Digital Ink Los Angeles

According to the venerable web-lopedia Wikipedia:

The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City.

In the aftermath of the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the US military and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with Labor as a top political priority.

Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike.

US employers cut 216,000 jobs in August, pushing the unemployment rate up to 9.7%, a 26-year high, official figures show.

Unemployment in California is now above 11%, and this figure would be much higher if not for the largest penitentiary population in the United States. Total U.S. unemployment stands at 14.9 million.

This Labor Day, celebrate your job, if you have one, stay out of prison, and please give to Jerry’s Kids.

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Administrator 00s, 21st Century Culture, New America, New Economy, Social Responsibility California, change, Congress, economy, employment, Jerry's Kids, job, labor, Labor Day, New America, New Economy, Obama, progress, social, unemployment

Martin Luther King, Jr., had a dream, and it wasn’t that we would all have equality under the laws and resources of health-care. But, he might have had some ideas for the frivolous rhetoric surrounding the attempted implementation of health-care reform.

It’s been 46 years — to the day — since MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which challenged similar opposition to the Civil Rights Movement of his time.

Citizens think that an endowment of freedom is similar to the value of their insurance — even though the health-insurance industry and health-care system are antiquated, fruitless institutions. Don’t take what these citizens have, because fear dictates a hoarding effect and vehement defense of their nearly useless insurance. Even health-care co-ops would be a better, cheaper alternative to current health-care malfeasance and impotence.

Reality is that the great U.S. of A. CAN’T AFFORD to maintain the status quo.

With banks continuing to sputter and stall, a debt-laden Chinese relationship, and the rocketing price of health-care, a managed, regulated, and reformed health-care system is necessary. Just like Civil Rights was necessary, though many opposed it at the time. Ironically, many of these same folks don’t speak of this opposition to Civil Rights, but find new glory in the raucous Town Hall Meetings politicians have been hosting during Congress’s August recess.

Dreams of Civil Rights. Hope for Health-Care Reform. Progress with an emerging New America. And the Reality of a bi-partisan battle that has less to do with health-care and a healthy economy than the liberal vs. conservative bickering that muddies the water and pisses on the party. Tea Party Patriots? Digital Ink declines any invite to myopic ignorance.

The following quote from the 2008 Nobel Prize-winning economist, Princeton professor, and New York Times‘ columnist Paul Krugman sums it all up:

“At this point, all that stands in the way of universal health care in America are the greed of the medical-industrial complex, the lies of the right-wing propaganda machine, and the gullibility of voters who believe those lies.”

What would MLK say? Speak to the truth of the matter, and remove strong-principled beliefs in partisan politics for rational perception of a much-needed change. In order to emerge as a stronger, leaner, healthier nation, Health-Care Reform is necessary, just like Civil Rights are necessary. Anyone want to argue that? Ask MLK, he’ll tell you about his dream.

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Administrator 60s, New America, New Economy, Social Responsibility change, Civil Rights, federal, GOOD, government, health, health-care, ideas, insurance, Martin Luther King, money, New America, politics, poverty, profits, progress, reform, social, vision

No doubting the fact New Orleans is mired in a real swamp. Nearing the four-year anniversary of Katrina, the city is still rebuilding, and a shrinking economy has made this growth as stagnant as Mississippi River mud at low tide.

Enter stage left, Benjamin Button, otherwise known as Brad Pitt, who makes a lucrative living as a movie star and make-believe sweetheart of a tough guy.

His Make It Right Foundation has managed to build 150 sustainable, hurricane-proof, energy-efficient and Frank-Gehry designed homes in the now infamous 9th Ward.

With the New Orleans mayoral race nearing, Pitt’s got a crew of supporters who like the carnivalesque behavior of mindless politics, with an eye for wresting control of the Crescent City’s maddened political atmosphere and changing the face of NOLA politics as it currently exists.

This sounds great in theory, but what will it look like in practice? In considering an answer to this question, consider that Mayor Ray Nagin, the man-in-charge during Hurricane Katrina, has been worse for the City of New Orleans than anyone could have imagined.

Who could possibly be worse than Ray? Except Katrina.

Administrator 21st Century Culture, Movies and Cinema, New America, Social Responsibility Brad Pitt, change, city hall, courage, film, GOOD, hope, Louisiana, mayor, movies, New America, New Orleans, politics, rebuild, responsibility, social, spirit, strength

Stormy Daniels (born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on March 17, 1979), also known as Stormy Waters and simply Stormy, is an American pornographic actress, screenwriter(???), and director.

It seems that Stormy Daniels has some understanding of how to give the paying public what they need. In Louisiana, she wants to replace an incumbent Senator David Vitter, who’s been linked to prostitution through the so-called “D.C. Madam.”

According to the New Orleans Times Picayune: “Adult-film actress Stormy Daniels announced today that she is forming a committee to explore a potential campaign against Senator David Vitter, R-La.“

Why doesn’t this surprise me, and why am I not amused by the need for Louisiana politics to begin an evolution of self-identity. Let’s free Edwin Edwards and get Stormy and the ex-governor to throw some really fun campaign parties!

Stormy Daniels - La. Senator

I can see it now — LSU cheerleaders, FBI-supplied cash, and a camera crew to capture it all on a new show titled, “Louisiana Politics Gone Wild!“

By the way, the recruitment process (action committee?) is centered around the website DraftStormy.com. Nothing to it but to do it…

Administrator 21st Century Culture, Art and Justice, New America change, culture, freedom, Louisiana, media, New America, New Orleans, New World, politics, pornography

George Holliday was a man with a video camera — how silly that sounds now, 17 years later. The voyeuristic world we live in — with the ubiquitous YouTube and HULU videos we’ve come to love — has really embraced the amateurish video of handheld consumer-camera reporting. On March 3, 1991, George Holliday focused his lens on a highway off-ramp outside his apartment near the intersection of Foothill Blvd and Osborne St. in Lake View Terrace, north Los Angeles — this is called “inverse surveillance“, when citizens are watching the police.

A little more than a year later, on April 29, 1992, the acquittal of Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Rolando Solano led to an onset of violence and mayhem that gripped the city of Los Angeles for nearly six days. At one point, LAPD Police Chief Darryl Gates called in the National Guard to protect the sprawling metropolis from complete destruction.

I remember sitting in my living room, watching the beating of Reginald Denny, thinking what’s really going on? I watched numerous businesses burn, some I saw actually torched by rioters. I saw cars driving by, loaded with stereo and computer equipment, looted from stores. Korean businessmen were targeted, and, from then after, owners were always carrying holstered handguns.

17 years later and Rodney King has been arrested for drugs and DUIs and entered rehab several times. His guilt on that fateful March evening has never been questioned, and his insults toward a female California Highway Patrol officer appear to be the real reason the LAPD officers unleashed their angry batons upon him. But, what’s really going on? What makes a metropolis erupt in burning anger and gluttonous thievery? The disparity between class structures? The seemingly disproportionate scales of justice? The lack of hope and available opportunity?

Barack Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America on the platform of “HOPE” and “CHANGE“, and a nation expects these broad social measures to be realized. The question is, have things really changed, and what can we expect the next “Social Upheaval” to look like? Some say the undercurrents point in a different direction, with those of privilege and wealth striking defiant, reactionary poses. Makes it all seem so much like the constancy of conflict is just what it is — good ole-fashioned free-market competitiveness. Until the batons start waving, fires start burning, and blood starts spilling. In the words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?“

As the economy bottoms out, the nation dusts itself off, and people begin to breath a sigh of relief from this global calamity, what are the currents of change going to bring? One can only hope it will be one of peace and leadership, instead of hate and vengeful mania.

Administrator New America, New Media, The New World change, hope, Los Angeles, Obama, police, race, riots, social

On January 8, 1959, Castro’s army rolled victoriously into Havana.

That’s more than 50 years of “El Jefe” and his rule.

The LA Times’s Tracy Wilkinson recently reported (link here) that Obama’s pledge to ease restrictions on travel to Cuba has already increased the flow of Americans to the island nation, raising questions about how much change in policy either nation can handle.

Hemingway treated it like his paradise.  Ry Cooder’s Buena Vista Club showcased it.

And the Italian-Jewish Mafia of late-20th century America lost it in a badly wagered bet for its soul.

Visit Cuba, and we will find out for ourselves.

Restore Cuba, and we can enhance its New World freedoms.

Administrator New America, New Economy, The Good Life, The New World 2009, Castro, change, Cuba, Gulf of Mexico, independence, Los Angeles Times, New America, Obama, travel

Heard a great analogy on NPR the other day — having to do with lunchtime trades completed on the playground.  That’s right — the playground.

With kids and their great imaginations, you know some kid had to think up something as creative as credit-default swaps, or amortized assets, or sub-prime mortgage securities.  Right?

Think of it this way.  A kid forgets his lunch, or, even better, never had a lunch to begin with.  No worries — just make up a tradable security that will ensure you lunches for a long time to come.

The kid announces, “I’ll offer a BIG piece of my mom’s delicious chocolate cake if someone gives me their cold-ham sandwich…”

Of course, one alert-minded kid responds, “Hey, dude, what chocolate cake?’

The forward-minded, industrious entrepreneur (See Bernie Madoff at Wiki) replies confidently, “Well, my mom loves to bake a HUGE CHOCOLATE CAKE at the end of the year, and I can offer you a slice — a BIG slice if you trade me your ham sandwich and a bag of potato chips…”

We know there’s one born every minute, so a normally shy kid who wants to show his moxie says, “Oh yea?  Well, you can have my tuna-on-rye and an apple if I get a nice, frosting-heavy slice of that cake.”

The young securities trader strikes a pose of thought, as he scans the playground for new trading opportunities, then says, “OK, but I can’t guarantee that the cake will be chocolate — after all, my mom likes to change her mind sometimes.”

The exchange is locked in with a handshake, and the young entrepreneur shuffles away, unwrapping his tuna sandwich with an apple bulging from his pocket.

Day after day, we hope for a better life.  What if that tuna sandwich is ALL THAT WE NEED?  Didn’t Aesop write a fable about a fox and some grapes.

By the way, I love chocolate cake, too.  As, I imagine, most people do.

Administrator New Economy, Wall Street change, economics, idealism, m$n$y, Madoff, New America, progress, scam, vision, Wall Street