UR Union of the Unemployed

. . . a.k.a. "UCubed":

. . . The idea is that if millions of jobless join together and act as an organization, they are more likely to get Congress and the White House to provide the jobs that are urgently needed. They can also apply pressure for health insurance coverage, unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits and food stamps. An unemployed worker is virtually helpless if he or she has to act alone.

Joining a Cube is as simple as it is important. (Please check the union web site: www.unionofunemployed.com). Six people who live in the same zip code address can form a Ucube. Nine such UCubes make a neighborhood. Three neighborhood UCubes form a power block that contains 162 activists. Politicians cannot easily ignore a multitude of power blocks, nor can merchants avoid them.

The union is built from the ground up. Cube activists will select their own leadership in each cube, neighborhood, block and higher group as well.

More at DailyKos.

Mystery Money

Per WaPo,

A blizzard of bank notes is flying out of Afghanistan – often in full view of customs officers at the Kabul airport – as part of a cash exodus that is confounding U.S. officials and raising concerns about the money's origin.

The cash, estimated to total well over $1 billion a year, flows mostly to the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, where many wealthy Afghans now park their families and funds, according to U.S. and Afghan officials. So long as departing cash is declared at the airport here, its transfer is legal.

But at a time when the United States and its allies are spending billions of dollars to prop up the fragile government of President Hamid Karzai, the volume of the outflow has stirred concerns that funds have been diverted from aid. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, for its part, is trying to figure out whether some of the money comes from Afghanistan's thriving opium trade. And officials in neighboring Pakistan think that at least some of the cash leaving Kabul has been smuggled overland from Pakistan.

"All this money magically appears from nowhere," said a U.S. official who monitors Afghanistan's growing role as a hub for cash transfers to Dubai, which has six flights a day to and from Kabul.

More at the link.

Dramatic Reading of a Break-Up Letter

(Thanks, snarky!)

More Happy Weekend

To replace Georgia State Rep. Glenn Richardson, a family-values Republican who stepped down after he was accused of having an affair with a lobbyist while he was married, voters elected another family-values conservative, Rep. Daniel Stout, who admitted to an affair with his first wife's mother while his first wife was pregnant with their daughter.

So when he yelled, "Who's your daddy?" did she say, "Your wife's mother's father"?

Have a Good Weekend

(Thanks, Ben!)

Healthcare: You Want Ideas?

Why not make a rule that says, each insurance co. must offer the same plans, for the same premiums, to everyone?

Why should your access to healthcare depend on, e.g., whether you happen to work for a large corporation? How does it benefit society to allow insurance companies to just screw all the people who don't have the smarts or the leverage or the whatever to negotiate a better deal – e.g., free-lancers, or people working three part-time jobs to make ends meet, or children?

Do we really think healthcare should be a perq, like a company car, that people get only if they land the right job?

There are lots of reasons why an insurance company might want to charge one person more than another; and as a society, we might or might not decide to legitimate some of those reasons (e.g., whether or not you smoke). But why shouldn't we have more say as to which bases for charging higher premiums are appropriate?

What if Congress Actually Had to Congregate . . .

. . . with each other?

Today got an email soliciting me to sign a petition calling for an end to the filibuster. It may be that that's what must be done; but history, including the "Healthcare Summit" convened by Pres. Obama yesterday, suggests that something both more and less drastic might suffice.

What if we simply forced Congressmembers to actually be present, not just in the building but in the same room, whenever they're in session? So that yes, if they wanted to filibuster, they'd have to actually be there and do it; and yes, while any discussion or other business were going on, they'd have to actually be there and conduct it, or possibly even listen to it?

If nothing else, they'd have less time for lobbyists and preaching to their respective choirs.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

www.thedailyshow.com

Temporary Services, Art and Language, Etc.

I've been working on organizing some programs/events in Dallas relating to Temporary Services' Art Work issue. I'm excited about developments and hope to be able to let you know more soon.

Meanwhile, been trying to educate myself a bit about the aesthetic and other contexts for Temporary Services' project, and am amazed at how many trails I've been following for a long time, some through non-"art" contexts, seem to be coming together.

I won't inflict it all on you here, but I can't resist sharing, I've been looking for info online re- what the "Art and Language" movement (or whatever you call it) – at first not finding much; e.g. Wikipedia's entry contains little more than a string of names – and just found this great resource published by that splendid repository of aesthetic booty, Germany's ZKM. It's a text the Art and Language group produced called Blurting in A&L. Was ist das? Quoting ZKM's intro,

Blurting in A & L is a printed booklet whose content is a dictionary with blurts or »annotations«. The annotations were written by american members of Art & Language Ian Burn, Michael Corris, Preston Heller, Joseph Kosuth, Andrew Menard, Mel Ramsden and Terry Smith between january and july 1973. Michael Corris and Mel Ramsden chose terms as headlines for the annotations. The first letters of the headlines were used for an alphabetical ordering. In this order the annotations were numbered.

Anyway, what appears to be the complete, online version, is here, in a great, interactive format (the original was apparently similar in format to the image at right {which you can enlarge by clicking on it}, except I added the stripes in honor of Michael Corris's recent contro to Modern Ruin).

As John Hodgeman says, you're welcome.