NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Some recent articles about budgets and bills and the yinaoyao between the Legislature, most notably Senator BJ Cruz and Governor Eddie Calvo and his team at Adelup. Ti menhalom yu' put este na asunto siha, pues tåya' otro sinangån-hu. Taitai este siha, ya hagu un diside håyi gaitinina yan håyi mambebende dinagi. ******************** September 10, 2016 The Honorable Edward J.B. Calvo Governor of Guam Ricardo J. Bordallo Governor’s Complex Hagåtña, Guam 96910 Re: Response to Lapse Message on Substitute Bill No. 250-33 (COR) Dear Governor Calvo: Håfa adai! On September 1, 2016, I delivered a letter to you relative to the concerns you identified regarding Substitute Bill No. 250-33 (SB250), now the Annual Appropriations Act of FY 2017. I had hoped my clarifications would have prompted you to direct your fiscal team to reconsider its initial findings on SB250. Unfortunately, based on your lapse message to Speaker Judith T. Won Pat, you have disregarded the fact

A great way to end the year, a look back on the political fallacies that dominated discourse for 12 months or so. The article below is from the website Nation of Change .  ****************** The Top 12 Political Fallacies of 2012 Richard Eskow 12/30/12 Our nation was gripped by so many fallacies and delusions in 2012 that the whole Mayan calendar end-of-the-world thing didn’t even make the list. Even those apocalyptic prophecies were more plausible than the idea that cutting Social Security will help the deficit, that government spending cuts will jump-start the economy, there were no crimes on Wall Street, or that we live in a “divided nation” whose “center” wants more business as usual in Washington. Here then, without further ado, are our Top 12 Political Fallacies for 2012. 1. Austerity works. Last year we  said  austerity economics was dead. It is. Unfortunately nobody told the politicians. They’re still trying to force it onto the people of Europe, e

From Truth-out.org . The best take on last night's VP debate that I've read all morning. There's even a Marianas Trench mention in there. Kalang un machalek na tigiri Si Joe Biden gi painge. Ya Si Paul Ryan i na'-na. Humugando na'ya Si Joe ni' na'-na, ya pues ha galamok ha'. ************************* Big Joe and the Joyful Noise Friday, 12 October 2012 08:58   By William Rivers Pitt ,  Truthout | Op-Ed Vice President Joseph Biden of Delaware dropped the hammer on Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan on Thursday, and it was a powerful thing to see. Anyone who tells you the vice presidential debate was a tie, or that Mr. Ryan prevailed, is trying to sell you a diamond mine that ain't worth a dime. The ultimate impact and import of what went down during Thursday's debate won't be immediately known, but the simple fact is beyond dispute: Joe Biden owned the night, and owned his opponent, in a way ra

  The regular columnists for The Nation are so sharp. Every issue the two columns are usually very insightful in their analysis. This one below from Katha Pollitt is no exception. She articulated in such a succinct way the mess of thoughts I was trying to organize about this issue. Read below for more:  Ann Romney, Working Woman? Katha Pollitt April 18, 2012 The Nation.com   Has Ann Romney ever worked a day in her life? CNN pundit Hilary Rosen, not a Democratic strategist, said no way, prompting torrents of outrage from Fox, Republicans and New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, who loves his mother very much. Bertrand Russell, in his witty essay “In Praise of Idleness,” wrote, “What is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so.” Clearly, between the houses and grounds, the five kids, the Cadillacs, the husband, the business soci

If I had more time I would love to write and research more the meaning of Food Stamps on Guam. Like most things in life, people tend to view them negatively through the people who use them. They complain about them towards the start of each month, when they crowd the aisles and choke the lines of grocery stores. They are viewed as things which suck away life, and make things weak. But are they really? We see so many forms of Federal aid as things that make us lazy, and show how sad and dependent we are, but why do we rarely reverse that ideological equation? Since food stamps are so bad, why do we not see more people condemn the US for weakening the people of Guam and taking away their ability to work or sustain themselves?  One of the reasons why doing research on food stamps here could be very productive is because of the way Guam is not just a state, but rather a territory, a colony as well. So what is a simple ideological argument in the states, against racialized groups or poor gr

Because he has a way of speaking in very profound and insightful ways about the continuing importance of thinking critically about race, in a world that seems too eager to dismiss any attempt to talk about it. A case in point is his article below from The Nation. ****************************** The GOP's Blatant Racism Gary Younge January 10, 2012  The Nation In the British original of The Office the main protagonist, David Brent (US reincarnation: Michael Scott), wistfully recalls a tender moment during his favorite war film, The Dam Busters, involving the hero pilot, Wing Commander Guy Gibson. “Before he goes into battle, he’s playin’ with his dog,” says Brent. “Nigger,” says his sidekick, Gareth (Dwight in the States), recalling with glee the name of the dog. Brent flinches, eager to mitigate the slur. “Yeah!… it was the ’40s,” he says, “before racism was bad.” The problem with the illusion of a postracial society is that at almost any moment the systemic nature of

Published on Friday, December 9, 2011 by The Guardian/UK Land of the Free, Home of the Hungry Nowhere is the chasm between America's political class and its working poor more vast than in the demand to cut food stamps by Gary Younge On Monday afternoon this week, Rachelle Grimmer went into a Department of Health and Human Services in Texas with her two children, Timothy, aged 10, and Ramie, aged 12, and asked for a new case worker who could assist her application for food stamps. She had first applied in July but had been told she hadn't provided enough information and, by most accounts, had been struggling to get by and get help since she moved from Ohio.  US food stamps: Republican lawmakers want to cut the Department of Agriculture's budget for food stamps by 20% She was taken to a small room, where she pulled a gun, sparking a seven-hour standoff with police. Shortly before midnight, three shots were heard . Rachelle had shot both herself and her k