Who Killed Indy’s comprehensive smoking ban? or a Sad day for Indy

 

Terrible.  Indy politicians have once again missed an opportunity to improve the health of our community.  There’s a lot of blame to go around about why the city council has once again failed to pass a [nearly] comprehensive public smoking ban.

Mayor Greg Ballard is one person to hold accountable.  Matthew Tully in today’s star writes that the mayor  walked into a closed-door meeting with council Republicans and made it clear he didn’t want the ordinance to land on his desk.” Tully points out that as a canidiate for Indy mayor Ballard approved of a comprehensive smoking ban.

Democrats aren’t blameless either.  First of all, if council Democrats had made a stand during the Peterson era about smoking (or anything, really), this would be a mute point. Indy would have long ago joined the 21st century when it comes to public health.  But Peterson and the council back then weren’t about taking bold stands.

And on the city council, Democrats should feel embarrassed.  Council member Dane Mahern abstained from the vote because, as Tully reported, his father is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry. Heaven forbid, you take a stand that might bump against your father’s business interests.   More so, Mahern had his father host a fundraiser for him within a week of the scheduled smoking ban vote.

This was a chance to be a truly bipartisan and  other Democrats didnt’ show up.  Council member Doris Minton-McNeal, Monroe Gray, and, already mentioned Mahern, abstained from voting.  Their abstentions helped kill the bill and  Minton-McNeal didn’t even bother to show up.

Whatever the reasons, other Democrats who voted against the bill include Duke Oliver and Vernon Brown.

Thanks should go to  Democrats Jose Evans and Angela Mansfield and Republicans Barbara Malone and Ryan Hunter for taking a strong stand for making Indianapolis a better place to live.   And don’t forget to thank Smoke Free Indy.

 

http://www.indystar.com/article/20091028/NEWS08/910280381/Tully++Ballard+threat+helped+kill+smoking+ban

Filed under: Broad Ripple, Indiana, Indianapolis, Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis politics, POlitics, city council, community, community organizing, economy, progressive , Indianapolis, POlitics, Greg Ballard, Indianapolis Star, city council, Indianapolis politics, Bart Peterson, Jose Evans, smoke free indy, smoking, ban, smoking ban, angela mansfield, ryan hunter, doris minton-mcneal, monroe gray, vernon brown, duke olliver, barbara malone, dane mahern, mayor, comprehensive smoking ban, matthew tully

Organize Your Own Movement! My problem with the far left.

The far left is starting to really bug me.  I like Noam Chomsky just as much as the next guy, but get a grip!

The following is from a column on Common Dreams entitled “After Obama”: “President Obama has become the personification of the very Bush administration policies that Candidate Obama so roundly criticized.”

Is this guy crazy?  (He seems like a nice enough guy on his website.)  But comparing Obama to Bush is almost as zany as comparing Obama to Hitler.

Anyway, here is Mr. Chomsky on a post 2008 election wrap up on Demoracy Now:

It’s brand Obama. That his army was mobilized to bring him to office. They regard that as a good thing, accepting the Lippman conception of democracy, the ignorant and meddlesome outsiders are supposed to do what they’re told and then go home.

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the tremendous grassroots army that has been developed, which is now waiting for instructions. What should they do next to press forward Obama’s agenda?

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whatever it is, the army’s supposed to be out there taking instructions, and press work.

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What they don’t seem to realize is what they’re describing, the ideal of what they’re describing, is dictatorship, not democracy.

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The goal of advertising is to create uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices.

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And when they turn to selling a candidate they do the same thing. They want uninformed consumers, you know, uninformed voters to make irrational choices

I am a big fan of Chomsky.  I get where he is coming from.  Obama will probalby fall short of creating utopia.

But where is Chomsky’s “tremendous grassroots army”?  As brilliant as Chomsky is,  he wasn’t able to beat back Nixonism or Reaganism or Bushism.  I’m not sure if Chomsky could get legislation passed at the city council level.

Prophetic works and words are not enough. It is a start but it takes getting your hands dirty and fighting back.

And that’s why Obama won the election. Not because voters were “uninformed consumers” but because they wanted change and went out and organized to get it.

Filed under: Barack Obama, POlitics, community, germany, history, jesus, progressive , George W. Bush, Noam Chomsky, Democracy Now, Barack Obama, Obama, social justice, hitler, democracy, change, organizing, grassroots, social change, advertising, dictatorship, grassroots army, after obama, chomsky, critique, adolph hitler, far left

Fiji Water=Water of Death

I’ve weened myself off the water bottle habit (we’d buy a few cases of Ice Mountain from Costco) after I heard about books like Bottlemania: How water went on sale and how we bought it. This month’s issue of Mother Jones magazine takes the debate up another notch with the article “Fiji Water: Spin the Bottle.”

Celebs can’t get enough of this stuff! Obama has been photographed drinking it and Fiji has gotten support from even well known progressives like Arianna Harrington and Laurie David. Also count in Al Gore and Mos Def.  One Manhattan hotel only puts Fiji water into its dog bowls!  In fact, Fiji is now the U.S’ leading imported water brand.  (How crazy is that! Buying water from halfway around the globe).

Read the article but here are a couple of quick facts:

• Lonely planet warns travelers to the town where Fiji water is bottled that the tap water “has been deemed unfit for human consumption,” and groceries were stocked with Fiji Water going for 90 cents a pint—almost as much as it costs in the US.”  Shops in this town, Rakiraki, advertise cheap coffins.
• Fiji Water shelters its assets in tax havens like Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. It pays no taxes to the people of Fiji.
• Though Fiji Water brags about its carbon footprint and charitable giving, it is basically in cahoots with the dictatorship of Fiji and its advertising budget dwarfs any charitable giving.

Filed under: Barack Obama, Mother Jones, human rights, military, progressive , Al Gore, Arianna Huffington, Barrack Obama, bottled water, bottlemania, Cayman islands, charitable giving, Costco, dictatorship, Fiji, human rights, Ice Mountain, imported water, Laurie David, Lonely Planet, Mos Def, Mother Jones, Obama, Rakiraki, social justice, Spin the bottle, tax havens, water, water of death