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Blogging and Eating for Haiti Relief

Submitted by KAT on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 10:15am.

Guest Blogger Gisele Perez, aka the LA2LAChef, is an expatriate New Orleanian and professional chef now living in Los Angeles. She blogs at painperdu, is the owner of small pleasures catering in Los Angeles, and co-host of the Drinking Liberally chapter there.)

It started as a simple idea- food bloggers love food, and that fact creates a bond among us. Haiti is desperately in need of being fed-something we can align with passionately. Watching those news accounts out of Haiti after the January earthquake made us all want to do something to help. Hence the birth of Stir It 28 -a grass roots event of local food bloggers to help Haiti.

Food bloggers will come together bringing and serving delicious treats they've prepared. 100% of all funds raised during the month will go to Share Our Strength and Yéle Haiti.

Your LA2LA Chef is thrilled to be taking part in this event in
Los Angeles (events are also happening in  Chicago, New York and
Atlanta -the list of cities is growing so check the site links). The
plan originated with bloggers Chrystal Baker of Duo Dishes, Bren Herrera of Flanboyant Eats , and Courtney Nzeribe of Coco Cooks. 

For more information and to purchase advance tickets please go to at Flanboyant Eats or Coco Cooks. If you're in L.A. I look forward to seeing you on February 21st.

A High School For Green Teens

Submitted by KAT on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 6:39pm.


With unemployment in the dismal double digits, there's a lot of chanting and ranting about jobs right now. China's cleaning our clock when it comes to clean tech, even as its growth continues to rely on dirty ol' coal. And so does ours, for that matter. The difference is that China's forging ahead with alternative energy while we bury our heads in the tar sands.

Our national unemployment rate seems stuck at 10 percent, and in some urban areas, it's risen above 15 percent, according to CNN. Creating more jobs is clearly job number one. But what color will those jobs be? A generation or so ago, jobs came in just two basic colors: blue collar and white. Now, we've got one black-collared Jobs, trotting out another supposedly game-changing gadget in his trademark mock turtleneck (color Pee Wee Herman among the unimpressed ).

The real game changer, though, is the thousands of green jobs we could be creating, if only we'd reallocate our deficit-depleted resources. And the Steve showing us how to do this is named Ritz, not Jobs.

Steve Ritz is a trail-blazing teacher with an impressive track record of achievement working with students in one of the most challenging environments in New York City, the South Bronx--that eternally dumped-on borough whose name is synonymous with urban blight.

Ritz has figured out how to grow good food, good jobs and good citizens by tapping into one of our greatest wasted resources--urban youth. And he's doing it in Hunts Point, a quintessential "food desert" that, ironically, just happens to also be one of the world's largest food distribution centers; 2.7 billion pounds of fresh produce from 49 states and 55 foreign countries passes through Hunts Point's New York City Terminal Market annually on its way to more affluent neighborhoods.

Sadly, those endless truckloads of fresh fruits and vegetables don't do the locals much good. In fact, all the fumes from that commerce contribute to the South Bronx's extraordinarily high rate of respiratory illness, with a death rate from asthma that's about three times the national average.

Hunts Point is also part of the poorest congressional district in the country, with over half the population living below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is at a whopping 28 percent. And the neighborhood's 41st police precinct consistently records the highest violent crime rate per capita in New York City.

Undaunted by these grim statistics, Ritz took classes with a 40 percent attendance rate and brought them up to 93 percent. More remarkably still, his students have consistently achieved 100% passing grades on the state Regents exams in math and science.

Ritz's current goal is to establish the Hunts Point High School for Sustainable Community Initiatives, an open enrollment NYC public school that would train the local youth in emerging fields such as green roofing, urban agriculture, natural resource management, brown field remediation--in short, all the 21st century post-petroleum vocations in which our labor force needs to be skilled.

At his current position teaching at the Discovery High School in the Bronx, Ritz just oversaw the installation of a living, edible green wall in partnership with a for-profit enterprise called Green Living Technologies, a pioneering developer of cutting edge urban agricultural systems.

Green Living Technologies is sponsoring a team of Ritz's students, bringing them to Boston later this month "to be the first high students in America to be trained and certified as green wall and green roof installers," Ritz told me, adding that this is "proof that we are poised, ready, willing and able to export our talent and diversity nationally as we transform the landscape and mindset of the South Bronx."

Ritz believes that kids "shouldn't have to leave their neighborhood to live, learn and earn in a better one." His Hunts Point High School for Sustainable Community Initiatives proposal "addresses those facts in earnest; providing the skill set and wherewithal to turn Hunts Point into a preeminent educational and vocational destination that can be replicated nationally."

Sounds awesome, right? Tell it to the Department of Education, which rejected the proposal in its original incarnation back in 2008 when it was conceived as the Majora Carter Achievement Academy, named for the founder of the environmental justice non-profit Sustainable South Bronx.

Undeterred, Ritz renamed the proposed school and retooled it to be a "career and technical education” school with an emphasis on training in green technologies. He resubmitted it, only to have the Department of Education reject it again last November.

This past Monday, President Obama participated in a YouTube forum in which he took questions submitted by citizens in a kind of virtual, interactive fireside chat. One questioner asked:

President Obama, record numbers of young people elected you in support of a clean energy future. If money is tight, why do you propose wasting billions in expensive nuclear, dirty coal, and offshore drilling? We need to ramp up efficiency, wind and solar, that are all economically sustainable and create clean and safe jobs for our generation.

The President responded that he believes green jobs will be "the driver of our economy over the long term."

And yet, his support for 'clean coal,' offshore drilling, and other environmentally damaging sources of energy only creates more of what you might call "brown jobs." I'm not trying to coin a cute euphemism for disagreeable chores like emptying bedpans, cleaning toilets, diaper-changing or dog-walking. By "brown," I mean jobs that won't sustain our economy in the long run, because they're based on outdated notions about what our nation needs now.

Steve Ritz has demonstrated the potential of green jobs to revitalize a community and give young people a viable, rewarding career path. The Hunts Point Express published an editorial recently calling on the Department of Education to give the green light to Ritz's proposal, lauding it as a "visionary yet practical way to meet critical neighborhood needs."

And Bronx Community Board 2 just voted unanimously, thirty to zero, to pass Ritz's proposal.

If you'd like to help build momentum for Ritz's innovative initiative, please consider taking the time to post a comment in response to the Hunts Point Express editorial, or contactNYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. to express your support. And if you'd like to learn more about the HPHS proposal, contact Ritz directly at sritz@schools.nyc.gov.

Part of his strategy with the HPHA is to "turn garbage and waste into money." Wouldn't that be more cost effective, in the long run, than throwing good money after bad by clinging to outdated technologies?

Originally published on The Green Fork

Don't Need a Tea Party...but Do Need a Drink

Submitted by Justin Krebs on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 10:12am.

The President asked Dems not to run for the hills.
Since then they've folded on financial reform,
skipped out on healthcare & generally stayed quiet.

He called upon the GOP to do more than say No.
Then in one voice, they all said No.
Does a double negative make a positive?
No -- it just makes them more negative.

Meanwhile, AIG awards excessive bonuses,
corporations push for more "personhood" rights
& Goldman awaits record pay-outs.

Our representatives aren't representing us,
but they are taxing us to support corporations
...you can see where the Tea Party gets its anger.

Yet, I'm not drawn to this week's Tea Party Convention
...I'll skip the Tea Party -- but I do need a drink.

Vent your anger at politicians & profiteers
as you share a beer instead of tea --
call it the Keg Party...and make it yours
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

State Of The Union: Deep Twitter Thoughts on SOTU

Submitted by Brian Sonenstein on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 11:09am.

BY KATIE HALPER, cross-posted from AlterNet.

Before the State Of The Union

  • kthalps: guys, the only way obama can repeal dont ask dont tell is if we dont ask dont tell. so shut up abt it. duh!

State Of The Union Starts

kthalps: I guess we’ll have accept third-place “I do not accept second-place for the United States of America.” -Barack Obama.#SOTU #Union address

  • kthalps: joe biden blinks a lot. Nancy Pelosi barely blinks. Between the two of them, they blink at an average rate. #SOTU
  • kthalps: did Joe Biden & Nancy Pelosi coordinate wearing purple (tie and suit, respectively)? And was that a reference 2 shades of blue/red = purple
  • kthalps: looks like America is united by collective desire to punish banks!
  • kthalps: u know Sandra Sotomayor had 2 use all self control 2 not slap Alito for saying “not true” #SOTU
  • kthalps: I wrote Sandra Sotomayor intentionally. I was honoring O’Conner 4 opening door for female judges like Sonia. DUH!

After SOTU

  • kthalps: Chris Matthews’ comments about forgetting Obama was black was so Matthewsian. #sotu

McDonnell Response

  • kthalps: Where did the Republicans find the three black people to stand behind Bob McConnell? #SOTU
  • kthalps: why does the asian guy in glasses behind mcconnell keep nodding? It’s like he’s a bobble head #SOTU
  • kthalps: sorry, make that mcdonnel. all white names look the same to me
  • kthalps:i think “we welcome ur ideas on facebook and twitter” was not a joke. But audience laughed. Awks
  • kthalps: oh snap! McConnel’s daughter was in the army. Can’t say that about Sasha or Malia, can you Barack Obama! Boooyakashah! #SOTU response
  • kthalps: oh nice! McDonnel is advocating torture! “foreign terror suspect given same rights as U.S. citizen” I love it when Republicans get rt to the point #SOTU response
  • kthalps: did they build this set especially for McDonnel’s speech? #SOTU response

Commentary after SOTU & response

  • kthalps: my mom on Anthony Weiner: “He was never married b4? Katie, find me a picture of his girlfriend online” #SOTU #thingsmymomsays
  • kthalps: david Axelrod needs to brush his eyebrows. They got all hot & bothered during #SOTU

Taking Jobs Seriously...Starting With Their Own

Submitted by Justin Krebs on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 10:07am.

President Obama's address prioritized jobs,
but he made time to address Dems on their job:
to use their large Congressional majorities
& do their duty, not run for the hills.

He asked Republicans to do their job as well
which means doing more than just saying no
as the Senate moves on healthcare, the economy
financial reform, energy & climate change.

As he showed flashes of why we elected him --
telling a compelling story, calling for progress
& stepping from the sideline to be a leader
-- Obama seemed at last ready to do his job.

For all the talk of creating American jobs,
Prez & Congress need to start with their own.

It's time for DC to get back to work
so Americans can get back to work too.

Did you cheer or jeer? Delight or despair?
Share your thoughts on the State of the Union
as you share a drink & a toast to our future
at your local progressive social club.

DRINKING LIBERALLY
Find - or start - a chapter near you.

The 2010 Drinking Liberally State of the Union Drinking Game

Submitted by Justin Krebs on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 4:16pm.

(Note: DL encourages you to drink, and vote, responsibly.)

Obama's State of the Union address

Take a sip:
- The state of our union is "strong"
- Obama says "jobs"
- Obama makes reference to Joe Biden
- Obama says "health care"
- Obama says "hope"
- Obama says "change"
- A standing ovation from Congress
- Obama says "Afghanistan"

Take a shot:
- The state of our union is anything but "strong"
- Obama says "now, there are those who would say/suggest..."
- Joe Biden makes a hilarious facial expression
- Obama introduces one of his guests to the chamber
- Obama refers to "the previous administration"
- Obama mentions "Wall Street"
- Obama mentions "Main Street"
- Joe Wilson yells at him
- Nancy Pelosi looks pained

Take a big gulp:
- Obama refers to Joe Biden by nickname or something like "no one
messes with Joe"
- Someone besides Joe Wilson yells at him
- We see Michelle Obama's arms
- The state of our union is "strong, if..."
- He directly references the NJ and VA gubernatorial elections
- Obama defends Bernanke or Geithner by name (someone has to bail out
the price of your drink)
- He directly references the Massachusetts Senate election

Chug in agony:
- More than one Republican yell at him in a coordinated effort
- Joe Biden makes a gaffe when it's not even his speech
- The state of our union is "umm...well.."
- He decides to delay health care reform
- The camera pans to Scott Brown
- He mentions the spending freeze (must be jagermeister or some other cold shot)
- He extends our commitments in Afghanistan/Iraq

Celebratory toast:
- He uses the word "liberal" or "progressive" in a positive context
- Republicans boo at him
- Obama goes ahead with reconciliation on health care
- Obama moves to reinstate the public option
- Obama promises to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell
- Obama promises troops out of Iraq or Afghanistan in the next six months
- Obama positively references FDR
- He chides lack of congressional leadership
- He mentions our moral responsibility to Haiti
- He pushes ahead on a green-collar economy
- Obama upbraids the Supreme Court for the Citizens United verdict

Finish your drink
- Obama yells back
- "The state of our union? Are you fucking kidding me?"
- He declines to run for re-election
- He decides to abandon health care reform
- "Face it, progressives - you have nowhere else to go."

The Republican Response

Take a sip:
- A reference is made to socialism
- A reference to teabaggers

Take a shot:
- A reference is made to communism
- A proud reference to being the party of No

Take a big gulp:
- A reference is made to fascism
- They play populism with the bailout

Chug:
- A reference is made to Nazism
- They refer to Scott Brown or Sarah Palin

Finish your drink:
- "The President is Hitler"
- They play dog-whistle racism tactics

How to Date a Corporation: Dating Rules for a Post-Citizens United World

Submitted by Brian Sonenstein on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 3:09pm.

BY KATIE HALPER, http://www.katiehalper.com

The Supreme Court recently determined that corporations are entitled to freedom of speech because they are legally persons. The ramifications of this decision, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, cannot be overstated: it introduces an entirely new and untapped population into the dating pool.

Chances are you’ve never dated a corporation before. But don’t be intimidated. This can be a fun and exciting opportunity… as long as you follow the corporation-dating rules.

  1. Consider your options. There are a lot of corporations out there. Is this really the best corporation out there? Is this corporation “the one?” Or should you keep looking?
  2. Don’t seem too eager to get involved. Remember, corporations are predatory by nature and enjoy a chase.
  3. Do a background check. What kind of relationships has this corporation had in the past? What is the corporation’s history
  4. Investigate the company the corporation keeps. Who is on its board of directors? Have any been indicted?
  5. Check out the corporation’s assets and figures. How do they look? Are they appealing to you?
  6. Say that you’re fiscally conservative but socially liberal. Corporations find this very sexy.
  7. Make sure you wait before you give up any of your assets. Corporations lose interest when you give it up right away.
  8. Don’t over invest. Nothing hurts more than giving without getting.
  9. Resist the “urge to merge.” Mergers often look appealing but they tend to be messy and almost always hurt party.
  10. Assume the worst. Corporations have a one track mind and they can’t wait to get their hands on your goods.
  11. And last but not least…Protect yourself. Corporations can be very reckless and you never really know how many people this corporation has screwed.

Teabagger Surprise

Submitted by Brian Sonenstein on Fri, 01/22/2010 - 11:04am.

We got this funny story in from our chapter in Idaho Falls and thought we'd share it with all of you.

Dan writes:

For those of you who miss our meetings, let this be a lesson for you.

I arrived about 15 minutes late to our latest Drinking Liberally meeting, and was pleased to see that we had two new visitors. An older, retired couple who had recently relocated to Idaho Falls was already exchanging small talk with our regulars. After talking a bit about the area in Oregon they had come from, and their reasons for moving, the conversation slowly drifted to our Teabagger Governor, Butch Otter, and his recent State of the State address. It was a fairly insane speech, and provided quite a bit of fodder for discussion. In particular, he is proposing the elimination of many social services provided by the state.

We discussed the question of how to provide care for people in need, and eventually came around to Rush Limbaugh’s recent comments about how his listeners should not contribute to relief for Haiti. One of our members ranted for a bit about the content of Rush Limbaugh’s character.

At that point, our newest male member stood up and proclaimed, “I’m in the wrong meeting!” and proceeded to gather his coat and walk out with his wife.

I assumed he was being playful, and said that we’d like to have them join us again. The woman answered with a brusk “I don’t think so.” As they headed out, the man turned and said angrily, “Rush was right, you know! And the terrorists don’t have to destroy America – Obama’s doing it for them!”

Needless to say, we were all briefly stunned. Then we began to talk about it, and realized how funny it was. The couple had arrived around 7pm, when just a few people were there. They asked, “Is this the Tea Party meeting?” Kym, who was dipping her teabag at the moment, assumed it was a joke – typical of our level of humor – and sarcastically responded “Sure is!” They were asked how they had heard of our group, and they said that they’d been getting our emails since the mid-summer. So we all assumed that they were on the same page.

They must have realized their error at some point in the first 20 minutes. They must have wondered why we were being so social, rather than planning for the big strike. I noticed them having a side conversation with Kitty, who was describing to them the philosophy behind Drinking Liberally. So they listened for awhile before the insult to Limbaugh was just too much for them to take.

[Later, we saw one of the local teabag leaders leave the restaurant, and realized that perhaps there was a teabagger meeting going on in the conference rooms, and our visitors had unwittingly joined the wrong meeting.]

Obviously, this was a wake-up call for us. We have some changes to make. At this point, we’ve decided to institute a new policy that will be strictly enforced. From now on, if someone has to leave the meeting early, he or she must stand up and declare indignantly, “I’m in the wrong meeting!” and storm out. [Thanks to Chuck for being the first person to impliment the new policy!]

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