The national media seems to have noticed that someone forgot to turn off the snow spigot in upstate New York.  It is interesting how with all the media coverage of the denizens of Oswego County, New York and their valiant struggle against what is now approaching six feet of snow fallen in less than a week, few seem to be discussing the elephant in the room -- climate change (or "global warming" as it is popularly known).

Two things:  (1) Large lake effect events in Oswego Co. are not unprecedented.  (2)  Everyone has been waiting for this event, "The Big One," for several years.  

It's been a while since I diary-posted here but all of the interesting discussion about online hate-words about women, women bloggers, women on the Internet, etc., make me want to finally post what may be seen as a controversial idea.

I think women, basically, have been trying to use the Internet in a very ineffective way.  In fact I think women who hang around the blogs, or have a blog of their own, could do worse than to adopt gender-neutral handles and to use the marvelous new "blind" medium of the Internet to their fullest advantage.

If the men who run these sites are pissing you off, then "disappear."  Make them GUESS about who the women are and what they want.  Why should women (and other minorities, for that matter) openly reveal their numbers when they don't have to, on the Internet?  Screw that, I say.  And in fact there may already be many many minorities online who are doing just that (and people assume they're white guys).

I actually did not set out to deliberately choose a gender-neutral handle, but it has been interesting to consider the advantages of one.  I have realized that my gender-neutral handle probably has helped me circumvent an unconscious bias that male (perhaps even female) readers have about what a woman has to say.  

So that's the perhaps controversial kernel of my proposition: That women and minorities should stop trying to be "accepted" by the big bloggers, and instead should use the peculiar advantages of the Internet -- it's a "blind" medium -- to their especial and subversive advantage in order to drive discussion of real-world issues to where they should be in this day and age.

Keep them guessing, ladies.  

This is probably going to be an unpopular diary, but here goes...

Isn't Bird Flu being hyped in the media the same way that WMD's were being hyped a few years ago?  That doesn't mean Bird Flu isn't a legitimate concern, but have we ever asked ourselves why the media is covering it so much?  It's because Bird Flu -- or the specter of any pandemic -- scares the rich and powerful.  And Bird Flu is the feared-pandemic of choice.

The truth is that AIDS, TB, malaria, heart disease and malnutrition are bigger health risks (even in our countries), but they aren't perceived as social risks, and therefore, of little consequence to the people who control our media.  A pandemic moves swiftly and silently and strikes the rich and the poor alike; for that reason, the imagined pandemic is suddenly very newsworthy.  

The rich can't hide from a pandemic.  Hence, it's become a major media issue.

Also... for the rest of us... isn't there a little bit of Rapture-hunting going on here too?  That is to say, isn't the Bird Flu obsession kind of along the same lines as Peak Oil and the housing bubble?  Everyone seems to be waiting for some big catastrophic thing to happen to change society and "clear away the corruption" - rather than actual organizing or collective social action.

Today is Veterans Day; also known as Armistice Day.  It is also the anniversary of a notable day in early U.S. history: the 211th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Canandaigua.

Americans tune out Native American history, I think, because a lot of it is so depressing.  We know what happened when Natives were pushed off their land, we know about the forked tongues, the racism and wars of extermination.  Why should we want to think about it?  Saying "what's done is done" blunts the depressing aspects, and distracts from the pressing need to outmaneuver each other politically over issues like casinos.

However, the Canandaigua treaty is a rare bright spot in the sad history of immigrant Americans and native Americans.   It was one of the first treaties with a sovereign nation entered into by the U.S. under its new Constitution.  This treaty negotiated here in upstate New York which is (in the opinion of many, and in my opinion) a living treaty, and one almost as old as our own Constitution; and so perhaps one of America's most important unsung documents.  

An unfortunate lesson that many people learn too late in their careers is that "who you know" is sometimes -- or often -- more important than "what you know." This lesson comes painfully, and often at just the wrong time, for people who aren't schmoozers by nature and who were raised to believe that if you work hard, remain loyal and play by the rules, you'll get ahead. We live in a society that pretends to be largely a meritocracy. About the only concession we make to the reality of schmoozing is what we tell college students: Network, network, network. Most ambitious students do this dutifully; but I'm not sure they understand why they must, or that they have to keep doing it, not just to initially get a job, but to survive on-the-job politics.

In the workplace, this isn't a reality we can easily escape. But it's also possible to get too cynical about it based on your experience in one environment. It is possible to be in a workplace where the veneer of meritocracy has completely broken down, and has been replaced by a great deal of excessive chumminess or even nepotism (sometimes in the name of very high goals). In such situations, there's not much you can do if you're on the thin end of the political stick except seek employment elsewhere, or "wait for the thud" from upstairs.

What can eat away at the stability of companies can also be seen eating away at governments. We are not so naive not to sense that our democracy, like meritocracy in the workplace, is more of an ideal than a bedrock principle. Replace "meritocracy" with "democracy," and then step back and take a look at what's happening to the Bush Administration (and what we know has been happening in Albany). The opposite, the enemy of democracy is not communism, socialism, terrorism or any particular religious worldview. The opposite of democracy is cronyism.

Suffolk County on Long Island is on the verge of passing a law to force big-box retailers like Wal-Mart, BJ's and K-Mart to contribute to their workers' health coverage. The vote, by the Republican-controlled county legislature, was 17 to 1.

Labor organizers have had retailers like Wal-Mart in their sights, accusing the company and other giant retailers of keeping wages low while not offering health insurance or requiring employees to pay large portions of the premiums. That forces many workers to turn to Medicaid or other county-funded programs in an already overburdened public health care system, said one of the bill's cosponsors, William J. Lindsay, a Democrat.

Paul J. Tonna, a Republican, said that as a result, "Wal-Mart has profited off the public sector to the tune of billions of dollars."

The operative word in this Republican-led decision is "Medicaid."  The county costs of New York's Medicaid program is a huge issue in state politics and a pet issue of conservatives in particular.  It is nice to see someone from New York, regardless of party, clearly articulating how companies like Wal-Mart are growing fat at taxpayers' expense.

[From the diaries by susanhu. So practical, FEMA could have written it.]

With the hurricane season not even quite half over, it's possible that another catastrophic storm might hit the Gulf Coast area.

From Ready.gov, below are some tips on survival:

Even if there was no Iraq war, even on the basis of his government's handling of this catastrophe alone, Bush should resign. And I sincerely hope that in the coming months, the American people call for his resignation. It would be the civilized thing to do.

His political capital is dwindling and is just about gone. Can you imagine three more years of this administration? Cheney would be preferable (even though we know Cheney has been pulling most of the strings anyway).

We can't bring these people back and we can't give them back their homes and we can't erase this suffering out of their memories, but we can at least -- finally -- demonstrate our sense of collective responsibility by holding our leadership responsible. To have a president resign is deeply embarrassing and indicative of failure... that failure has occurred. It is time for us to admit it to the world and set that admission into motion.

This is not about Bush, this is about us. He's got to go.

The (heartbreaking) spectacle of a major American city crippled, falling apart and now being virtually abandoned by the authorities is what really emboldens whatever terrorist enemies we have.  This sort of thing is what makes us vulnerable.  Looking at what is happening in New Orleans, what terrorist wouldn't feel encouraged to mount an actual strike on a major city?  We have no National Guard -- they're over in Iraq.  We have no leadership -- everyone is running around in circles, or on vacation.  If I were Osama Bin Laden (remember him?), I'd be rubbing my hands together and calling the boys over for a beer and a brainstorming session!

This needs to be shoved in the face -- HARD -- of anyone who dares mouth the platitudes about the war in Iraq making us safer.  An absolute and total lie, and now, a dangerous lie.

For all the talk about oil as America's most vital commodity, the fact is that there is one commodity that is far more valuable, one that people get far more hot and bothered over, and one which can't be piped in from Saudi Arabia.

And the fighting over America's huge supply of fresh water, the Great Lakes, has already started.  Today's New York Times details a "local" spat between the city of Waukesha and the state of Wisconsin over access rights to Lake Michigan water, but the national, and perhaps even international, implications are huge.  (And perhaps one day, political implications.)

In the last 25 years, ideas have been suggested to build a slurry pipe that would send Great Lakes water to help Wyoming mines and to build a 400-mile canal between the Missouri River in South Dakota and Lake Superior. New York City has raised the possibility of using Lake Erie water to ease droughts...

(More)

With fuel prices edging upward and upward as oil hits $61+ a barrel, some businesses are desperately seeking the path of least resistance for transporting their goods.  AP reports that the 180-year-old Erie Canal is being pressed into service again:

As a pair of large turbines made by General Electric make their way across the Erie Canal, state officials are hoping to see more commercial shipping on New York's canal system. A 90-foot tug is pushing a 300-foot barge carrying the two G-E turbines, one of them built in Schenectady. The cargo left the Port of Albany yesterday and is scheduled to reach Oswego by tomorrow. From there, a Canadian tug will take the load to a nuclear plant in Ontario, Canada. Other turbines are scheduled to be moved through the canal system in September and October.

The state Canal Corporation wants to encourage more commercial traffic with loads such as sand and hay. The agency says with rising oil costs, companies may opt to transport large cargo loads via the waterway because of the fuel efficiency.

Other businesses are finding similar alternative options:

Frustrated by highway congestion and a shortage of trucks, shippers are giving the inland waterways another look. Just last month, for instance, Sappi Fine Paper shipped a load of pulp bound for Europe via the Great Lakes out of the Port of Duluth. It was the first time anyone can remember pulp moving out of Duluth by that mode.Not just in recent times, but ever!

We assume that Americans will find a way out of their oil woes by embracing the latest and most modern energy technology.   This didn't happen with the Roman Empire: 500 years after its fall, its provinces had actually seemed to go backward.  In the absence of a strong central authority, the populace reverted back to "Whatever Works, Baby."

Signs of the times...

As was diaried here yesterday, New York's governor George Pataki has got it in his head to run for president, which would be a laughing matter if only there wasn't going to be real suffering behind it.  While his veto of New York's bipartisanly supported emergency contraception bill has been widely reported, less widely reported are the other forms of pain he is moving to inflict on New York's weaker, more struggling cities and constituencies, all in the name of burnishing his neocon credentials.

The most reprehensible aspect?  Since he's had no luck in making a dent in downstate interests -- supported as they are by a powerful Democratic machine -- his target s are upstate cities like Syracuse which have elected Republican moderates to the state legislature for decades.  First order of business:  vetoing $600 million in badly needed renovations to inner-city Syracuse schools, making shit up as he goes.

 Why is this important?  What does it mean in the big picture?

Congratulations to London and the U.K. for winning the right to host the 2012 Summer Olympics!

The U.K. deserves it, not having hosted an Olympic games since the 1940s or 50s (I forget which).  

(Originally posted at Liberal Street Fighter)

On this Fourth of July, I just wanted to pass along an interesting essay in today's New York Times about the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and their influence on the founding of our American form of democratic government.

The Iroquois confederation was governed by a constitution, the Great Law of Peace, which established the league's Great Council: 50 male royaneh (religious-political leaders), each representing one of the female-led clans of the alliance's nations. What was striking to the contemporary eye was that the 117 codicils of the Great Law were concerned as much with constraining the Great Council as with granting it authority. "Their whole civil policy was averse to the concentration of power in the hands of any single individual," explained Lewis Henry Morgan, a pioneering ethnographer of the Iroquois.

more on the flip...