It is still December 10 in parts of cyberspace, but pace World Hunger Year, every day is Human Rights Day.  Here is my version of an Economic Bill of Rights (more general than FDR's IMHO): 10 rights to match the 10 Amendments in the Bill of Rights, brief enough to fit on one line each.

Every person (including resident non-citizens, but not corporations) is entitled to these economic rights:

A JOB at a living wage those able to work
INCOME SECURITY - pension, disability, unemployment compensation, credit access
FOOD - adequate nutrition, free of contaminants
Affordable decent HOUSING in a safe and sustainable community
HEALTH CARE including preventive, acute and long term care
EDUCATION - pre-school through college, and lifelong adult education
CHILD CARE - for working parents, and the right to care at home for infants
LEISURE TIME - paid vacation and family leave, no forced overtime
SAFE WORKPLACE - free of hazards, discrimination and harassment
RIGHT TO ORGANIZE UNIONS - to secure and protect all of the above

My friend Dan asked me to post a link to an exclusive report on his blog,
http://www.albanyweblog.com/
about the seat opening up in NY-21 with the announced retirement of Mike McNulty at the end of his present term. The seat, based in Albany County, is as blue as the sky: the constituents are divided between old line machine Dems dating back to the Dan O'Connell/Erastus Corning era, now led by Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, and a growing progressive movement that defeated the machine to elect David Soares Albany County DA. McNulty, having reversed his position on Bush's Iraq war from kneejerk support to passionate opposition, has had support from both camps.

McNulty himself was elected by one man, one vote - that one man was Leo O'Brien, then head of the machine.  The incumbent, Sam Stratton, announced his decision not to seek re-election after the filing deadline for the Dem primary, so O'Brien simply appointed McNulty to be the Dem candidate, tantamount to election.  

Dan was hobnobbing with some of the prominent area progressive Dems  when the incumbent State Senator, Neil Breslin, told him "...If all goes well, I'm looking at an anouncement in two or three weeks."  

The GOP of late has displayed a negative midas touch  -  everything they touch turns to toxic waste.

Not just Iraq, they are on the wrong side - morally and politically - of every issue, from Social Security to fair trade to stem cells to media concentration to  the energy bill to Terry Schiavo to Katrina to deficits to inequality to SCHIP.

Immigration will cost them far more Hispanic votes than they could ever hope to pick up of nativists who aren't already with them. They have alienated independents, seniors and young voters.  Their pervasive corruption and hypocrisy tends to demoralize even the fundamentalists.

The ONLY thing that can save the repugs now is another attack on US soil. The Dems need to take a leaf from Rove's book and relentlessly attack the GOP on their STRENGTH, the national security/antiterrorism issue.

ENDLESS UNIVERSE: Beyond the Big Bang, by Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok

This 300-page book, published in May 2007, presents what may be the most important new theory in decades of the origin and fate of the Universe.  The authors, both eminent academics - Steinhardt is Albert Einstein Professor of Physics and Astrophysics at Princeton, Turok is Chair of Mathematical Physics at Cambridge - propose a Cyclic Universe model in which our Universe cycles endlessly from a Big Bang, expansion, and acceleration, to convergence with an invisible second Universe, leading to another Big Bang and another cosmic cycle.  

The book is clearly written; the science is explained on a level accessible to general readers willing to stretch their minds to encompass the Cosmos.  The authors narrate the development of their new theory through their personal experiences seeking to understand the Universe as they struggled with the challenges of the prevailing theories.

Ratzinger,
 he's the Pope - liberal Catholics mope,
 abandon hope.                           (1)
Such a right-winger
 threatens you, if you let women in,
 you’ll burn for sin!                    (2)

Pious words he will pour in your ear,
 Ex Cathedra’s what you need to fear.         (3)
For a pro-choice pol, you’ll get the finger,   (4)
 you can kiss the ring
 of Mr. Ratzinger.
Girly man  - beware of his Word of God -
 his line is hard!

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the Bush administration gagged government scientists to prevent them from explaining the connection between CO2 emissions, global warming, and the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes.  The corporate media scrupulously avoided even suggesting that their might be a connection between Katrina and human induced changes in climate.  But most of the public figured it out for themselves anyway.

The people had seen media reports of debate among experts; ordinary citizens tended to reserve judgment until the effects were visible.  In reality, the scientific debate on whether human releases of CO2 and other gases were changing the atmosphere and gradually heating the planet had been settled for many years.  The only real scientific debate was over details and rates - how fast the effects would become catastrophic for huge numbers of people and other living things.  But the systematic disinformation campaign by Big Oil and allied industries had been reported in the corporate media as if this propaganda had equal weight to the overwhelming consensus of independent scientists.

But as the effects of global overheating became impossible to ignore, voters recognized the need for change.

(To the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah*)

HAAAA-liburton!  HAAAA-liburton!
Halliburton! Halliburton!
Hal-li-i-bur-ur-ton!
(repeats)

For the Almighty Dollar reigneth!
Halliburton! Halliburton!
No-bid contracts! Halliburton!
The kingdoms of the  world
become the Empire of our George,
and of his Veep, and of his Veep!

And he’ll be paid for ever and eh-ever!
Thirty-four Mill!  For Retiring!**
What a pension! Halliburton!
The Prince of Pork,***  and Lord of Lard!
And He’ll be paid for ever and eh-ever!
Halliburton! Halliburton!
HAAAAL-LIIIII-BUUURRRRRR - TOONNNNNN!!!

The present campaign finance system amounts to legal bribery. Only monied interests can afford to pay to play. The majority of campaign money comes from less than 1% of the population. The big donors didn't get rich by wasting money - they know big contributions buy both access and ideologically sympathetic public officials. This generates legislation and public policy with an immense return on investment.

The same monied interests can afford the armies of Gucci-wearing K street lobbyists, outnumbering the lower priced, harder working lobbyists for all the progressive groups, even including organized labor, manyfold.

This system tilts the playing field on every issue, and excludes from elected office normal people who are neither rich nor have rich friends, unless they are exceptionally talented, charismatic and persistent.
To be truly democratic, campaigns should be fully financed by equal public funds for all qualified candidates. Private campaign contributions should be treated as bribery, even if the recipients don't use the money for personal consumption. Most pols (except for the occasional Cunningham) are not in it for the money, but for power and glory. Most congressmembers could make much more in the private sector.

Wednesday's story in the Albany Times-Union on John Sweeney's unreported junket to Saipan/CNMI, haven for sweatshops, could be the coup de grace for Congressman Kick-Ass. http://timesunion.com/...

ALBANY -- U.S. Rep. John Sweeney may have violated congressional ethics rules by failing to reveal who paid for a trip he took to a Pacific island with a lobbyist hired by convicted Washington influence peddler Jack Abramoff.

In January 2001, Sweeney traveled 8,000 miles to deliver a speech to the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory infamous for its garment sweatshops and prostitution trade. He traveled with Tony Rudy, who had just left the staff of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to work for Abramoff.

   

We should focus our attention on peacemaking, both immediate and sustainable. Once there is peace, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission can be set up to seek closure by delineating responsibility.

There is plenty of blame to go around -- Human Rights Watch has reported prima facie evidence of war crimes by both Hezbollah and Israel -- but blamecasting is part of the problem.  Each side waves the bloody shirt to stir people up for the next round of retaliation.