Two very good documentaries, one just released and the second soon to be released, worthy of your attention:
Two Very Good Documentaries
04 Tuesday Nov 2014
Category Archives: The Outer Loop
“An Incredible Run…An Awful Lot of Fun”
31 Friday Oct 2014
Posted in Family and Friends, The Outer Loop
Tags
"The American Prospect", "Tom Paine", Campaign for America's Future, Center for Responsive Politics, Ellen Miller, Pike Permanent Select Comittee on Intelligence, Public Campaign, Ralph Nader, retirement, Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, Sen. Committee on Governmental Affairs, The Sunlight Foundation
Today mark’s the final day of public service (1968-2014) for Ellen Miller.
Ellen’s first work in Washington was with Ralph Nader at his Center for Responsive Law and at his Center for Auto Safety. She then worked with Sen. Abraham Ribicoff at his Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and also with the Pike House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Following her government service, Ellen worked for two journalistic enterprises, Tom Paine and The American Prospect and also directed the “Project for an Accountable Congress” at the Campaign for America’s Future.
Most of Ellen’s work, however, was invested in the three organizations she created and lead, The Center for Responsive Politics, Public Campaign, and The Sunlight Foundation. All three groups have been focused in different ways on the issues of money and politics, on how our elections are funded, and on accountability and transparency in government. All three organizations continue to exist.
Ellen told a gathering of friends and co-workers last week, “It’s been an incredible run…I’ve been extraordinarily lucky…and I’ve had a lot of fun.” She also said she is “not one bit wistful” as she happily looks towards her retirement and has no plans other than some extended travel, lots of photography, and spending time with her three grandchildren.
PS – For a bit more on Ellen’s retirement, see her Time to Pass the Baton.
Why Is President Obama Such a Polarizing Figure?
23 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in The Outer Loop
Tags
"A More Perfect Union", Ferguson, Hilary Clinton, Polarization, President Obama, Race in America
My daughter asked me last weekend, “Don’t you think {President} Obama should go to Ferguson?”
I immediately said, “No. I don’t think he should.” And I talked briefly about the issue of local and state control. Although there was increasing tension and violence (on both sides), I didn’t believe it was the President’s role to go to the scene of the turmoil in that city.
But I also felt that Pres. Obama could not go, even if he wanted to.
For a variety of reasons, he has become a polarizing figure in our country. (See Why Obama Won’t Give the Ferguson Speech His Supporters Want).
What the Hell Is Going on in Washington?
13 Friday Jun 2014
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
The title of this section of MillersTime is The Outer Loop, referring to the outer loop of the Washington Beltway.
It’s meant to be a forum I use to comment, on occasion, about what is happening in our nation’s capital as well as beyond it. It is also a place where I can link to articles, ideas, and thoughts about issues other than baseball, family and friends, or escapes and pleasures.
Friends often ask Ellen or myself to explain what’s happening in Washington, as if our living inside the Beltway might give us some understanding of just what’s going on here or what is going to happen.
When you’re deeply lost in the trees, it’s certainly hard to know what the forest really looks like.
Note the surprise this week by virtually everyone within the Beltway of the upset of Majority Leader Eric Cantor by a college professor in the VA 7th District primary.
Traitor or Patriot?
02 Monday Jun 2014
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
In a previous post, No Place to Hide, I wrote about my reaction to listening to a talk by Glenn Greenwald and reading his recently released book on Edward Snowden, on the revelations from the disclosures of NSA documents and on Greenwald’s assessment of what has occurred.
In comments and emails, some of you immediately praised Greenwald and Snowden, some of you said the MillersTime post gave you pause for thinking and/or reevaluating, and some questioned the damage that they felt both Snowden and Greenwald had done to our country.
Hopefully, some of you in all three groups will have time to read Greenwald’s book for yourselves. (If you do, please add a Comment on MillersTime or send me your thoughts by email.)
Today’s post is a link to a lengthy interview done by NBC’s Brian Williams with Snowden. It gives you a chance to see, hear and perhaps evaluate this 29-year-old for yourself.
Who Is Elizabeth Warren?
27 Tuesday May 2014
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
I’m a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. For nearly all my life I would have said I’m a teacher, but I guess I really can’t say that anymore. Now I have to introduce myself as a United States senator, tho I still feel a small jolt of surprise whenever I say that.
This is my story, and it’s a story born of gratitude.
A few weeks ago I went with Ellen and some friends to see and hear Elizabeth Warren talk about her just published book A Fighting Chance.
Over the last few days I took the time to read that book, the tenth one she’s written.
In her appearance, Elizabeth (Betsy as her friends apparently call her) was mostly speaking to the choir. The audience didn’t need too much introduction to this new political face. Some had known her for years, some had been her students, some had worked with her, some had worked for her campaign in Massachusetts, and some had been won over by what they had learned of her in the last year or so.
I fit into that last category.
“No Place to Hide”
18 Sunday May 2014
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
Tags
"No Place to Hide", Abuse of Power, Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, NSA, Sen. Frank Church, The Fourth Estate
I realized that they were building a system whose goal was the elimination of all privacy, globally. To make it so that no one could communicate electronically without the NSA being able to collect, store, and analyze the communication.
-Edward Snowden explaining to Glenn Greenwald what moved him to action:
Wednesday night Ellen and I attended a book lecture by Glenn Greenwald.
Friday, I took the whole day and read Greenwald’s book on Edward Snowden, on the NSA, and on his assessment of what he believes is the meaning of these revelations.
When I finished the book yesterday, I was tempted to do something I’ve never done on this site, write a post that said this book was a Must Read. But thinking about it overnight, I reminded myself of my belief that there is no such thing as a ‘must read’ article or book.
Instead, I’m simply going to try to capture some of the impact Greenwald’s appearance and book has had on me.
The Shoe Changes Foot
25 Tuesday Mar 2014
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
(or is it “The Shoe Changes Feet” ?)
On Monday, Nate Silver, formerly the data guru at the NY Times and now master of his own fate at his new website FiveThirtyEight.com, posted the following:
Senate Forecast: GOP Is Slight Favorite in Race for Senate Control
Numerous news reports, inside and outside the Beltway prognosticators, various columnists, politicians, and even bloggers have been saying something similar for the last several months.
But when Nate Silver, the guy who in the last Presidential race called every state’s result exactly right ahead of the vote, suddenly attention was paid.
Schooled by My Daughter
09 Monday Dec 2013
Those of you who have nothing better to do than read MillersTime may have seen my post last week (Shameless Promotion) where in I touted my wife’s Sunlight Foundation. I wrote about how anyone can designate her organization to receive 0.5% of the cost of all eligible purchases from Amazon (or these contributions could be directed to any of the more than one million organizations participating in this Amazon Smile ‘give back’ program).
A number of you objected to supporting Amazon in any way, writing that this mammoth organization’s business practices among other things contribute to putting independent bookstores out of business, hurt local taxation, and take traffic away from local businesses.
My view was that as long as people are buying from Amazon, why not have some of the cost of those purchases, even though it is a very minor amount, be contributed to local or national charities?
It did not take long for one of my daughters (ERM) to set me straight on Amazon’s Smile Program and this issue. In an email the day I posted Shameless Promotion, she told me to read the first four paragraphs of a post by Lucy Bernholz of Philanthropy Wonk, which I quote here:
The Miracle of My Lifetime
06 Friday Dec 2013
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
For those of us who grew up in, and also for those of you who lived in any part of, the second half of the 20th century, it is not hyperbole to say we witnessed a miracle.
Everyone, or virtually everyone, expected that there would be a blood bath in South Africa as the white led Apartheid system came under attack. Forces on the right and the left in that country fanned the flames of their separate views that no negotiated solution was possible for South Africa.
But though there were many deaths and many points at which the country came to the brink of civil war, it didn’t happen.
Shameless Promotion
03 Tuesday Dec 2013
Tags
Amazon's Smile Program, Charitable Giving, Ellen Miller, Money and Politics, Open Govenrment, Open Secrets, Public Campaign, The Center for Responsive Politics, The Sunlight Foundation, Transparency
Have I got a deal for you!
If you use Amazon for on-line shopping, you can have them automatically support your favorite charity (their participating charities now number almost one million). They will contribute 0.5% of your eligible purchases to the charity/charities you so designate.
The Senate’s Best
08 Tuesday Oct 2013
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
I love this woman.
She’s the clearest voice in the Senate, perhaps in all of Congress.
Although she’s not the most dynamic speaker, what she says, how she says it, and the directness of her questions are a breath of fresh air.
Fortunately, the Republicans made a mistake when they opposed her nomination to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Now she is not only free to question witnesses, one of the responsibilities of our Congress, but we have her free to speak at will on a variety of issues.
Check out these two short excerpts (about five minutes each) from her recent speeches on the Senate floor. In both, once she gets into the heart of what she has to say, she nails what’s happening in our country.
(The YouTube videos may take a few moments to load, or you can just click on the link, but your patience will be rewarded.)
Hostage Taking in a Democracy:
The Anarchy Gang – Boogeyman Government:
The US Government Shutdown: Two Links
04 Friday Oct 2013
Posted in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop
If you’ve been following the recent events, and commentaries, on the US government shutdown, you no doubt have formed your opinion on the cause(s) of our current stalemate.
One analysis you might not have seen is Ryan Lizza’s The New Yorker post, which explains, in more detail than I’ve seen anywhere, the reasons behind the strength/power of those who are pushing Speaker of the House John Boehner:
The Suicide Caucus
And to see graphically at least one cost of the shutdown, double click on the graphic below. Of course there are other costs, both financially and otherwise, but this one is quite clear.
(Be sure to double click on this graphic.)
Impeding the Right to Vote
14 Wednesday Aug 2013
Posted in The Outer Loop
There are a number of national issues that I find disturbing, but most of them I keep to myself, and I don’t use MillersTime to rail against them.
Global warming, and the unwillingness to face it, is one. Money in politics, and what that is doing to our democratic system, is another. Then there’s Congress’s inability to function when we have issues that need to be addressed. I could add the hatred and dishonesty spewed on talk radio, some of the cable TV outlets, and in other public places. I could go on but will spare you.
But there is one issue that for some reason rises to the top of my list and provokes me to action. It is the reason I went to Ohio this past year for a week to canvas in the 2012 elections and to help get out the vote.
The more I followed various states’ actions at limiting voter’s ability to go to the polls last year, the angrier I got. I followed this issue closely, and it seemed to me that rather than protecting the integrity of our voting system, these actions were meant to discourage or to inhibit voters from going to the polls. (In Pennsylvania, officials admitted to/bragged about using voting rights restrictions to make it easier for Mitt Romney to win in their state.)
For me, the cornerstone of our democratic system starts with the freedom to vote. When that is inhibited, whether by instituting a poll tax, disallowing certain classes to vote, or putting barriers in the way of voters, I think we head down a dangerous path.
Yesterday, the governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, quietly signed into law a voting ‘rights’ bill which, among other things, did the following:
- Require voter photo ID at polling places.
- Reduce the early voting period from 17 days to 10 days.
- Prohibit counties from extending poll hours by one hour on Election Day even in extraordinary circumstances, such as in response to long lines. (Those in line at closing time would still be allowed to vote.)
- Eliminate pre-registration for 16- and 17-year-olds, who currently can register to vote before they turn 18.
- Outlaw paid voter registration drives.
- Eliminate straight-ticket voting.
- Eliminate provisional voting if someone shows up at the wrong precinct.
- Allow any registered voter of a county to challenge the eligibility of a voter rather than just a voter of the precinct in which the suspect voter is registered.
North Carolina’s new voting bill is just one of the many new laws that are working their way through state legislatures following the recent Supreme Court decision that declared Section 5 of the 1965/2006 Voting Rights Act unnecessary (unconsititutional?), saying there was little evidence of continuing racial discrimination in the states that were required to get preclearance before changing their voting laws.
If you think the Citizens United decision about money in the campaign system opened a floodgate, watch what is about to happen now as states begin to institute new voting rights restrictions under the guise of “protecting the integrity of our voting system.”
Pardon Me If I Don’t Cheer
13 Tuesday Aug 2013
Posted in The Outer Loop
Tags
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:, HeLa Cells, Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, The Henrietta Lacks Foundation
News articles (here and here) in the last week or so have claimed that Henrietta Lacks’ family has finally gained something from the use of her cells.
It isn’t enough.
I know some MillersTime readers are familiar with the story of Henrietta Lacks because many of you cited Rebecca Skloot’s wonderful book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks* as one of your favorite reads a couple of years ago.
From NBC News: “Over the past six decades, huge medical advances have sprung from the cells of Henrietta Lacks, a poor, African-American mother of five who died in 1951 of cervical cancer. But Lacks never agreed that the cells from a biopsy before her death taken could be used for research. For years, her own family had no idea that her cells were still alive in petri dishes in scientists’ labs. They eventually learned they had fueled a line called HeLa cells, which have generated billions of dollars, but they didn’t realize until this spring that her genome had been sequenced and made public for anyone to see.”
A week ago, NIH announced it had reached agreement with the Lacks family, according to NBC: “Under a new agreement, Lack’s genome data will be accessible only to those who apply for and are granted permission. And two representatives of the Lacks family will serve on the NIH group responsible for reviewing biomedical researchers’ applications for controlled access to HeLa cells. Additionally, any researcher who uses that data will be asked to include an acknowledgement to the Lacks family in their publications.”
OK. A first step? Some scientific recognition?
But many careers, scientific advancements and untold numbers of dollars have been made because of the use of the cells taken from Henrietta Lacks’ cervix. Neither she nor her family knew about this for years nor has anyone in the Lacks’ family received financial recompense.
Pardon me, but I don’t think nor agree, as the NBC article and others are saying, that “that failure has now been fixed.”
(*Rebecca Skloots, at least, has tried to make amends. With some of the profits from her book, she established the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, which, according to their website, “strives to provide financial assistance to needy individuals who have made important contributions to scientific research without personally benefiting from those contributions, particularly those used in research without their knowledge or consent. The Foundation gives those who have benefited from those contributions — including scientists, universities, corporations, and the general public — a way to show their appreciation to such research subjects and their families {my emphasis}”)