William S. Burnett

A close friend of mine who is among my close friends, despite -- of because of -- being old enough to be my grandfather, speaks on New York City Policy Department's surveillance of Muslim organizations.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/IvUV5YFu8NU

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Sunday, February 26, 2012 5:35:28 PM

Seeking honest answers to honest questions in the drumbeat to a war with Iran: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/reza-marashi/iran-war-hype_b_1299805.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

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God Won't Live in the Same House as the Devil

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 3:07:09 AM

gay youth

"God won't live in the same house with the devil." I agree. What I disagree with is where some think the devil lives.

I just watched this video in Alabama, United States, where a Christian witch doctor professed to exorcise gay demons out of people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLDC5Vaegyo

Those kids were shamed into "coming out" to a so-called "altar call". Now they're "outed" to their peers ( and probably their parents) before they were ready or able to absorb the consequences of being out.

Fortunately, for American gay youth, there was recently back-up for them, and hopefully some of the backup can be found here: http://www.vevo.com/watch/rise-against/make-it-stop-septembers-children/USUV71100796

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Beginning the Dialogue About Political Dialogue

Thursday, January 13, 2011 6:33:07 AM

http://www.ourdailythread.org/content/beginning-dialogue-about-political-dialogue

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New York City Council Speaker Full of S!@#t

Thursday, September 30, 2010 10:09:01 PM

homelessness, christine quinn, housing, New York City

When asked by a New York Daily News reporter about her position on a stalled bill before New York City Council to require New York City to conduct a census of warehoused residential buildings in the City, Council Speaker Christine Quinn asserted implementation of the count would cost the city millions of dollars.

The inability of her and her staff to perform basic math (one more sign of the poor quality of the New York public school system) notwithstanding, the real reason she is holding up movement of the legislation is because the real estate investment industry, who she's relying on for major funding for her upcoming mayoral bid, don't want public transparency in their market.

There are well over 30,000 homeless people in New York City; the fastest growing segment of which are minors. There are countless more living in housing they really can't afford. All the while, the billions-dollars real estate industry is holding housing off the market.

It's time to have a count. And it's time Christine Quinn understands she is elected to serve the people; not the corporate real estate investment interests, regardless of how much money they give her.

Since the New York Daily News was too chicken to put some of their print articles on the web, here it is here.

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Inappropriate Testimony Before Congress

Saturday, September 25, 2010 4:08:45 PM

Congress, Stephen Colbert

Yesterday morning, I watched the testimony of comedian Stephen Colbert before Congress about immigrant farm workers in the United States. I agreed with all his assertions before Congress. I was even entertained. And, in truth, I really like Stephen Colbert.

Being entertaining, however, is not why one testifies before Congress. Some of what Stephen Colbert said even pointed out the laughable incapacity for Congress members to get along and move legislation forward. It is true that many of our Congress members, on both sides of the aisle, are jokes. The Congressional institution, however, is not a joke. It is supposed to be (though it seems, today, it is not) the representative body in government of the people of the United States. We, the people, have earned more respect than that.

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Don't Argue With a Hoosier About Tornadoes

Saturday, September 18, 2010 6:07:44 PM

For Reference: A "Hoosier" is a person from the State of Indiana in the United States.

As folks know, I live in New York City. This past Thursday, a major, unexpected storm broke out in New York City. I saw the storm breaking through my bedroom window. Everything about what I observed through my window screamed "tornado!" (I'm a transplanted Hoosier, I've lived through a few tornadoes). To confirm, I went outside to look at the clouds. I saw a "wall cloud" hanging over the South Bronx (a wall cloud is what forms into a tornado, when it gains enough strength).

I told others in my house that there was a wall cloud in the sky. They had no idea what I was talking about, so I explained what a wall cloud was; and they laughed at me because New York City doesn't have tornadoes.

After the storm was over, destruction was reported throughout Brooklyn and Queens (in New York City, for those from elsewhere). The news reported "tornadic" activity. Eventually, it was reported that there were three tornadoes in New York City.

So, listen. In the future, when a transplanted Hoosier says he sees tornado weather, don't laugh at him. Take him seriously and stay inside, like I did.

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Why I Won't Participate in anti-Islamaphobia Action at Ground Zero on Sept 11

Monday, September 6, 2010 11:09:34 PM

human dignity, 9/11, Ground Zero, Cordoba House

Most are already aware that a moderate Muslim group has plans to build an Islamic cultural center, Cordoba House, in close proximity to the site of the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. Most are also aware that a virulent group of people have mobilized against the erection of Cordoba House and that some high-profile political figures are leveraging that opposition to score cheap political points. Naturally, others have mobilized in response to what is now being coined as Islamophobia.

In recent weeks, I have received requests from both factions to join them in action at Ground Zero on September 11th. For me, answering the first group, those opposed to Cordoba House, was easy. Everyone who knows me -- in my real, non-cyber life, anyway -- knows that I am strongly in support of the erection of Cordoba House and that, despite being Roman Catholic, look forward to spending some time with the Muslim group responsible for Cordoba House in prayer and solidarity after the project is completed.

Answering the second group, those opposing the growing occurrence of Islamophobia, took some reflection. My initial reaction was to attend and show my support. We, as Americans, after all, are not defined by our respective religions; and there is room enough here for everyone. Moreover, I personally know quite a number of Muslims whose lifestyle and socio-spiritual outlook are admiral and deserve to be honored, not demonized, by American society.

The problem, for me, and the reason I have decided against participating in political action of any sort at Ground Zero on September 11, derives from the nature of the primary event at Ground Zero on that day. The primary event at Ground Zero is a public memorial for those who lost their lives in the terrorist attack on the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Most of the people attending that memorial are loved ones left behind by the people who died on that day in 2001. I attended that event one year with someone whose significant other died in the attack, because he did not know if he had the strength to attend alone. I recall walking the incline down into the giant pit, at the close of the memorial, to be closer to the space from which the victims were removed. It was a particularly moving experience. I could feel the grief and suffering the space was imbued in. I could feel the sacrifice of human life.

The only other experience I have had that comes close to that experience was the first time I stepped foot on Potter's Field, located on Hart Island in the Long Island Sound off the Bronx in New York City; something I and leaders of Picture the Homeless had worked very hard to make possible. The experience of working with leaders of Picture the Homeless to ensure access to homeless people to Potter's Field to honor those who passed away from among the homeless community and were buried there has helped hone my conviction that honoring human dignity takes priority over all other social questions, including honoring religion. For me, the dignity of religion means nothing without the dignity of the human person. It is the honoring of the people who died on September 11, 2001 that the events at Ground Zero on that date are primarily directed. I feel all other political actions would detract from that very important emphasis.

But another consideration also deters me from participating in political action at Ground Zero on that date. The people who were killed at Ground Zero on 9/11 came from all walks of life, and represent all religions and socio-political persuasions. So, too, do their loved ones left behind, who come there to remember those they lost. Throughout several years of exceptionally virulent political division, the annual memorial at Ground Zero was the one nationally public event that rose above all that. Turning Ground Zero into an occasion for political activism by either side of debate seems to me a grave desecration of the occasion.

So I have staked out a position around the issue activists will be demonstrating about at Ground Zero this coming September 11th. But I will not dishonor the people who died there or compromise the potential of that memorial occasion to promote social solidarity by participating in those demonstrations on either side.

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Who Has the Courage?

Saturday, September 4, 2010 8:48:24 PM

idealism

There is the world as it should be. There is the world as it is. And there is the world as it can be. Who has the courage to make the improbable possible?

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Obama Should Learn Lesson from Left-wing Blogosphere

Sunday, July 25, 2010 6:59:41 PM

left-wing activist, bloglosphere, Barack Obama

On Wednesday, Michael Cohen, a senior fellow at the American Security Project, published an opinion piece in the New York Daily News, invoking party loyalty and arguing that Democrats should get behind President Barack Obama. While recognizing particular frustrations, Cohen highlighted the "achievements" of the Administration and Congress and blamed partisan opposition from the G.O.P. for those agenda items the President is moving slower on. This is not the first article lamenting the infidelity of the left to Obama. There had been similar opinion pieces in the Washington Post, New York Times, Politico and Huffington Post. Then on Saturday Barack Obama addressed the Netroots Nation conference via video feed to highlight, with the help of Rachel Maddow, his policy achievements and to encourage progressive activist bloggers to keep fighting for change; clearly attempting to re-engergize grassroots political bloggers behind him and the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Earlier in the week, we watched the tit-for-tat unfold between the NAACP and the tea party movement, culminating in the intentional assault on the reputation of an Agriculture Department employee, Shirley Sherrod, by tea party activist and right-wing blogger, Andrew Breitbart; and Sherrod's subsequent firing by Agriculture Secretary Tim Vilsach. Then today, on Meet the Press, Rick Santelli responded to the NAACP's accusation of the presence of racists in the tea party movement by asserting that the tea party is not a Party like the Democrats or Republicans, but a philosophy around which a broad range of people converge.

There is actually a common thread to all of these events this week; a thread I am confident both Joe Trippi and former presidential candidate Howard Dean can speak to. For those too young to know, or too old to remember, Joe Trippi, as the campaign manager for Howard Dean's '04 presidential bid, revolutionized political campaigns by successfully harnessing a network of grassroots progressive bloggers and bringing progressive activists together via Meetup.com... oh, and raising money via the internet. While the practice of harnessing grassroots political bloggers for political campaigns or for idealogical movements is still in its infancy, it's safe to say that the conduct of campaigns has been forever altered. Joe Trippi will go down in history for that.

But Joe Trippi and Howard Dean learned a harsh lesson about grassroots bloggers in the process that today's politicians, including Barack Obama, movement leaders and political pundits would do well to heed. The tea party might benefit from their lesson as well; though, not being a fan of the tea party movement, I would be satisfied if they would ignore the lesson and fold in on themselves. The lesson is simple: a politician or "movement leader" can tap into and harness grassroots political bloggers, but they can't control them. A key example is in play. During the Democratic primary of '04, the right successfully portrayed Howard Dean as much more liberal than he was; or at least as much more liberal than Howard Dean wanted to be perceived. How did they do that? They had only to point to blog postings from the Deaniac bloggers, even ones by yours truly, to demonstrate how far to the left Howard Dean's supporters were; and, by association, how liberal Howard Dean was. I know that Joe Trippi was acutely aware of the impact the Deaniac bloggers were having on Howard Dean's campaign in that area because I sat in on many a meeting between the Dean campaign officials in New York City and NYC Deaniacs where the officials strived, to greater or lesser success, to reign in the messaging of NYC's Deaniacs.

At the same time, as Barack Obama implicitly acknowledged by reaching out to Netroots Nation and as Michael Cohen and other op/ed writers acknowledged in begging for political loyalty, politicians need the grassroots political bloggers behind them to succeed.

Now some will argue that Howard Dean's harnessing of a network of bloggers failed because he did not win the Democratic primary in '04. It did not fail, which is why politicians on the left and the right now feel the need to harness grassroots bloggers. But this sets me up to explain the stark differences between Dean in '04 and the current campaigns coming up to the mid-term elections. In '04, the right caught on quickly to the momentum Howard Dean achieved through the blogosphere and attacked him as a front runner. They were able to do that because then-President George W. Bush, for all his evils, earned the loyalty and support of his base; a base who felt no compunction for acting and speaking unethically in attacking who they perceived as their opponents (among the opponents, left-wing bloggers). I did not see that so much at NYC4Dean (where the right had no hope), so much as at CatholicsForDean. I saw it elsewhere as well. The radical right felt they had a champion and that their political philosophy was finally exonerated. As a consequence, they fought incessently and arrogantly through the blogosphere, mostly through trolling, to ensure their champion would win out against the progressive blogosphere movement.

Today, President Barack Obama does not enjoy that same support from the left-wing base, because he has not earned that support the way Bush earned the right-wing base's support. That is a problem for Obama and for the Democratically-controlled Congress. In trying to reach out in bi-partisanship in the effort to develop the support of the independent voters, Obama forgot something very important. He forgot that, while the independent, swing voters may determine an election, it's the active contribution of the activist blogger who sways the opinions of the independent voters. More importantly, he missed the lesson learned by Trippi and Dean that, while bloggers can be harnessed, they cannot be controlled. If you want the continued support of a network of bloggers, you have to earn it. You cannot demand blind loyalty.

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