Hmmm… more soldiers = more casualties?
That wasn’t supposed to happen was it?
Commanders point to some early successes. They’ve captured or killed dozens of insurgent leaders and more.
Commanders are pointing to moderate successes.” 50% of Baghdad is now in the control of U.S. or Iraqi forces.
330 soldiers however have been killed since April.
NPR has the story.
Category: take action
politics, social justice and ways you can make a difference in the world around you.
Bottled water – a symbol of U.S. commerce
Charles Fishman of Fast Company magazine talked about his article “Message in a Bottle” with Robert Siegel on All Things Considered Yesterday.
Fishman writes that when an industry that supplies something people don’t need — an industry “built on the packaging and the presentation” — grows and thrives like the bottled-water industry, it’s important to ask how that happened and what the impact is.
Funny how as Americans we pay for something we can get for free while millions around the world don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water.
And I’m not pointing fingers – we have a case of bottled water in the fridge – as well as a Brita filtering pitcher.
Oh and here’s a great fact: 24% of the bottle water market is simply tap water repackaged by Coke and Pepsi. Dasani and Aquafina are the #1 and #2 brands of water and it’s simply re-purified tap water.
(picture above & below – a water drinking well outside Jos, Nigeria – notice the used paint bucket. it’s used to pull water from the well and to drink out of)
Ireland elects Nigerian refugee as first black Mayor
A Nigerian man who arrived in Ireland as an asylum seeker seven years ago has become the country’s first black mayor.
From the BBC:
Rotimi Adebari has been elected as first citizen of Portlaoise in County Laois.
The 43-year-old fled from Nigeria in 2000 because of religious persecution. After a few weeks, he and his family settled in the County Laois town.
In 2004, he was elected in the local elections as an independent councillor and on Thursday he became mayor.
Awesome. Congratulations! Think he’s regretting his decision to move?
Texas town where Spanish is official
CNN has a story on El Cenizo, Texas, a border town of 6,500 where Spanish is the official language of the city and city employees are prohibited from turning in illegal immigrants.
Texas Monthly had an interesting story on the 24-year-old mayor sometime last year as well. He’s pretty radical in his thinking but a lot of it makes sense.
Huckabee blogger conference call
Mike Huckabee’s website has posted the audio of the blogger conference call from earlier today.
The call started off with James Robinson, who heads his own ministry in Texas and hosts the television program, Life Today. The ministry brings aid to people around the world.
Michael Ferris, president of Patrick Henry College also joined the former governor and bloggers on the line.
With Ferris, Huckabee talked briefly about his support of education in public schools, private schools and homeschooling. He said he believes all parents should have an opportunity to choose the best education for their kids, and personally he sent his children to public schools. “I believe in competition in education. This is a mom and dad decision not a bureaucrat decision.”
Robinson and Ferris both gave their support to Huckabee during the first portion of the conference call.
Ferris said Huckabee was the most able communicator he’s ever met.
Ferris also said Huckabee is a real conservative and senators and mayors don’t win the presidency.
Huckabee said news from the polls has been encouraging and he’s now tied for support with McCain in several states now.
As for immigration, Huckabee said he doesn’t support the current legislation because it doesn’t focus on border security and doesn’t require authentic paperwork at the border or a legitimate reason for entry into the country – such as American’s are now required to have when crossing our own borders.
“We’re a nation not selfish about our freedom. American’s don’t resent the immigrants, they resent their government for botching the manor in which they’ve been allowed to come in.”
On media attention, regarding fundraising:
“Our goal is not to get elected by the national media but it’s to get elected by folks out there in America.”
On his energy plan:
Huckabee plans to have true energy dependence before the end of his second term.
“This is not only for the economic factor but for the security factor… If we want to see innovation and conservation the Fair Tax helps us accomplish both. If our only tax is your tax on consumption people will find ways to be less consumers of energy because it will be in their best interest.”
Huckabee also said companies will have advantages to innovate because they won’t be taxed for coming up with innovations.
Where’s the music?
Looking for Internet radio today, including OrangeNoiseRadio?
Like most Internet radio stations, we’ve gone silent today for all but our VIP listeners. We’re thankful for those who support Internet radio so we’re cutting them a break.
But it’s all part of the Internet Radio Day of Silence to protest the Copyright Royalty Board decision to hike up the royalty rates we pay to recording companies.
NPR covers both sides of the story from back in March.
NPR also has coverage on today’s silent protest.