The Economic Scoreboard – 11/16/06

November 16th, 2006

Thursday’s CR carries this news about the local economy. The news is hidden in plain sight, but is visible to those of us who can count.

Number of Sheriff Sale notices: 275

Number of Help Wanted ads: 58

Index: 4.7

You do the math.

Will the newly elected democratic politicians make a difference here at home?
Like the little dog said after crapping on the porch, ‘That remains to be seen’.

Attention Artists: Logo contest

November 12th, 2006

Attention Stark County artists! Cantondailynews.com is looking for someone to create three new pieces of graphic design: a Logo, a Lead Image, and an Icon.

The Logo should be square, ie. H=W, the Lead Image should be H = 1/4 W, and the Icon should be 32 pixels by 32 pixels.

These graphic designs will be used on the cantondailynews web site to identify the site to the rest of the Wild Internet!

Imagine the bragging rights you will have if your design is selected!

Imagine the gratitude that the operator and viewers of the web site will feel towards you for your original contributions!

Imagine that these imaginary rewards are more than enough compensation for your efforts and talents! Because that’s all we can offer at this time. You will be publicly recognized with a by-line and link, if desired.

Please send your ideas to politics at cantondailynews dot com.

Converting the above email address into something usable is your first challenge!

Thanks in advance!

Steve

politics at cantondailynews dot com

Oil War – Part 2

November 12th, 2006

Here is my plan for Iraq.

1) Use existing political subdivisions, or create new ones based on religious majorities, to partition Iraq into semi-autonomous ‘states’ or provinces.

2) Identify leading civic or religious groups within each political subdivision.

3) Promise a population-based share of Iraq’s oil revenues to the local authorities if and only if they can accomplish the following within their own subdivision:

a) stop street violence

b) improve the delivery of basic economic services such as electricity, water, waste disposal

c) organize local public services such as police, fire, ambulance, roads and health care

d) begin weapons confiscation programs

e) ban inflammatory religious or political rhetoric

These local authorities will be funded from Iraq’s oil revenues. If human nature has not changed, this promise of a fair share of the enormous (and yes, still only potential) wealth that could be generated from Iraq’s oil reserves will motivate the people of Iraq to get their act together as no “shock and awe” or “hearts and minds” campaign has been able to do so far.

Has this solution been tried yet? NO. Big oil, and their political lapdogs in the US, have prevented any discussion of this type of solution. Give peace a chance? Naw, let’s give money a chance!

Steve

politics at cantondailynews dot com

Oil War

November 10th, 2006

Anyone paying attention knows the war in Iraq is, will be, and always was about one thing. Oil.
Iraq is sitting on top of the second largest proven oil reserves in the world. And if the geologists’ guesses are right, the oil under the western desert should make Iraq’s oil supply the largest.

WMDs? Democracy? The end of terror? Horsehockey! This war was never about anything but oil. Ask Dick Cheney and the un-named folks who took part in his energy task force meetings that were held back in early 2001.

So what to do? If we bail from Iraq as George McGovern suggests, we lose control of the oil. And we need it. Hmmm… this could be a problem.

What if we decided to stop ripping off the people of Iraq, (and the gasoline consumers in the US) and actually produced and sold the Iraqi oil at a fair price.

And gave the people of Iraq their fair share of the profits?

And put an end to the unspeakably obscene profits enjoyed by the Anglo-Anerican Oil Company and its descendents?

(all of whom, by the way, are friends ((and sometimes relatives)) of the current administration.)

Would this be so wrong? To actually treat another country and its people fairly? I know it would break a two hundred plus year history of exploiting the rest of the world, but it just might solve two problems: our short-term need for oil, and our long-term need for stability in the middle east.

I think it would be a serious mistake to abandon the oil to our newest and biggest economical competitor, China. A big push by the new Democratic majority in congress to ‘cut and run’, to coin a phrase, will simply hand over a resource that we still need to our competition. (long term – we need alternative energy sources – but short term we drive gasoline-powered cars!)
Why won’t anyone in Washington ‘fess up and admit that our economic well-being (and the obscene profitability of big oil) is the real reason why we are in Iraq. We can’t hope to remedy this situation and get our troops out of harm’s way without a better understanding of why they were sent there in the first place.

Steve

politics at cantondailynews dot com

Obviously

November 10th, 2006

It should be obvious to the casual observer that the media shape our thoughts and perceptions to a degree all out of proportion to our direct contact with any of the newsreaders or journalists who contribute to the non-stop background drone of current events.

But this shouldn’t surprise us, we are a social species, and give more weight to thoughts and ideas we think are shared by others than to our own original ruminations.

People are echo machines, and they are drawn to other, louder echo machines so that they might have a more reliable source of repeatable sound bites and pre-digested opinions.

This facet of human nature is well known to the conservative right, and their ability to use this trait to promote their own agenda far exceeds that of the liberal left.

So what to do? Write letters to the editor? Organize sidewalk demonstrations? Cry?
How about using this most basic human characteristic, this desire and need to share information with neighbors and to use shared information to develop a consensus for action, ourselves?

The only daily paper in Canton, which has been the default voice and guiding light for Stark County for far too long, is for sale. Let’s buy it. Or let’s convince some liberal ‘angel’, like David Geffen, to buy it for us, and then let us help run it.

(see link to NY Times article on LINKS page.)
I wrote headlines and took photos for the Comet in the late ’60s. I wrote a year’s worth of newsletters for a local anti-dump group, so of course I am well qualified to help! 😉 And I know at least one honest lady reporter at the ‘cretin rap’. Are any of you literate, ambitious and gutsy enough to help?

Does anyone know anyone who knows David Geffen? Get on the phone and plant the idea; farmers plant wheat in the fall, and we eat bread, don’t we?

Steve

politics at cantondailynews dot com