Since our hosts haven't put an open thread up for a while, I'm taking the bull by the horns. I've got a couple items that individually aren't really worth diaries but collectively might interest some of you...
Like many Kossacks, I'm looking for a job, and not necessarily what I was doing last. It sounds like a lot of people are gainfully, happily employed here, so I'd like some feedback from you. What job field would you recommend to your fellow Kossacks? Or what area of study would you recommend to us?
Democracy for America, Howard Dean's activist reform Democratic organization, held Meetups in over 700 locations last night. Well, the one in Oakland at the Saysetha Restaurant blew the freaking roof off the place! We not only had 95 attendees in a restaurant that can seat 75 (the biggest Meetup ever at this location), but we also had two star guests: Oakland City Councilwoman Jane Brunner, and Dr. George Lakoff himself, who works just up the street at UC Berkeley. I almost didn't go to this one, but I am so glad I did now.
There's been some talk about the Democratic party providing more community and more services to its members. I think it's time for some action. I want to start a Kossacks Jobs Club.
I'd like to draw your attention to this interesting article, States of Flux, over at The American Prospect. Jared Bernstein talked to Michael Ettlinger at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), an economic thinktank dedicated to working class economic issues. The EPI was founded by a group of left-leaning economists, including former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich, a truly good guy.
Ettlinger argues that there are three big economic issues being fought at the state level, some with a remarkable degree of success...
If you are a reform-minded Dem in California, there is an important deadline tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day in many assembly districts (though not all) to qualify for voting at the CA Democratic Party's Assembly District Committees' re-organizational meetings in January. Why should you care about voting at these meetings? Well, I'm glad you asked...
The August employment report comes out this Friday. According to this AP story on today's consumer confidence report, economists are expecting it to say we gained 160,000 jobs in August. Of course we all know what a track record "these economists" have (who are these guys anyway?) - they predicted 150,000 jobs for last month, but were shocked by a truly craptacular report of 32,000 jobs.
I've seen a lot of comments about getting the UN in to monitor our elections. According to this SF Chron article from a few weeks ago, some legislators requested that the UN monitor our elections, but the UN has demurred:
This may be way too basic, but I'm sure there's a lot of political newbies on here, and I'm curious: do you know off the top of your head who your representative is and who your senators are?
[Editor's Note: I posted this over the weekend under a different title, but I think many people have not seen this article and may be under the mistaken impression that the UN could observe our elections. Changed title and re-arranged article quotes.]
Last Friday's SF Chron had a new article that actually names one of the reps requesting the UN observe our Nov. elections, and clarifies why we're not likely to get ANY oversight from the UN: SF Chron: Lawmakers ask UN to monitor elections.
This is from Juan Cole's excellent blog Informed Comment. A friend of his in Baghdad sent him this list of responses to the proverbial question: Why did the Iraqi chicken cross the road?
I know this has been written up before but I want to bring this up for more discussion. Gallup recently analyzed the approval ratings of all the presidents in office since Truman: Bush Ratings Show Historical Levels of Polarization.
There's an interesting story on Newsweek's website this week: Quitting Time, about how many people in the workforce are itching to leave their jobs because so many are not being treated well by their companies.
This is too rich: over at Prof. Brad DeLong's excellent economics blog, he posts an excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article on the BushCo's attempts to re-focus people on the economy. Yes, you read that correctly, they want people to pay more attention to all the ways they're getting screwed.
Many people have made the observation lately that Repubs are better at lying than Dems are at telling the truth. I would re-cast that to say that Republicans are better at SELLING lies than Democrats are at selling the truth. I have an idea why, and I think I know what we can do about it.
