STAN'S BLOGS

Sudan and California, albeit far fetched and worlds apart, may be running a strange immigration parallel? Although over-shadowed by Iraq warring, petty politics and lately the Iranian nuclear threat, the recent news on Sudan has actually been a continuous but muted headline for over three years. As many as 400,000 people have died and two million more have been driven from their homes since 2003 in the western Darfur region. " It's been described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis and threatening to get worse ," Fred De Sam Lazaro—PBS. Sudan's recent crisis dates back to their long-standing, illegal immigration policy and a unforeseen drought. Illegal immigration into Sudan from neighboring impoverished countries was not only ignored but invited as a national tradition, as long as times were good. Then the drought came and the people's attitudes suddenly changed. While I have yet to declare a firm position on immigration, I did find a strange parall...

[Personal insight into the PBS airing of COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION (Episode 2: The Price of Renewal)] Largely immigrant community members – with the help of philanthropist Sol Price – achieved significant revitalization of the diverse San Diego inner city neighborhood of City Heights, despite all odds. —KVIE I moved from my newly developed, middle-class, two story, white-stucco walled/terra cotta tile roofed neighborhood in Roseville, CA to my present 1950s developed, mostly lower-class, single story, multi-color sided/mineral shingle roofed neighborhood in Hagginwood, CA to practice gentrification . I saw an opportunity to get in on something "at the ground floor" and ride its probable profit train right to the top. I didn't know that what I was doing was call gentrification and, being a long-time practicing capitalist, wouldn't have really cared if I did know. I had a goal in mind and it didn't include anyone that wasn't of a like-mind. Three things have ha...

Peter Schrag in an April 2, 2006 Sacramento Bee article about his new book, California: America's High-Stakes Experiment , quotes a once major political figure as saying: "...races most alien to the body of the American people and from the lowest and most illiterate classes ... and do not promise well for the standard of civilization in the United States. ... That kind of immigrants \ reduce the rate of wages by ruinous competition, and then take their savings out of the country, are not desirable. They are mere birds of passage. They form an element in the population which regards home as a foreign country, instead of that in which they live and earn money. They have no interest or stake in the country, and they never become American citizens." It was a quote by Rep. (later Sen.) Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts about Russians, Italians, Poles and Hungarians then immigrating by the millions a century ago. Similar fears were also being bandied about by other major pol...

[NOW with David Brancaccio: KVIE TV Sacramento, Fridays at 10pm] Last night David Brancaccio did a program on combating human rights abuses worldwide using video cameras. No, not sending out an entire news crew with armed guards and armored SUVs; this video taping was done by courageous individuals, many times amateurs or just plain and ordinary men and women, on their own in some of the most hostile situations. The program called In Your Eyes featured musician and human rights activist Peter Gabriel. Famous as the lead singer of the 1970s rock group Genesis, Gabriel is now empowering people to document human rights abuses in their own backyards and bring them to the world's attention. He helped set up WITNESS , a Brooklyn-based organization that trains human rights advocates to use video cameras, provided by the group, to document abuses around the world. Their motto: "See it, film it, change it." Aung San Suu Kyi , born June 19, 1945 in Yangon (Rangoon), is a non...

Chad moved down eight positions to rank 173 out of 177 countries last year on the U.N.'s human development index. Yep! Even though Chad's government made a relatively whopping US$307 million (about euro250 million) in exported oil between October 2003 and December 2005, they still couldn't find a way to constructively share the wealth with their own 8.8 million people. This egregious lack of unfairness comes soon after an agreement with the World Bank, who provided 4 percent of the pipeline funding, for Chad to devote two-thirds of oil revenues to projects designed to improve living standards in one of the world's poorest countries. Chad, under President Idriss Deby, had previously won praise for the World Bank agreement. But Deby now fears rebel forces whom his loyalists fought with on Thursday on the outskirts of N'djamena, the capital, and wants to continue spending the oil proceeds on the military and security forces instead of the poor. An Exxon Mobil-led con...

[At least 13,000 people have been killed since the Maoists launched an armed movement against the Napali monarchy in 1996] ...but these guys don't! Reuters Foundation AlertNet is reporting from KATHMANDU that Nepali police beat pro-democracy activists with rattan canes and fired tear gas on Saturday to break up the largest anti-king protest in the capital since a campaign was launched 10 days ago. The police charged when about 8,000 demonstrators marched into the city from a western suburb, chanting slogans against King Gyanendra and demanding the restoration of democracy. — Reuters Foundation AlertNet King Gyanendra, who sacked the government and seized absolute power 14 months ago, repeated promises in a Nepali New Year message on Friday to hold elections by April 2007. But he did not respond to demands to let a representative government take charge and end a crackdown on political parties. Nepal, the world's only Hindu kingdom, launched multi-party democracy in 1990 after a ...

" Peru faces presidential run-off vote ," shouts this morning CNN-IBN Live news headline. I have an interest in world politics, so I dig a little deeper into the body of the article and find the prize. Yep! Another example of a recent phenomena seeping across the global, political landscape—women running for top government slots AND, many more times than ever before, winning. IBN Live goes on to report that election watchdog Transparencia has Flores with 24.4% of the vote, only 5% behind leading candidate Ollanta Humala and .1% ahead of third place Garcia. Lourdes Celmira Rosario Flores Nano is a Peruvian politician and lawyer. She currently leads the Unidad Nacional (National Unity) alliance and the Partido Popular Cristiano (Popular Christian Party or PPC) in Peru, which is the most well-known right-of-center party of the country... In 2000, Lourdes Flores led the PPC in joining with the Partido Renovación y el Partido Solidaridad Nacional to form the Unidad Nacional ...

[Reports and details on U.S. spending proposals can be found at the United States Office of Management and Budget ] You setup your own household budget, carefully watch it to stay within your means and check it monthly to be sure your still on target. So, now that your on top of your own discretionary spending, ever get curiously about how your trusted national leaders are doling out your hard earned tax bucks. Here are some highlights: please visit the Office of Management and Budget for visually better tables that I wasn't able to import due to Blogger's software. Proposed Budget Totals (Dollar amounts in billions) for 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Budget Totals:      Receipts 2,154 2,285 2,416 2,590 2,714 2,878 3,035      Outlays 2,472 2,709 2,770 2,814 2,922 3,061 3,240      Deficit −318 −423 −354 −223 −208 −183 −205 GDP 12,290 13,030 13,761 14,521 15,296 16,102...

1. Man has been obsessed since the beginning of time with attempts to understand (superstition, religion and science) himself and his environment. No absolute consensus has ever been reached, but there have been enough divergent explanations as to nullify the possibility that a consensus will be reached anytime soon. 2. Sunlight feels good! 3. Man can not stay still for long and has always been on the move, migrating to the next nearest valley, river or ocean. In general, the further man migrated, the better things (food, water, freedom) got for the immigrating group and the worse things (food, water, freedom) got for the local inhabitants 'til the locals assimilated. That's it... Those are the only three things I know. Sure, I've developed many opinions and suppositions along the way, but it would be an offense against humility and reason to say that I absolutely know anymore than that at this point in my life. I can also say, "I knew a lot more when I was twenty-f...

[I grew up in geographic mono-ethnicism, but at age eighteen found life more rewarding in an ethnically rich community] Definition: racialism ra·cial·ism (rā'shə-lĭz'əm) n.    1.       a. An emphasis on race or racial considerations, as in determining policy or interpreting events.       b. Policy or practice based on racial considerations.    2. Chiefly British. Variant of racism. — Answers.com Ok... Now that we have the academics out of the way, let's look at this conveniently ignored and misunderstood word at the everyday/middle class/just-looking-after-me level. CBS's new series/comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine cleverly illustrated the results of "passive-discrimination" when Julia Louis-Dreyfus (yes, from Seinfeld fame) brings her stage son, Trevor Gagnon, into the classroom of an exclusive, private school for the first day introduction. Christine (Julia)...

I gave up long ago trying to find the best mutual fund manager. Every time I'd find the best, the next year that one wouldn't be the best anymore and someone else, coming out of the blue, would be. It's a story well known in the financial services industry, you'll hear it touted all the time on financial talk shows as a "warning." I got to the point where I just looked for someone I liked, who was easy to work with, that did a decent job over the last five years, and, as was the case years ago with the well managed American Century , someone that had fewer choices. Yes, that's fewer choices! I was wasting too much time, and going crazy, trying to decide from the 80-250 funds that Vanguard and Fidelity , although two of my favorite companies then, had to offer. Other companies like Nicholas Funds and American Funds (not American Century) had too few options in those days. American Century, then Twentieth Century, had just the right amount of well m...

[I advocate and maintain a balanced budget and low-to-no debt] The Bureau of the Public Debt states that outstanding U.S. Public Debt as of 02/03/2006 is now $8,195,544,127,376.07... that's 8.2 trillion dollars and the highest point ever in U.S. history. The Feb 07, 2006 estimated population of the United States is 298,060,012. So, figured on a per capita basis, each citizen's share of this debt is $27,496.29. ( U.S. Department of the Treasury ) This debt, 64.7% of GDP (2005 est.), has grown $2.5 trillion in just the last five years alone; in 1992 the debt stood at 4.1 trillion—that's half of what it is today. We pay interest (around 4.6% at today's rates) on that debt to Fed banks, private organizations and individuals. You and your kids will have to pay that debt down eventually with tax money or reduced government services (e.g., Social Security, Medicare, Homeland Security). If left unchecked and it continues to grow, we risk a collapse of our financial system at so...

Is it really intelligent to totally approve of or dismiss any one political figure, party or issue? The probability is that there's some good and a little bad in everything. A new understanding of political thought is needed and could help solve today's pressing issues that are now being batted around by ineffective "butting head politics." People that understand this concept do their homework and try to be "fair and balanced" when they research today's hot issues. They read, they listen, they mine the Web and hold the option to change their mind, like true scientists, if overwhelming evidence presents itself. They listen to Rush Limbaugh in the mornings and Air America Radio in the afternoons. They read articles from a number of media sources and political bents. So for all those that scan the Web newswires of Independent Media Center , are not afraid to bounce over to Fox News , just in case they missed something, and realize it takes both sides of a...

[It's not my intention to slight or promote Christmas celebrations] Every year as the Christmas season approaches I get the strangest, uneasy feeling that "I just don't want to participate!" I seem to instinctively know that there's something wrong. Something is just not right with the way America is celebrating this holy holiday; or maybe it's that I want to feel that it's an optional thing, with no shame attached for not indulging in material consumption, overindulgence and frenzy—and I don't. I certainly don't have anything against Christmas, love the man they call Christ as much as anyone, I enjoy the lights as I walk though my neighborhood at night, look forward to the stock market's Santa Clause rally, but is this really the way He would have wanted us to remember his birthday? While doing some research to back-up my suspicions I came across this by the Christmas Resistance Movement , "You know holiday shopping is offensive a...

Thirty years ago I sat through a semester of Nutrition 101 while attending American River Community College —I still have and use the text book, Better Homes And Gardens: The Family Guide To Better Food and Better Health by Ronald M. Deutsch. Thus began a life long pursuit of finding the perfect diet . Although Nutrition 101 was an elective class, I did have a particular interest in things organic and healthy and I already was a "Captain Carrot," or known today as just Cary Nosler , radio show fan... That class unexpectedly opened up to me a view of the "traditional American diet" that would never fade away. I started my adult life in the late 60s and early 70s when many of my generations neo-cultural, mind-expanding "boomers" were beginning the process of transforming their lives to accommodate jobs, "the draft" and family. Influenced and guided 1 by a friend named Sue, my wife at that time made homemade whole grain bread every other day, prep...

[I'm a journalist, pure and simple; I don't support war nor do I protest it, I learn from those that do and report my experience] There's been lots of talk lately about the U.S. conflict in Iraq being just "another Vietnam." The difference is... we failed with Vietnam War , we won't fail in Iraq. We, the United States , haven't won a war since World War II—a war being defined as a major, long-term military conflict (i.e., Korea and Vietnam). We need to stay out of wars altogether, I think everyone will agree, but if that's not going to be possible, then we sure need to win one... And that's exactly why Iraq WON'T fail. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Downing Street memo , attempting to spreading democracy in the Middle East (if possible) in an effort to fight terrorism presents some possiblity, but has yet to be seen." Since the begining of this invasion (call it what it is), I've spent a lot of time on trying to understand and...

Winter is almost here in the U.S., but for the quake survivors of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province winter means more than just a threat of sky-high heating bills... For these already devastated Pakistanis it means foreshadowed serious illness and death resulting from inadequate shelter or, in some cases, no shelter at all during the coldest months of the year. After losing an estimated 87,000 family members, friends and neighbors in the Oct. 8, 2005 earthquake, much of Pakistan's North West Frontier and disputed Kashmir population, as well as neighbors in India's disputed Kashmir, were left homeless or with sub-standard living conditions. The temperature right now in Balakot, Pakistan (Elevation: 3215 ft / 980 m, near the quake epicenter) is 58F and it will plunge to as low as 39F by tomorrow. The Seattle Times states, "Pakistan's army said it was constructing 5,000 shelters a day out of corrugated metal for the 3.5 million people left homeless amid fears ...

With the final reformation election coming in December, let's see in the next few weeks "what Iraq's neighbors have to say" about the progress, deterioration and/or future of Iraq. I see Iraq's neighbors, out of necessity, being the ones that step-up and deal with the eventual resolution of the new Iraqi government once the Coalition members are forced, by popular opinion at home, to step aside. Nov 23, 2005 Iranian supreme leader says no limit on cooperation with Iraq Iranian Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei said here on Tuesday that there was no limit for Iran on the development of cooperation with Iraq, the official IRNA news agency reported. "Iran is proud of Iraq's progress, security, independence and national strength and there is no limit on the development of cooperation with Iraq," Khamenei was quoted as saying at a meeting with visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Khamenei said Iran and Iraq enjoyed long-standing religious, cultural ...

There's no doubt I've always believed I grew up in the "world's greatest country," the United States of America. That's what I've always been told, and I've had no reason to believe otherwise... until now, possibly. You may have been brought up the same way, never giving the declaration a second thought. But before either one of us goes back to our mind-numbing, "love it or leave it" comfort zones, let's consider these three American myths: The U.S. has the World's Best Health Care A new international survey supported by The Commonwealth Fund finds that one-third of U.S. patients with health problems reported experiencing medical mistakes, medication errors, or inaccurate or delayed lab results—the highest rate of any of the six nations surveyed. While the U.S. performed better than most countries on the hospital transition measure, it had the highest rate of patients reporting coordination problems during doctor visits. One-third (3...

[Regardless of your views on religion, I think you would agree, it is a stablizing force that we still may need] The battle goes on over how much God we want in our government; a battle that is just the beginning stages of a soon to be, all-out, cultural war. Once today's front page issues dealing with Iraq, Bush, and the dreaded, bird flu pandemic have subsided, the war over God—in or out—will rage on. This isn't going away, so let's start gathering our facts and checking our powder! " E Pluribus Unum " (Out of many, one), the original motto on the Great Seal of the United States and on many U.S. coins, was selected in 1776 by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson for the Continental Congress. " In God We Trust " was added later, 200 years later, as a national motto of the United States of America. It was so designated by an act of Congress in 1956, but did not supersede "E Pluribus Unum," which is still in frequent use. The mos...

While referencing The CIA World Factbook , you'll find that 90% of our fellow Americans claim to be religious (2002 est.). Then, turning the pages of the Web to NationMaster.com , you'll find that only 44% (#11 worldwide, just below #10 Italy at 45%) of adults surveyed claimed that they attend Church services one or more times per week. Curious stats for an area of our lives that's suppose to take top billing on our list of important future events—leaving this world. So what gives? Either the "practice what you preach" rule doesn't apply to today's American religious or over half of our religious citizens are "just saying" they have a religious bent in order to appease their peers, bosses or those omnipresent feelings of impending biblical doom. There could be trouble, if they don't believe. Saying that you are affiliated with a particular church or religious belief certainly has it's advantages in America. Even saying you believe in ...

I love recreational, multi-terrain bicycling and I love any effort made to preserve the great outdoors for better biking, hiking or whatever. So, while scanning the news wires this morning, it's no surprise that this headline: "Budapest Critical Mass with up to 30,000 people" caught my wild eye. You won't find this story on ABCNews.com , CNN.com , NYTimes.com or even the BBCNews site; no... for this story you'll need to go to IndyMedia.org —the news you lose, if you're only reading the snooze news. The story read out like some nationally attended Earth Day event in the U.S., but this one was happening on the other side of the world. It turns out we're not the only people to care about foundering environmental issues and, per capita—Hungary's population: 10,006,835 (July 2005 est.)—we may not even be in the top ten. IndyMedia goes on to report, "Budapest, Hungary has experienced its greatest Critical Mass bike ride ever on September 22, 2005. Es...

Hurricane Katrina disaster relief contributions from the U.S. government, the private sector and the public have reached a total of $10,787,000,000. Bigtime, commercial fund raising events and concerts are still to come, and a national, cooperative fund raiser is being scheduled for anyone wishing to participate on September 9. The American public alone, not counting the government's help, have given at least $287-million to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Volunteers are also streaming into the American Red Cross 's "Disaster Response Training" classes, ready to ship out at a moments notice after taking an intense 9 hour preparation class. The Sacramento Sierra Chapter listed all "classes full" by 1am - Friday, but future classes are opening up daily and are being posted here . "The pace of giving is unprecedented in recent American history. In the 10 days after September 11, Americans donated $239-million to charitable causes, and in the 9 days...

[I make arguments for both sides before I choose a position; and only really need to choose a firm position on election day] Most of what I hear about politics, and have heard since the late '60s, both from those on the "left" and those on the "right" is one-sided, straight-across-the-board, all-or-nothing hyperbole—" Bush is a liar," " Hillary 's an idiot," " conservative s are moral," " liberal s are smarter." On and on go the iterations of talk radio and TV pundits, newspaper and WebNews writers, college professors and activists. Then come the expected, usually unsupported, reiterations at the street level: colleagues, coworkers, friends and relatives. That's fine if your only goal is to promote your own extremism to the demise of all else, but what about the rest of us that choose the truth regardless which side it falls on. Is it really intelligent to totally approve of or dismiss absolutely everything about...

[I scan newswire of websites daily using a "back door approach" and search engine technology for a better balance of reports] I'm a journalist . A journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people. As a journalist, I'm expected to report in the most objective and unbiased way to serve the public good. And I do my best to explore, expose, explain and present both sides of every issue to fulfill my commitment to journalism. Along with mining the Web for news and information, I sometimes go out into the field and explore issues in person to further develop my experience of a topic. My eventual goal is to do on location reporting for a well known Web site or local newspaper when I'm strategically positioned to cover a story better than the mainstream journalists. My goal is to add something, show a different slant or bring attention to a story, not to restate what's alrea...

I've been a radio talk show junky since the very early '70s when Mick Martin, Charlie Weiss (high school classmate) and Travus T. Hipp (Sunday night talk host, most of the '70s) hosted the first, Sacramento area, freeform station KZAP FM . I listened intently when local, nutrition guru Cary Nosler (Captain Carrot) popped up on KCRA AM and couldn't wait for the late night discussions of Art Bell and his phalanx of scientists on KSTE AM . I was there for the KFBK-AM debuts of Christine Craft and Morton Downey Jr., and then Rush Limbaugh in 1984 when he returned to radio as a talk show host here in Sacramento, CA. These days I work my way around the AM dial daily to the likes of "Armstrong and Getty," "Al Franken and Laura Flanders," "Randi Rhodes," "Sean Hannity," "Michael Savage." I like radio and I like politics, and it doesn't get any better for talk radio junkies than today's superstar line-up! But I'm ha...

I began my fascination with urban hiking in the mid '80s after moving in with a room mate whose middle-class neighborhood home was located near a recreation, wilderness greenbelt in Roseville, CA. I was starting an overall health improvement kick, which then included a few miles of alternate running and power walking. Looking for a route to execute my every other day session of the "then" unnamed exercise I found a trail leading into the adjacent greenbelt that meandered for a mile and a half through an isolated wooded area and along shallow Linda Creek. The RPW exercise, soon to be coined "urban hiking," was transformed from a grueling routine into a looking forward to, peaceful and mind-expanding activity over the next few weeks. I was steadily increasing my physical endurance, lowering my heart rate and finding the quiet solitude a positive break from my hectic, inner city business day. Wild life and interesting insects flitted in and out from between the Val...

[My response to the PBS WideAngle program "Future of Lebanon"] This is an amazing, politically and culturally charged story about democracy's reemergence in pre-April 2005 Syrian dominated Lebanon. Former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, Lebanon's best-known politician, was murdered February 2005, on Valentine's Day, in a massive car bombing. The Cedar Revolution was born! The "Cedar revolution" (in reference to the tree that is Lebanon's national emblem), "people power" or "mini Ukraine": The popular protests that brought down Lebanon's cabinet on Monday have been described with grand words, around the world as well as in Lebanon. It has also been referred to as "the Gucci revolution, not because anyone was dismissive of the demonstrations, but because so many of those waving the Lebanese flag on the streets were very unlikely protestors. There were girls in tight skirts and high heels, carrying expensive leather bags...

Distilling the "bigger picture" from the mish-mash of todays news is an increasingly difficult task for the average news junkie. Newspapers, TV, radio and now the World Wide Web fervently blast out headlines and monologue 24/7 as fast as they can, attempting to incite controversy that sells more advertising than the next guy. How much of what we hear and read that is truly from the heart of the speaker or author we'll probably never knows. One thing for sure, it sells advertising nicely. Standing back a moment and trying to making sense of the big picture (our world) I find a few interesting points that I can pretty well bank on: 1. Man can not stay still and has always been on the move, migrating to the next nearest valley, country or continent and... 2. The further man migrated, the better things got (in general: South America has its problems). One of the first four civilizations began around the area of we today call Ethiopia; Ethiopia today is one of the poorest coun...