Bon Iver – Holocene

For what it’s worth, I have zero problem with people buying each other gifts or going out for a nice meal, if that’s what turns your crank. I have a major, major problem with yet another potentially sweet holiday being turned into a festival of misogyny and meanness.

Where does a 65-year-old geezer get the harebrained idea that he can walk a thousand miles with bunch of 20-to-30-somethings after training for ten days after four months sitting in front of the computer copying Tweets and recording livestream incidents in the comments of an FDL liveblog?

As I mentioned on Sunday, the Greek Parliament agreed to a bailout deal that exchanges funds from Europe for new austerity measures that will sink the economy even further. The measures effectively destroy labor law and decimate wages.

Tonight we have a special double feature. Co-directors Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman will discuss their Academy Award nominated film If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front for the first two-thirds of Movie Night before Sam leaves us, and in the final half hour we’ll delve into Racing Dreams, a look at three ‘tween NASCAR hopefuls during a season of the World Karting Association races, which Marshall directed.

I decided to join FDL’s Occupy Supply project after defending the OWS movement to some friends on Facebook. I figured if I felt so strongly about it, I’d better walk the talk. I also realized that my fair city was the site of the Republican National Convention this year, and I wanted to see Occupy Tampa survive to welcome them.

FOIA was passed by Congress in 1966 and implemented in 1967, and while it has been amended 3 times since, it remains a strong tool of transparency for the federal government, and one that many states have mimicked by passing similar laws. While the history of how and why this law came into being is a current area of academic research for me, the ability to effectively utilize FOIA to enhance accountability and transparency has become necessary.

The unclassified version of a report on the war in Afghanistan was finally published for public viewing last Friday. The report is by Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a seventeen-year Army veteran who just returned from his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. It asserts military leaders in Afghanistan have lost much of their integrity and have routinely distorted the truth of the war.

We know that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has rejected the new compromise policy on birth control access, and that the Republican leadership agrees with them. But does that mean they have a chance to shift policy legislatively? The chances of that took a severe blow today, when Maine Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins came out in favor of the Obama Administration’s new rules.

I had expected a much lower number at this point in time just due to attrition, cold weather and February sluggishness. The recent rash of crackdowns may actually have helped generate enthusiasm and support in places it was lagging. Even as Occupy Nashville and Newark get their eviction papers, Occupy Berkeley has tents up once again in Sproul Plaza. And Occupy Pocatello joins the list. As the big occupations get torn down, new ones spring up to take their place, while others regroup and re-occupy.