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Below are 20 journal entries, after skipping by the 20 most recent ones recorded in
owencenli's LiveJournal:
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| Thursday, March 6th, 2008 | | 3:13 pm |
| | Saturday, March 1st, 2008 | | 2:15 am |
| | Thursday, February 28th, 2008 | | 4:40 pm |
| | Sunday, February 24th, 2008 | | 4:52 am |
obama
i've turned into kind of an election junkie. a few thoughts about the race: obama has a tight organization- his ground operation seems to be the main reason why he won iowa, despite all the advantages clinton had and the fact that edwards never really stopped campaigning there. he's also got almost a million people donating to his campaign, mostly online - something no one thought possible pundits keep imagining that he changes his message in response to criticism (adding more substance, etc.) but his stump speech has been exactly the same for at least a month- the truth is that he has as much substance as any other candidate, but he also creates a space for people to project whatever they want onto him- his policy proposals are actually extremely mundane- axelrod et al have also proven especially prescient in messaging and strategy- they talked about delegate count long before the media started talking about it etc. and started inoculating against criticisms much more effectively than clinton, whose lack of adaptability makes her seem schizophrenic- axelrod anticipated the counter-messages long before the campaign took off- the results of new hampshire are still unexplained. the discrepancy in polling and returns was incredible, and not a fluke. it could have been the bradley effect, but if so, why has it disappeared? could it really have been clinton's last minute "how hard it's been" schtick? also, although some of obama's speechs' appeal have to do with cadence and pacing (he makes other candidates sound like robots), I'm convinced that a lot of it has to do with his deep baritone voice | | Friday, February 22nd, 2008 | | 1:25 am |
guest workers courageous struggle in new orleans
Letter from African American activists in solidarity with Mexican guest workers organizing against slave-like conditions Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Dear Friends, We are writing to ask you to contribute to a strike fund for thirty Mexican "guest workers" who are courageously organizing against the slave-like conditions in the strawberry fields of Amite, Louisiana. Their boss has seized their passports, is paying them sometimes as little as $2 an hour, and has threatened them with deportation if they stretch or use the bathroom. On Valentine's Day, workers walked off the fields to reclaim their dignity. In solidarity, a delegation of African Americans attempted to conduct a citizen's arrest of their boss, Charles "Bimbo" Relan, because he is violating the federal laws that define slavery, peonage, human trafficking, and servitude in the United States. We read him his rights, and told him he was violating the laws our ancestors fought for. Bimbo struck back: he was forced to return the passports but fired the workers and illegally evicted them. The workers are continuing their fight. And they need our support. The workers are members of the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, a Gulf-Coast wide organization led by guest workers who have arrived to work in horrific conditions after Hurricane Katrina. For coverage of the unfolding drama in Amite on Valentine's Day go to: http://www.wwltv.com/video/news-index.html?nvid=218183&she=1The thirty men come from the indigenous community of San Luis Potosin, in Mexico, to work for Bimbo's Best Produce, Inc. US trade agreements have destroyed their economy and forced these men to become cheap, exploitable workers. Recruiters in Mexico promised them the American dream, with one catch: they'd have to pay almost a thousand dollars in recruitement fees. They paid, and were brought to Amite, Louisiana on H2A visas in a bus that dropped them off at a Walmart in the middle of the night last winter. Then they found out that all the promises recruiters had made them were false: steady jobs, decent wages, good conditions - none of it was true. They realized they had been trafficked to the fields of Amite. Relan confiscated their passports to hold them in his fields. He forced them to work for sometimes as little as $2 an hour. Strawberries are back-breaking work - they men were bent down over bushes for hours. When they stopped to stretch, Bimbo yelled that he would deport them back to Mexico. They weren't given water, or allowed to use the bathroom. Under US law, these men can only work for Bimbo. Guest workers can only work for one employer. So they had a choice: work under slave-like conditions, or go back to Mexico to joblessness and poverty. So they decided to organize. The workers invited us to a meeting and described their conditions. We told them: as African Americans we recognize what you're describing, and we are with you. The next day the workers walked off the plantation to demand their dignity. We charged their boss with federal crimes. He returned their passports, but told them he would not change the working conditons. Just before midnight on Valentine's Day, the workers went on strike, refusing to return to the degrading treatment in his fields. The workers now need your support to continue in their struggle. In the coming days, they will pressure the FBI, the Department of Justice, and governments of the US and Mexico to take action. Bimbo, meanwhile, has fired them, evicted them, and intimidated them. The workers are now in hiding, in New Orleans. Please make a contribution to the strike fund we are organizing for these workers. You can make checks out to: National Immigration Law Center and can be mailed to: National Immigration Law Center, 3535 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2850 Los Angeles, CA, 90010. The Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity is a project of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice. For more information about the campaign you can contact Saket Soni, Director, New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice, at 504 881 6610. Thank you, Ted Quant, labor activist and teacher, New Orleans Damien Ramos, organizer in the homeless community, New Orleans Gerald Lenoir, Coordinator, Black Alliance for Just Immigration | | Saturday, February 16th, 2008 | | 4:09 am |
| | Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 | | 11:28 pm |
obama + criminal system
obama's started to make more public references to criminal system reform - he's been relatively liberal in the past, but has avoided being too clearly linked to progressive criminal reform positions- I'm curious about whether he'll be attacked as soft on crime at some point- also whether he'll have more of a backbone in criminal reform if he becomes pres., though I'm not counting on it- | | Friday, February 1st, 2008 | | 1:09 am |
tv shows
i'm totally stressed from work but managed to finish watching the first season of "madmen"- it's a tv show centering around a madison avenue advertising agency in the early 1960s- the last episode ends with JFK winning the presidency- the show is mostly a hypothesis about early 60s patriarchy, advertising and cultural norms. it borrows heavily from betty friedan - the most brilliant character is mrs. draper, a housewife to the main character. she may as well be an embodiment of the theses of the friedan's "the feminine mystique." the main character, donald draper, is sort of an embodiment of ayn rand's superman, and there are explicit references to atlas shrugged. he ultimately demonstrates the absurdity of rand's philosophy. the screenwriting has a funny mid-century coloring - sprinkled with catchphrases but good enough to make you want to read the beckett or miller plays. there are a lot of very nuanced characters and the series has enough brilliant moments to make it incredibly entertaining, almost arthouse. big thumbs up from me! | | Thursday, January 24th, 2008 | | 8:34 pm |
| | Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 | | 1:36 am |
working out
my 1.5 hour workout today: 20 minutes RUNNING on treadmill (possibly my lifetime record) 200 crunches on this machine which I'm not sure I'm using correctly 10 minutes looking at weight lifting machines that intimidated me and that I forgot how to use 10 more minutes running!! 150 crunches on this situp machine I'm even more convinced I don't know how to use another 10 minutes looking at weight lifting machines and briefly playing with one but not being able to remember how to use it swimming kind of sucks at this 24 hour fitness magic sport at high st. there's 3 lanes and you can only do two people per lane if both people do freestyle/backstroke and are careful. and the basketball court closes at 10pm. the mix of people i see when i go is very oakland - some young asian guys, a bunch of old asian dudes that spend the majority of their time in the jacuzzi, young latinos, young and middle-age blacks, a few older black dudes that mostly hang out in the jacuzzi and steam room, a few white people. i'm trying to get healther and whatnot. not sure if this is gonna last. the problem is eating healthy- i like large quantities of fatty meat | | Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 | | 12:59 am |
paying back loans
No matter how I write up my monthly budget, paying back my loans still takes approximately forever. It doesn't get me down or anything, it just makes it hard to figure out how much I should try to pay off each month. Does anyone have advice? | | Monday, January 14th, 2008 | | 9:51 am |
| | Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 | | 5:32 pm |
who is mike gravel?
98% Mike Gravel
98% Dennis Kucinich
80% John Edwards
76% Barack Obama
74% Joe Biden
73% Hillary Clinton
73% Chris Dodd
67% Bill Richardson
33% Rudy Giuliani
27% Ron Paul
23% John McCain
19% Mike Huckabee
18% Mitt Romney
11% Tom Tancredo
6% Fred Thompson
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz | | 5:25 pm |
| | Sunday, January 6th, 2008 | | 4:07 am |
the wire
fyi - the first two episodes of "the wire" season 5 have been leaked - you can download them as torrents | | Thursday, December 20th, 2007 | | 5:44 pm |
| | Sunday, December 16th, 2007 | | 3:57 am |
a child was born on the driveway in your late night birthday vomit. with bright tunnel alcoholic clarity it followed christmas colored traffic lights to the mormon temple on the hill. like a poser movie cliche it sped toward gyms, pensions and homemade dinners: the precarious brink of adulthood. | | Friday, September 28th, 2007 | | 1:57 pm |
| | Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 | | 1:50 pm |
| | Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 | | 11:45 pm |
IMPORTANT QUESTION FOR ALL FRIENDS IN BAY AREA
is there anyone else in the bay area who would sometimes want to go somewhere at 11:30pm on a weeknight out of restlessness, or to clear your head, or any other reason? and by somewhere i mean a diner, the ocean, a hill, or just some random direction in a car- i can't think of anyone in the bay i know who'd be down for that, but if i did, i'd totally call that person right now |
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