. Chinese FDI into all poor countries, now that is an idea.

India, China

China just gave birth to the world's first trillion dollar company in PetroChina. There is much talk of this being the Asian Century. Both India and China are seeing near double digit growth rates.

But the average Indian is hungry, the average Chinese is poor. India has the largest middle class in the world, and the top 100 million Chinese perhaps will compete with the top 100 million people anywhere. But even when China becomes a larger economy than the US, as is expected in a few decades, the per capital income will still be less than 25% of that in the US.

Take away India and China and the world would have been in a recession right now after the Katrina in the US finance industry. Global economic growth truly is a win-win situation. It is good news for America that India was not going to be a country of subsistence farmers forever.



Debate Watch Party Thursday

Leah E Kozak Today at 11:37am Tuesday

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to send a quick email about the debate watching party with Drinking Liberally this Thursday night:

Debate Watching Party with Drinking Liberally!

You are invited to the Democratic Debate Watching Party hosted by Drinking Liberally. As the primaries near, the debates become more critical and exciting. There is only one more debate after this one.

Join us for a fun evening of debate watching and stimulating discussion with our Drinking Liberally friends.

Where: The Irish Rogue (13 plasma tv's!!)
356 West 44th St.

When: Thurs, Nov 15 @ 7:30

All are welcome!!

In The News

Pakistan Detains Bhutto in Bid to Stop Protest March New York Times
Environmental Disaster Unfolding in Russia New York Times at least 11 ships, including a small oil tanker, sank or broke apart in a fierce storm ...... 30,000 seabirds were covered with oil and would probably die ...... the heavy fuel oil also settled onto the seabed, surely destroying marine habitat and killing fish. ...... 18-foot waves ..... 1,300 tons of heavy, viscous oil — the equivalent of 560,000 gallons ..... the Russian practice of using river tankers, like Volganeft-139, on the open sea in rough weather. ........ laws requiring double-hulled tankers were introduced in the United States after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989. ....... Oil spills from pipelines on land are common in Russia. The country, the world’s second largest oil exporting nation after Saudi Arabia, maintains a vast terrestrial pipeline network tying Siberian fields with refineries as far away as Poland.
Carla Marinucci: Obama's team oozes optimism San Francisco Chronicle a conference call with California reporters Monday in preparation for the senator's visit this week to the state. ...... heads to the Golden State for a two-day stop ...... Obama riding high, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in choppy seas and Team Edwards taking on water. ...... we see Nevada as more of a Clinton-Obama contest ...... Clinton's campaign in California -- which has been heavy on endorsements and organization -- is more "grasstops" than "grassroots," while the Illinois senator has "a campaign of inspiration and not obligation."
Campaign: Obama little known to many voters San Francisco Chronicle People may know Sen. Obama's name, but they don't know much beneath that ...... When voters get more exposure to the Illinois senator, his popularity increases ....... "a poll question where she is the one they know the best, so they default to her ....... Obama is returning to California this week, where he is scheduled to attend a San Francisco rally and meet with Google Inc. employees Wednesday. ...... She "needs to win each and every state or her candidacy will be in severe jeopardy."
Hillary Clinton Thinks Iowans Are Stupid Yahoo! News
Obama Gobbles Down Mouse _ Made of Candy The Associated Press Obama plucked the mouse off the plate, dangled it by its tail and devoured it in one bite — to the applause of workers at the gourmet chocolate company that crafted the critter. ..... "This poor little mouse," he said, holding up the candy for the cameras. "This is the end of him."
Obama hears from working women in NH WCAX supporting working women is a lot like supporting preventative health care. ... lack of support early on ends up costing more later. ..... One mother told Obama she thinks parenting is the hardest job to do - maybe besides being president.
That Clinton Boy Defends His Wife and Raises Eyebrows New York Times Mr. Clinton, who is broadly popular with Democratic primary voters, has been colorfully coming to his wife’s defense since the debate. ...... Southern vernacular from an Arkansas native.
Clinton Says ‘Boys’ Are Tough on His Wife New York Times
Russia, India to join in moon mission AFP
Yen rising 'too fast' - Japanese PM Forbes
Can WiMax make it in the US? CNET News.com
US: No OPEC promise to raise output BusinessWeek
New Dell PowerEdge Servers Outperform Competition WELT ONLINE
Italy Moves to Tighten Soccer Security and Control Fans After Riots New York Times
Drama for US women's soccer team continues with coaching search USA Today
Ronaldo still hopes to play in 2010 World Cup Xinhua
Google's Android parts ways with Java industry group CNET News.com Google's development of its own core Java virtual machine (JVM) technology called Dalvik ...... "When we bring it to higher-performance devices, it's just going to scream."
Google's Android aims at desktop-grade mobile apps InfoWorld Android wants to put Linux and Java desktop power in mobile developers' hands. Can Google remake mobile application development against the grain of powerful, entrenched competitors? ....... Midlets, applications built to the MIDP (mobile information device profile), run just about anywhere. ...... Google, whose future depends on a pervasive cross-platform mobile applications model -- Google Maps and Talk are examples of applications that could not be done as so-called "Web 2.0" apps -- has an obvious need to create a cross-platform mobile SDK for its own use. Some mobile device manufacturers and wireless operators have realized the benefits that gathering around a cross-device, cross-vendor, cross-operator mobile platform would bring to their customers and bottom lines. ........ Android's mission is so astonishingly broad that it will likely take years before it is realized in a handset. Mobile developers have been waiting for eons for a unified platform, and if Android finds form in a physical device, it could turn mobile software on its ear. ......... Without the promise of riches to spur the Alliance into fast action, the Open Handset Alliance will plod along at the sorry pace of the mobile industry as a whole, where progress is measured in decades. ....... while the world of technology is planted thick with alliances and consortia, they can amount to little more than bet-hedging; if some wild idea happens to take off, it's wise not to be last in line.
Intel's transistor redesign ushers in 'new era' of technology Computerworld To make the jump from 65 nanometer to 45 nanometer processor technology ..... trading polysilicon for a metal gate and using hafnium oxide as an insulator ........ will extend Moore's Law by another 10 years ...... the new transistor design is one of the most significant technological advances in the past several decades ...... going from 90nm to 65nm and now to 45nm ....... Intel has refused to say what the metal gate is made up of. ..... 820 million of these transistors. .... in 1971, it held a little more than 2,000 transistors.
Mayor’s Offer of Mediator in Theater Strike Goes Nowhere New York Times

US gives visa to 'terrorist' Maoist MP from Nepal Times of India
Giuliani sticks with big-state strategy Boston Globe
Pope will pass on Boston, visit New York and DC instead Boston Globe
Commonwealth threatens Pakistan with suspension Reuters
Yepsen: Obama's Superb Speech Could Catapult His Bid ABC News five of them gave very good speeches. ..... Barack Obama's was excellent. It was one of the best of his campaign. ...... The passion he showed should help him close the gap on Hillary Clinton by tipping some undecided caucusgoers his way. ...... His oratory was moving, and he successfully contrasted himself with the others — especially Clinton — without being snide or nasty about it. ...... the Iowa party's "JJ" dinner ....... The charge that they brought in outsiders was denied by the Obama people, who were nevertheless pleased they beat the other candidates in the noise war inside Veterans Memorial Auditorium. ........ while all did quite well, Obama was particularly impressive. Should he come from behind to win the Iowa caucuses, Saturday's dinner will be remembered as one of the turning points in his campaign here ....... problems that George Bush made far worse and that festered long before George Bush took office ....... the need for school reform, merit pay negotiated with teachers' unions, more efficient cars or money to rebuild the military. ....... "When I am the nominee of this party, the Republican nominee will not be able to say I voted for the war in Iraq, or that I gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran, or that I support Bush-Cheney policies of not talking to leaders that we don't like." ........ Obama also did something else he rarely does: He invoked Martin Luther King Jr. and adopted the cadence and uplifting touches of a traditional black preacher's sermon. ....... the hour it was given and the poor timing. He didn't start until after 11 p.m. and was the last one to speak — after most of the crowd had been sitting for four hours. ........ For a lover of political oratory, it was a little like listening to a long Beethoven symphony while having some kid play a Tonette between movements.
Kurds on Edge in Turkey Combined Jewish Philantropies
Obama stands out in night of speeches Seattle Times Clinton gave a strong speech at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner late Saturday. But Obama, criticized for occasional lackluster performances, delivered one of his most focused and powerful addresses. ...... emerged as the oratorical winner at the biggest Democratic political event in Iowa before the state's January caucuses. ...... a new Democratic majority capable of breaking the gridlock and polarization that have plagued Washington for a decade or more. ....... Obama and Clinton, the final two speakers ...... "I am running for president because I am sick and tired of Democrats thinking the only way to look tough on national security is by talking and acting and voting like George Bush Republicans." ...... Before the Saturday dinner, Barbara and Mike Donnelly hadn't been certain which candidate to support in the Democratic caucuses. They left with colorful glow necklaces, handed out by Obama's campaign. "We just think he's a very strong character," said Barbara Donnelly. Obama's speech "crystallized it for me," said Mike Donnelly.
Starting Gate: Obama Wows 'Em In Iowa CBS News
GOP support for Obama Concord Monitor He is the only Democratic candidate with support from Democrats, independents and Republicans. .... He had more votes than Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Sam Brownback combined. Recently in New Hampshire, 68 Republicans announced that they had changed their party affiliation to vote for Obama in the primary. ..... at Obama events in Oklahoma, Kentucky, Virginia and Georgia, 20 percent of audiences have raised their hands when emcees ask for Republicans in the crowd. A "Republicans for Obama" website has 11 state chapters
Google Options Make Masseuse a Multimillionaire Bonnie Brown was fresh from a nasty divorce in 1999, living with her sister and uncertain of her future. On a lark, she answered an ad for an in-house masseuse at Google, then a Silicon Valley start-up with 40 employees. She was offered the part-time job, which started out at $450 a week but included a pile of Google stock options that she figured might never be worth a penny. .... has written a book, still unpublished, “Giigle: How I Got Lucky Massaging Google.” ...... it is estimated that 1,000 people each have more than $5 million worth of Google shares ...... a very rare phenomenon when one company so quickly becomes worth so much money ...... Google has seemed to exist in its own microclimate, with its shares climbing ....... the stock has risen more than 44 percent, or $203 a share, this year. ....... Nearly half of the 16,000 employees now at Google have been there for a year or less ....... The number of options granted to new employees at Google usually depends on the position and the salary level at which the employee is hired ....... 685 shares at a price of roughly $475 a share. ..... The wealth generated by options is giving a lot of people like Ms. Brown the freedom to leave and do whatever they like. ...... Ron Garret, an engineer who was Google’s 104th employee, worked there for a little more than a year, leaving in 2001. When he eventually sold all his stock, he became a venture capitalist and a philanthropist. He has also become a documentary filmmaker and is currently chronicling homelessness in Santa Monica, Calif.
Link by Link: Will Success, or All That Money From Google, Spoil Firefox? the little browser that could ..... 15 to 20 percent of the browser market worldwide and higher percentages in Europe and among technology devotees ........ three times as many users as Apple’s Safari. ....... Mozilla “the first corporate open-source project.” ...... tens of millions of dollars in royalties from search engine companies that want prominent placement on the browser ........ $74 million in assets, the bulk invested in mutual funds and the like, and last year it collected $66 million in revenue. Eighty-five percent of that revenue came from a single source — Google ........ paid the corporation’s chief executive, Mitchell Baker, more than $500,000 in salary and benefits. ....... Microsoft, for structural reasons, could not show the enthusiasm Firefox developers have. ....... “I take the view that we are doing something fundamentally important, and as that becomes clear, there could be other entrants.” She added: “Google is on everyone’s mind, but it could come from China, who knows?” ..... “We’re living in a cold war between open and closed systems ..... “No one is surprised that Turkey would get aid from the U.S. during the cold war.”
Cellphone Straitjacket Is Inspiring a Rebellion tussle might undermine the control incumbent companies have over mobile phone consumers .... build a network free from carrier constraint. ...... whether the wireless network should be open, much like the Internet is today ...... the battle of the overdogs ...... software developers would not prosper unless phone companies were less greedy. ...... venture capitalists and technologists are better at whipping up interest in sexy new technologies. “Silicon Valley has done a good job in telling the world what a wonderful nirvana the Internet is,” he said. “But 90 percent of the sites aren’t profitable.” ...... the phone feels more like property
Intel to Unveil Chips for Improving Video Quality on the Web the chips’ increased computing power would begin the transformation of today’s stuttering and blurry videos ..... high-resolution, full-screen quality that will begin to compete with the living room HDTV. ..... Intel’s new family, made up of 16 processors, would first be used in servers and high-end desktops that compress the video. ...... increasing computing performance while reducing power consumption. ....... squeeze up to 820 million transistors onto a single silicon die. The company is making the chips at two factories, in Oregon and Arizona. Next year, it will add two plants, in Israel and New Mexico. ...... the new instructions would make possible a new generation of servers that enhance the compression of digital video ....... “Video is becoming ubiquitous on the Web”
Is a Flying Car About to Take Off? a small airplane that can land, fold up its wings and drive down the highway. ....... in the process of building a prototype of The Transition, a 19-foot, two-seater the company describes as a roadable light-sport aircraft. ...... anticipated price of US$148,000 ........ a sky filled with people who don't have pilot's licenses could be problematic. ....... about 6,000 public airports in the U.S., and most people are, on average, within 20 miles of one ........ advanced orders for 30 to 50 Transitions already.
Al Gore, Venture Capitalist a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm that invested early in Google, Netscape and Amazon.com. Mr. Gore will play a high-profile role in the firm’s “clean tech” investment efforts ...... last year earmarked $100 million of its $600 million investment fund to startups that work on reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The firm expects to dedicate one-third of new funding to clean tech by 2009. ...... the two spent so much time together during the 1990s that a jokester created “Gore and Doerr 2004″ buttons ........ “What we are going to have to put in place is a combination of the Manhattan Project, the Apollo project, and the Marshall Plan, and scale it globally,” Mr. Gore told Fortune.
A Weekend of Skirmishing for Obama and Clinton New York Times accusing her of running a “poll-driven campaign” that avoided tough questions ...... The dinner featured dueling exchanges between the two that nearly eclipsed speeches by other presidential candidates who focused largely on attacking President Bush. ....... thousands of Iowans who either sat in rapt attention or responded in extravagantly orchestrated displays of cheers, signs and chants ..... led “not by polls but by principle, not by calculation but by conviction.” ..... her references to Mr. Obama were some of her most direct attacks on him and reflected the strength that Mr. Obama was showing in polls in this state
Foes say Clinton ducks hardballs Chicago Tribune
Clinton's 'planted' questions: Edwards compares her to Bush; she ... USA Today
Flags Fall Around Clinton CBS News
Clinton faces tougher attacks within party Baltimore Sun
Iowa Voters Could Balk at Clinton Campaign Question-Planting Incident FOX News News this weekend of a planted question at a Hillary Clinton campaign event in April, and a possible second attempted question plant at another event just last week, might be leaving voters with a bad taste in their mouths. ..... Clinton says she was not aware of the incident until news reports of the matter surfaced. ... it could be a problem for Clinton in Iowa, where voters are more sensitive to political tactics. ....... the stain of Clinton's incidents could go deeper. ...... "Rarely has there been as packaged and protected a presidential candidate as Hillary Clinton. God forbid there should ever be any spontaneity, lest she switch positions again on driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants," Sabato said in an e-mail conversation with FOXNews.com ......... a sense that Clinton is heavily handled and isolated by consultants and staffers. That naturally makes people suspicious, causing them to ask, ‘What does she really think? What would she really do as President?' ....... Clinton is uncomfortable with dynamic situations. ...... how they are going to deal with unpredictable, dynamic situations that they can't control. And what Hillary Clinton has shown us is that even in a friendly audience, she's too afraid to hear unprepared questions
Clinton Addresses Planted Questions Flap CBS News "I mean if you actually want to be president of the United States, you go out, you face people–which I've done–in every one of the 99 counties in Iowa and answer their questions," said Edwards. "We don't stage questions. We go in and answer the questions that are asked, and that's the way it's supposed to work in the caucus process." ...... “Senator Clinton has taken hundreds of questions here in Iowa and across the country from voters and reporters, and she will continue to. What George Bush does is attack the Democrats and divide the country, and John Edwards’s campaign is resembling that more and more every day.”
Clinton faced 'canned' questions The Australian
BJP milestone in southern India BBC News Karnataka is a politically important state, and its capital, Bangalore, is the hub of India's booming IT industry.
Clifton Park: Former Congressman Charged With DWI New York Times
Yeddyurappa sworn-in - South India gets first BJP Chief Minister Mera Bilaspur
China's trade surplus surges to record The Age
NEWSMAKER-Maverick tycoon stirs Georgian politics Reuters Georgia's leaders are reeling from the biggest challenge yet to their power, and the driving force behind it is a moustachioed multi-millionaire wanted in Russia on fraud charges. ...... Georgia's richest man .... galvanised a series of protests against President Mikhail Saakashvili this month that ended with police closing down the tycoon's television station ...... his colourful biography. .... his friendship with Boris Berezovsky, the Russian tycoon who wielded huge political influence in the 1990s and now lives in self-imposed exile in London. ..... made his fortune in Russia during the chaotic period after the Soviet Union folded when state property was being sold at bargain prices in rushed privatisations. ....... Many Georgians say in private he cannot win high office because he is Jewish in a country where voters like their leaders to belong to the majority Christian Orthodox faith.
Washington envisions a Pakistan beyond Musharraf Christian Science Monitor "Musharraf has blinded Washington over and over again with a mastery of blackmail, but in the two areas we worry most about – nuclear proliferation and Islamist extremism – there are alternatives that are just as good, if not better." ......... Captivated by Pakistan's status as a nuclear power, linchpin in the US-led war on terror, and the presumed home of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the US has treated the military leader as if he were the last stand before nuclear Armageddon or a new triumph for Islamist extremism .......... Gen. Ashfak Kayani as military chief .... "more than 54 years of US policy of blindly supporting Pakistan's dictators."
Big B sees ten-fold surge in stock market wealth Economic Times Amitabh Bachchan has seen his stock market wealth grow over ten-fold in just about two-and-half years. .... Bachchan currently holds shares worth over Rs 23 crore in a company promoted by his friend and politician Amar Singh, from Rs 2.3 crore at the end of June 2005 quarter when he purchased these shares. ..... probably the only listed company in India where Bachchan holds shares. ....... more than tripled in the past one month. The company's market cap has grown to over Rs 600 crore, representing about five-fold jump in a year. ...... Bachchan is also an executive director on the company's board, while Singh is an executive chairman.
One Laptop Per Me CNET News.com
Pay For Two XO Laptops, Give One Away InformationWeek
‘Bee’ Bumps ‘Gangster’ New York Times