1. Practiced Law in 1969. (365 days, give or take a holiday)

In 1970, Joe Biden was elected to a County Council position, and from there, went on to represent in the U.S. Senate, effectively ending his private sector employment history.

Even more impressive, Joe Biden currently lists his net worth between $59,000 and $366,000, making him one of the poorest current Senators. As one unnamed Senator put it: "Biden has done the impossible: he's managed to be in the U.S. Senate for 30 years and not get rich. What a loser."

Biden explained his financial situation to my imaginary friend. "I didn't go to Washington to get rich. I went there to work. And, yes, had I known I could have made loads of money in D.C., I would have. For sure. I was young, dumb, and full of cum- ulative blue collar experiences that I thought I could use to help the public."

Фразата е гениална - Смъртта на един е трагедия. Смъртта на милиони - проста статистика.

Каква е разликата между бабата с две годишното детенце, която всяка вечер след 22ч. продава цветя на Витошка и милионите бездомни в копторите на Мексико, например?

Разликата е, че тя е една (с детето - 2), а те са - милиони. Тя прави впечатление на хората, но само докато мълчаливо преминат дву-триметровия периметър на контраста между стъклариите на Витошка и реалността в София. После я забравят - и това е много завидно качество, много неща си спестяват.

Защо споменах милионите в Мексико (или Индия, или където си поискате... много са така или иначе). Защото те са статистиката, а бабата с детенцето - трагедията. И лошото е, че и двете са трагедии.

Проблемът е от нас - когато видим нещо масово, си казваме - а, ами то е нормално. Когато видим нещо от онези "нормалните неща", но изолирано, на скъпа търговска европейска (така ли е наистина) улица, пак си казваме - не е само тук, много са... и го масовизираме, за да ни е по-лесно да го забравим.

Може би е време да заместим думата "нормално" с "масово" или "мнозинство", защото за повечето от нас нормалното е това, което правят/това, което са/това, което не са повечето хора.

В тази връзка повечето хора са нормални, защото

• това е нормално
• са повече от "душевно болните" (много харесвам това определение, не ограничава въображението в медицински граници)
• могат да кажат кои са "душевно болни", бедни или бездомни в рамките на нормалното (за нормалните) и т.н.

~ ~ ~

This thought is genious - The death of one is a tragedy. The death of millions - simple statistics.

What is the difference between the old woman with the 2-year old girl, who sells flowers on blv. Vitosha every evening after 22h on one side, and the millions of homeless people in the coptores in Mexico on the other side?

The difference is that she is one (with the kid - 2), and the others - millions. People notice her, but only until they pass the two-three-meters parameter of contrast between the shiny stores of Vitosha blv. and the Reality of Sofia. After that they forget about her. Which is quite an enviable quality, because it saves them a lot of things.

Why did I mention the millions of homeless people in Mexico (or India, or wherever, doesn't matter there are a lot of those)? Because the latter are the statistic, and the old woman with the child - the tragedy. The bad news is - both are the tragedy.

We are the problem - when we see something massive, we say to ourselves - so what, I guess it's normal. When we see one of "those normal things", but isolated on an expensive European (or is it that much European) shopping street, we again turn to ourselves saying - well, it's not only here, there are people like this on a lot of places... we make it massive, so that we make it easier to forget.

Maybe it's time to substitute the word "normal" with the word "massive" or "majority", because for the majority of us, the "normal" is what the majority of people do/are/aren't.

In relation to this, the majority of people are normal, because

• this is normal
• they are more than the insane ones (in Bulgarian, we have a term for "insane" which literally translated is "spiritually ill". And I really like it, because it doesn't limit the imagination in medical borders)
• they can lable people with "spiritually ill", or "poor/homeless" in the normal range of this notion (normal for the "normal people), etc.

Wednesday - Day 1.)

Desperate for a job, I print out 3 CV's (that's British for Resume) and take them up to the closest high street to my flat.  I hand out the first two, and continue down the street to the outside of Molly's bar, which has caught my eye numerous times on the bus rides home from Jane's.

There is a little Irish woman sweeping up and dumping ash trays outside the bar.  

"Excuse me?" I say.  "Do you know i they're hiring?"

"Yes," she says, appraising me.  "Do you have experience?"

"Yes, a bit, I worked at a--"

"Can you come in at ten for a trial?"

"Um, sure."

The little Irish woman then eyes the conservative attire I've donned for my High Street CV Hand out, which includes a skirt that falls below the knee, tights, boots, and a tank top and a sweater.  

"Wear whatever ye like," she says, letting me know that I can relax a little when I dress for work tonight.  "I'm Molly."

"Oh, like the ..." I said, motioning to the sign.

So, I show up, she trains me, etc.  And we close.  

After close, she offers me a drink, which I'm assuming is a special occasion since it's my first night and we're discussing my prospects as an event coordinator.  I end up in the bar until after 6 in the morning, drinking with Molly and listening to incredibly intimate details about her personal life, both kind of enjoying myself, and wondering when it will be appropriate to leave.

She calls us a cab around sunrise and drops me off at my place, asking that I text her as soon as I'm home.  I do.

Thursday - Day 2.)

The incident with Sam(?)

Friday - Day 3.)

Exhausted, I come in and am given full control of the bar downstairs, which only stays open for a few hours due to the dismal amount of people who show up for the live band performing.  I come upstairs, worried that I may have to face Sam(?) again, or that he's perhaps told his boss about what happened. 

I become overly lethargic and disoriented as the night progresses.  Molly notices and offers me a bit of cocaine.  "Just put it on your tongue," she says, "don't go putting anything up your nose."

"Um, thanks, but can I just have a red bull instead?"

As soon as we close, I duck out of there, clearly slightly offending Molly in the process.  

I get to my night bus stop and try to keep my head down from this Romanian asshole and his friend who are hissing at and calling things to any female who walks past.

The Romanian eventually sidles up to me and attempts to start a conversation.  I ask him to leave me alone, and after about six demands as to why, I finally tell him that anyone who thinks it's funny or entertaining to make women who are trying to make their way home feel unsafe and harassed can't be my friend.

Romanian then blames it on his English friend, who says he had no part in it, and agrees that I have a point.  English friend then turns to me and asks why all Americans have such an attitude.

I respond that my attitude has little do with my nationality and more to do with the fact that I've been on my feet for several hours.  He becomes very thoughtful and then asks me, in a quite friendly tone, if I'm taking a gap year.  

Speechless at the bizarrity of this, the Turkish guy who owns the restaurant across the street pulls to the curb and offers me a ride.  Realizing that this is probably the safer of the two options, I jump into his car, hoping he doesn't intend to rape, kill, and taxiderm me.  

I am driven home without incident.

Saturday - Day 4.)

Night progresses as usual until about 1:30am, at which point, Molly's husband of 15 years, whom she's currently divorcing, comes in drunk.  She asks him to leave, and furious, he comes behind the bar shouting, "GET OUT?  GET OUT?  IS THAT WHAT YOU SAY TO ME? GET OUT?"

She shoves him, and he backhands her, hard, into glass and bottles of wine and beer, which shatter.  She finally manages to get him out, and shaking, sits down.  I give her a giant glass of Jameson, and clean up with the assistance of this poor Irish bloke who'd just come in for a quiet drink with his cousin, but seemed to have compassion for the situation.

After closing down, I sit down with Irish guy and his cousin and Molly and have a shot of tequila to calm my nerves.  Suddenly, a loud bang comes from outside.  Seems Molly's husband has come back and is trying to break in through the (glass) door with a chair from outside.

Molly calls the police, and I retreat downstairs, because I'm a bit nervous that he may get in.  Irish guy comes with me, gets drunk, and starts ranting about Oliver Cromwell (?).  He seems nice enough, but clearly very in love with his girlfriend (which is refreshing).

I come back upstairs where we're joined by Molly's bff, the beautiful but slightly crazy Gemma, and her boytoy of the week.  They, along with Irish guy's cousin, are loudly singing Irish ballads and dancing about.  Molly calls me a cab.  I get home just as the sun rises (again).

Thursday - Day 5.)

So, I've had about four days off to recover, which was pretty necessary, all things considered.  I go back in refreshed and ready to get some things done in preparation for my cinema night.  

Molly is drunk.  Sooooo drunk.

There's another barmaid there, off the clock, who is pregnant, but smoking and drinking Merlot (but only Merlot that's been open today, don't want to chance anything, wtf) and the music coordinator.  Both slowly help take over as Molly spirals into complete oblivion.

Molly goes to walk downstairs toward the end of the night.  She trips, and falls down an entire flight of stone steps, crashing at the bottom.  Because she's drunk, she pulls herself up, claims to be fine, and falls asleep on one of the couches.  

The staff decides not to call an ambulance for her (though the next day, we'll find out she broke her shoulder and three ribs).  

Closing goes smoothly because Molly isn't there pressuring me to drink.  Pregnant Barmaid offers me a glass of her merlot, and I accept, running across the street first to buy myself two jam donuts and to get Pregnant Barmaid some ciggies.

I decide to walk home, since the bus never seems to come.

Mother Teresa . . .

Image: http://greenthumbnun.info

She dedicated her life for the cause of the poor, the sick, the orphaned, the neglected, the abandoned, the destitute and the dying. She gave hope to the hopeless, love to the abandoned, solace to the wretched and dignity to the dying.

Here is a tribute to Mother Teresa from my Prose and Poetry blog:

Humans may come and humans may go,
But she said, “No!”

She still visits those with no hope,
For she is the Saint of Hope!

Watch a short video clip from a film on Mother Teresa:

(If the video does not load, you can watch it here.)

BHUBANESWAR, September 5 (Compass Direct News) – Asserting that most area Hindus are tolerant and peaceable, victims of ongoing anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa blamed the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) and other extremist groups for the terror of the past two weeks.

“The mobs that attacked our parishes and institutions were largely composed of extremists from the VHP and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal,” said Bishop Sarat Chandra Nayak of the Behrampore Catholic diocese.

At least four parishes, a presbytery and a youth hostel were destroyed in Munniguda town in Rayagada district under the Behrampore diocese in the spate of violence that began following the killing of a VHP leader, Laxmanananda Saraswati, and four of his associates in Kandhamal district on August 23. Christian leaders say more than 100 lives have been lost and thousands of houses, churches and institutions damaged or destroyed in the violence.

The state government attributed the assassination of the VHP leader and his associates to Maoists who have since claimed responsibility for the murders, but the Hindu extremist groups continue to blame Christians.

Asked if he condemned the violence on Christians, VHP Orissa State President Gauri Prasad Rath told Compass that he categorically did not.

“You should ask me to condemn the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and his associates with AK-47s by Christians,” he said.

While the Global Council of Indian Christians says more than 100 people have been killed in the violence, the Kandhamal District Collector’s Office told Compass that the death toll is only 14 people. The office reports 22,685 people are in relief camps in Kandhamal. The same office has also reported that 2,400 buildings have been destroyed in the mayhem, though Christian leaders believe the total is much higher.

Hindus Protected Christians

Father Mathew Puthyadam, a Catholic priest in Phulbani town in Kandhamal district, told Compass that local Hindu families gave him shelter.

As mob of around 4,000 people was carrying the body of Saraswati in a procession outside his church on the night of August 24, he said, he first sought shelter with Christians.

“When the mob was destroying my parish [Christ the King Church], I went to the house of parish workers nearby and hid in a broken bathroom,” Fr. Puthyadam said. “The mob somehow came to know that the house belonged to Christians, and they launched an attack on it. They beat up the two boys who live there, but they managed to escape. Thankfully, they did not come to the bathroom.”

About an hour after the mob left, Fr. Puthyadam came out to the street to see if it was safe for him to leave.

“A Hindu lady told me some extremists were still roaming around,” he said. “She asked me to hide in her kitchen and gave me food to eat.”

Later, Fr. Puthyadam fled to a forest, and finally came to the Archbishop’s House in the state capital, Bhubaneswar.

“Many among the mob were goons and thieves who were seemingly led by extremist groups,” he recalled, saying he felt he had gotten a “second life” as he could have been killed.

Another priest who managed to reach Bhubaneswar after a seven-day journey from Onjamundi village in Kandhamal district praised local Hindu families for protecting him.

“On the evening of August 25, a mob of 300 people who were armed with pistols, chisels and sticks, started burning houses and churches,” said Father Laxmikant Pradhan, a Catholic priest. “We could see thick smoke rising from all around. But Hindu families in the village asked Fr. Prabodha Kumar, my associate, and I to hide in their homes.”

Ravindranath Pradhan, a 45-year-old former soldier of the Indian Army, told Compass that VHP supporters attacked Christian houses in his village of Gadragaon in the Rupagaon area of Kandhamal.

“We know the attackers – they are from the VHP,” he said. “We have named them in our police complaint.”

Pradhan and 113 others reached Bhubaneswar on August 28 after walking for four days from Gadragaon. The homeless Christians were given shelter in a YMCA center in the capital city.

Creating a Rift

Some Orissa locals believe the extremists meant to create a rift between Christian missionaries and lower-caste tribal peoples known as “Other Backward Classes” (OBCs).

Prabhu Kalyan Mahapatra, a local Hindu and freelance journalist, told Compass that he did not think the violence was the result of what media are portraying as a Hindu-Christian “clash.”

In Kandhamal, there are OBCs who are lower castes but not “outcasts,” Mahapatra said, noting that the OBCs were mainly traders, while Dalits and tribal peoples were laborers and the poorest of the poor. He said the OBCs exploited Dalit and tribal people.

“However, Christian missionaries provided education to Dalits and tribals, which was not liked by the OBCs for obvious reasons,” he said, pointing out that several people from Dalit and tribal backgrounds had risen to become bureaucrats and members of parliament because of education provided by Christian institutions. “And the VHP took advantage of the situation and created a rift between OBCs and Christian missionaries.”

Mahapatra said that locals’ tolerance for Christian converts made Hindu-Christian conflict an unlikely reason for the violence. A Christian convert, Madhusudan Das, was recognized by the people of all local communities as the “father of modern Orissa,” he said.

Das, a lawyer, social reformer and patriot, worked for the political, social and economical uplift of people of eastern India, especially Orissa, and contributed numerous articles and poems both in Oriya and English.

“If the people of these communities respect a convert [Das], how can you say the Hindus of Orissa are not tolerant?” he asked.

Mahapatra explained how the VHP extended Saraswati’s funeral procession to incite violence.

“The funeral was taken from Saraswati’s ashram [religious center] in Jalespeta to his other ashram in Chakapada in Kandhamal, covering around 134 kilometers, when the distance between the two ashrams is merely 70 kilometers,” he said.

The attacks on Christians began during the funeral procession, he added.

New Tensions Feared

The Orissa government yesterday put a ban on rally planned by the VHP to take the ashes of Saraswati in another public procession throughout Orissa villages beginning on Sunday (September 7), according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

The ban was announced by the state government in hearing of a petition filed by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath from Orissa in the Supreme Court of India. The state government, however, fears fresh trouble on Sunday, as it is believed that the VHP may still go ahead with the processions.

“The state government has decided to rush additional force to the riot-affected areas in view of VHP’s proposed ‘kalas puja’ [worship of the remains of a deceased] of slain Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati,” reported The Indian Express newspaper today.

According to the Evangelical Fellowship of India, mobs led by extremist groups are “roaming in Kandhamal and threatening the Christians to ‘reconvert’ or face death.”

Christians from various denominations will fast and pray for the Christians in Orissa on Sunday.

The VHP and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, a partner of the ruling government led by the Biju Janata Dal party, continue to blame Christians for the killing of Saraswati and four others in spite of the Maoist claim of responsibility for the assassination.

Saraswati allegedly incited the attacks on Christians and their property in Kandhamal during last Christmas season. The violence lasted for more than a week beginning December 24, and killed at least four Christians and burned 730 houses and 95 churches.

The 2007 attacks were allegedly carried out mainly by VHP extremists under the pretext of avenging an alleged attack on Saraswati by local Christians. Hundreds of Christians were displaced by the violence in Kandhamal, and many are still in various relief camps set up by the state government.

Christians make up 2.4 percent of Orissa’s population, or 897,861 of the total 3.7 million people.

Report from Compass Direct News

In my understanding of the Anthroposophical concept of spirit evolution, it is believed that we choose the families and circumstances we are born into. This 'pre-destination' comes about as we realize certain inadequacies while in the spiritual world, propelling us to reincarnate into the environment best suitable to develop these 'imperfections'. Thus, a soul lacking in patience will choose to reincarnate into an environment where people are always late for appointments, things take forever to happen, incompetence abounds and whatever else may be required to develop patience is just everywhere.

With the spirit at the core of our beingness, we come to realize that our physical existence is but a mechanism for our spiritual growth. It is this understanding that brings to light the need to know our circumstances in order to appreciate and live our purpose in this life.

Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. Events issue from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meeting and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way...W.H. Murray

The above quote has been used to explain how the universe conspires to bring us what we need. That everything and everyone that comes our way is a gift meant to aid us in both our physical and spiritual evolution. That nothing happens by chance and everything has a purpose. This attitude allows us to accept events in our lives in a more compassionate manner. It gives us the space to understand people and circumstances.

My own birth circumstances indicate that I was born into isolated affluence. A small community such as my birthplace easily placed my family in a position of prominence. There are advantages and disadvantages for such a condition. In my case, it was largely a disadvantage...or so I thought. For a country where social stratification was marked with wide gaps, it was convenient to tag people as them and us and it was difficult for us to be with them because we were breeds apart.

I found an easy way to bridge that gap. Have something and share what they didn't have. Be needed. Be wanted. And for a young boy who had to sneak out of the house in order to socialize, that something was money, comic books and toys. Looking back, it was easy to understand what my grandfather meant when he told me back in college..."your friends are there only because of your money and car. Walk to school and leave your money at home and soon you will know who your friends really are". I did and still do every now and then. There are beautiful lessons to be learned from such an experience but that is for another post.

So why did I as spirit choose these circumstances? What lessons are to be learned from such a vantage point? What evolutionary path am I to take?

While my left hand dipped into the lives of shoe shine boys, newpaper boys, pony boys and the neighbors' caretakers' children playing with bottle caps and rubber bands, slippers and empty milk cans, my right would shake the hands of pampered scions of industry's giants at the country club and social gatherings. It was a paradoxical extension of growing up in a 12 bedroom house shared by a wealthy grandfather and a hard working tire salesman father who drew the lines of poverty and abundance under one roof.

I grew up in two opposite worlds at the same time, at times not knowing where I truly belonged. Both sides despised each other and I would feel the pain of one as the other threw insults and ridicule. I learned the value of the adage "when in Rome do as the Romans do" but doing so altered my identity.

I have been both employer and employee, superior and subordinate, rich and poor, alone and in a group. I am blessed to have been accepted in both worlds and in being so I have come to understand the yin and yang of life, that there is black and white but more importantly there is the gray.

Our paths, it seems, is not to narrow the gap, nor influence one to become the other, not even to take sides but rather to blend both worlds into a comprehensive concoction of human experience and in its volatility, a new being emerges.

It is no longer just water, ice cubes, sugar and lemon but simply thirst quenching lemonade.

This may sound like a one way street. No it's not. We all chose where we need to be and our being together is no coincidence. We are all gifts to each other in aid of spiritual evolution. Things happen when the perfect condition arises no matter how imperfect it may appear. It couldn't be otherwise. Touche'.

The list of offences against people and democracy and media in St. Paul during the week of the Republican National Convention is staggering.  These have been reported extensively by independent and grass-roots media, but here is a brief and hopefully representative sampling:

Amy Goodman and two Democracy Now! producers were arrested for covering the protests on Monday, September 1st.  The two producers were bloodied by police, and are now facing felony charges.  On Thursday, Sharif Abdel Kouddous of Democracy Now! was arrested a second time, along with Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films.

The rented home of five youths, who were hosting 23 of their friends, was raided by some 25 police in riot gear, who refused all requests to show a warrant until after the people had been made to lie face-down for 45 minutes.  Computers and other personal items were seized, and intimidating statements about “the Executioner” and “the Terminator” were made by police.

An estimated 800 people were arrested as of Thursday.  The police used tear gas, nightsticks, flash grenades, and other weapons against protesters.  Video footage is widely available on the internet.

But the big story this week has not been the repressive and brutal antics of police against dissidents and journalists in St. Paul.  No, rather it has been the ascent of Sarah Palin from relative isolation and obscurity in Alaska to her position as the Vice Presidential nominee of Senator John McCain.

A Personal Digression Necessary to the Development of This Essay

It’s been an odd week for me.  I work quietly, a bookseller bookworm on the fringes of a university town.  I like quiet, I like nature, and I like freedom.  Because of the first two things I like, I did not consider traveling to St. Paul to protest.  But reading the reports coming in through the internet, my electronic window to a speeded-up, unnatural, and sometimes overwhelming world, I’ve at times wished I was there—you know, because of my fondness for that third thing I listed: freedom.

The candidates and delegates at the Republican National Convention do not stand for freedom.  The police being willfully employed to threaten, intimidate, harass, beat, and arrest people who are not walking the Republican Party line in St. Paul are not the defenders of freedom.  To call them freedom’s executioners would be melodramatic, but perhaps more appropriate. 

Fear and the Need for Order

At the heart, if we may call it that, of the official gathering of candidates, delegates, party affiliates, and law enforcement in St. Paul is a severe illness, a bad malady that has been festering not so much in the individuals themselves, but in the spirit of a people separated from nature, from community, a people so frightened of the Other—even within their own country and even within the security and riches of their party’s convention!—that they take the kind of draconian measures we have seen this week in order to prevent any disruption of the play they are enacting, any obstacles set in front of the lumbering political machine that they are trying to commandeer and salvage.

One wonders what these people have to be so afraid of.  The obvious and official answer, as we all know, because it has been used to bludgeon our senses and sense of identity endlessly over the past seven years, is terrorism.  And indeed domestic terrorism in the fabricated threat that has been produced as the official reason for the squelching of people’s freedom—freedom to move, to be, to speak, to dissent—over the past week at the RNC in St. Paul.

The terrorism charges stem from police infiltration of the Republican National Convention Welcoming Committee.  Using the infiltrators as informants, police created a pretext of a suspicion of domestic terrorism, and also the charge “conspiracy to riot”, to raid homes, places of assembly, as well as to justify the very aggressive street actions of riot squads armed with submachine guns, tasers, and chemical weapons.  It should be noted that information provided by informants should be considered highly suspect, given the precedent of COINTELPRO and other covert actions where infiltrating agents have been known to actively promote violent ideas for action--or as the quote form wikipedia has it, "increase factionalism, cause disruption and win defections"--which are then used in charges against individuals involved with the organization.  For this reason, information about how the Welcoming Committee planned to kidnap delegates, or use Molotov cocktails, caltrops, bricks, etcetera, as reported to the public by the Pioneer Press, should be critically assessed and not taken for fact or at face value.

What is Really Happening in the Hearts of People and On the Streets

The RNC Welcoming Committee describes itself on its website as an anarchist/anti-authoritarian organizing body.  Unfortunately, for many people the label “anarchist” immediately brings to mind violence: homemade bombs, property destruction, people wearing black kerchiefs to conceal their faces, showing nothing but their anti-social, shifty eyes, and the like.  And certainly it cannot be denied that anarchists have a history in America that includes violence.  Two things should be noted, however.

First, anarchism is a broad, general term that can be used to describe any number of idiosyncratic ideologies.  As a general term, anarchy can be understood to mean, “absence of government,” and recognized as coming from the Greek anarchos, which is defined as “having no ruler.”  Simply put, the broadest generalization that can be made about anarchists is that they believe that a society can function without government.  Some anarchists may subscribe to violent tactics and want to overthrow existing power structures, or more likely wish to engage in physical destruction of those power structures or their symbols; many others may be dedicated pacifists.

The second point to make in terms of the perception of anarchists as violent is that anarchists by no means have a monopoly on violence.  Indeed, the entire American culture is violent: one simply needs to look at the current wars being fought by the American government, or look even at the excessive police action in St. Paul.  For those inclined to look deeper, a strong argument can be made for the roots of aggressive violence in this country stretching far back in time, back to English witch-hunts, Spanish conquistadors, to Puritans and frontier cowboys fighting Indians, and—why not?—to the Revolutionary War.  If anarchists are violent, they are pathetically so, often like an angry child lashing out at a parent: a bomb here, some property damage there, all embedded quite snugly in the greater imperial and yes, racist violence of the Euro-American legacy.

Sherri Honkala, a speaker at the Poor People’s March for Our Lives, which is an entirely different movement than the RNC Welcoming Committee, responded to criticisms and fears that were expressed to her that the “anarchists” would cause trouble for her movement:

“It wasn’t the anarchists four years ago or eight years ago,” she said, using a megaphone to address a large crowd, a crowd which was hemmed in by police in riot gear and with submachine guns and other instruments of violence.  “It was the police department.”  She continued, “I don’t give a damn if you’re an anarchist, democrat, or republican, or whatever your political ideas are.  All I know is that I’m going to march today with people who have a similar vision of a different kind of world for us to live in.”

Also standing and marching with the Poor People’s March was a prominent member of the Mississippi Band of the Anishinabe Nation, Nee-Gon-Nway-Wee-Dung (Thunder Before the Storm, also known as Clyde Bellecourt), who founded the American Indian Movement in 1968.  He spoke the following to the camera crews of Big Noise Films: “I’m here to stand up to this George Armstrong Custer Bush frontier mentality and John Wayne, John Wayne McCain frontier mentality that exists in America today.”

While indy journalists were filming from inside the protests—some of them being arrested for doing so—Fox News was embedded with the Minneapolis Police.

One protestor marched along in the crowd, shooing the police away with his hands and the following words: “Take your guns and go home!  Bye!  Take your armor and go home!  Bye!  Bye!”  The protesters, chanting “Peaceful protest!  Peaceful protest!” pushed the line of police back with only the movement of so many bodies.

The march ended with Sherri Honkala speaking through a megaphone and through a chain-link fence, through lines of police, delivering the following speech to the walls of the Xcel Center, where the RNC was assembled:

“People are dying here in Minnesota and across the country.  They don’t have access to health care.  They join wars.  They go overseas and poor people kill other poor people just so they can have a job!  I just want to practice my first amendment rights to speak out and I can’t do that behind a cage!  I’m not going to hurt anybody, I just want to talk to somebody.  I’m just going to deliver the citizen’s arrest through the fence.  Please don’t kill me for that!  It’s a piece of paper and an American flag.  The whole world is watching.”

After her speech, she shoved an American flag and a citizen’s arrest for the people inside the Xcel Center, a piece of paper charging them with crimes against humanity, under the fence.  The police then ordered the assembly to disperse.  After the order, they opened fire with tear gas and flash grenades.  They infiltrated the now chaotic crowd of protestors with tasers and shields and batons, and made arrests.

Inside the Xcel center, the convention went on.

We first went with a man who goes to pick up waste door to door. He blows a whistle and then people bring their garbage out. He then brings it back to his cart and separates the dry waste from the wet waste as he goes from area to area. He used to collect waste on the streets, however, by working with Chintan he is able to have a regular job picking up from the areas that have a contract with Chintan. Each carry an ID card to help them from being harassed by the police. I couldn't understand why they might be harassed by the police as they are just carrying garbage. However, just like many poor in the U.S. they are subject for harassment.

From there we went to visit an area called "the Metamorphosis." Which really filled me with hope. And although the working conditions are not perfect, the concept is brilliant. Chintan has been able to get a hotel to loan out a portion of their garage. Here the wives of the waste pickers take plastic from plastic bags and, using a loom, weave them with cotton and make the most beautiful bags, place mats, rugs and notebooks. They are fed one really good meal from the hotel.

I guess this is the kind of stuff that amazes me. It amazes me that a small NGO such as Chintan is able to come up with creative ideas to empower people and give them hope - I know it gives me hope to see that there is a way to help the poorest of the poor find healthier and more consistent work. If government and others would only invest in the people.

After lunch we visited their work to educate the children of the waste pickers. Unfortunately, it was outside and located on a cemetery. The kids were so excited about learning and so brave to come up and shake our hands and introduce themselves. It is impressive that Chintan is looking at holistic solutions to help at all levels. We then toured an apartment complex that is working with Chintan to compost.

The amount of waste here is overwhelming. The people living in such dire conditions does make one pause to really try to conceptualize what is happening and how we can help people get out of these types of circumstances.

I know that our work with Chintan has a good chance of helping one sector make its way out.

- Lauren Ornelas (Campaign Director, SVTC)

The new numbers show that poverty has been more widespread across the developing world over the past 25 years than previously estimated, but also that there has been strong—if regionally uneven—progress toward reducing overall poverty.

Looking at the new estimates from the perspective of the Millennium Development Goals, a set of internationally agreed development targets, the developing world is still on track to halve extreme poverty from its 1990 levels by 2015. This is the first of eight critical goals.

“However, the sobering news—that poverty is more pervasive than we thought—means that we must redouble our efforts, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said Justin Lin, Chief Economist of the World Bank and Senior Vice President, Development Economics.

Updated poverty estimates are published by the Bank every few years, based on the most recent global cost-of-living data as well as on country surveys of what households consume.

Improved cost-of-living data for developing countries

“Our latest revision of poverty numbers is the largest revision yet because of important new data revealing that the cost of living in the developing world is higher than we thought,” said Martin Ravallion, director of the World Bank’s Development Research Group.

Ravallion refers to new information published earlier this year on the comparative prices of goods and services (such as food, housing, transport and so on) across many countries, expressed as internationally comparable exchange rates known as purchasing power parities (PPPs).

The latest PPPs—for 2005—were made available by a global statistical initiative called the International Comparison Program (ICP). The improvements in the design, implementation and analysis of the ICP price surveys for 2005 mean that the new PPPs are more reliable than older data from 1993 and 1985, which underestimated the cost of living in developing countries.

More accurate estimates of poverty

In the light of these new data, the Bank’s estimates of the extent of poverty in the developing world have also been revised upward across the entire period of research (1981 to 2005).

“The new estimates are a major advance in global poverty measurement because they are based on far better price data for assuring that poverty lines are comparable across countries,” said Shaohua Chen, senior statistician in the Development Research Group.

An earlier estimate of poverty—of 985 million living below the former international poverty line of $1 a day in 2004, down from 1.5 billion in 1981—was based on 1993 cost-of-living data which was the best available at the time.

The new poverty numbers, which show that 400 million more people lived below the poverty line in 2005 than earlier thought, are benchmarked to the revised international poverty line of $1.25 a day in 2005 prices. This line is a good standard for assessing extreme poverty because it is the average of the national poverty lines for the world’s poorest 10 to 20 countries.

“The new international poverty line is not intended to replace national poverty lines,” said Ravallion. When measuring poverty and discussing appropriate policies in a specific country one should naturally use a poverty line considered appropriate to that country, which need not accord with our international line.”

A forthcoming supplement to World Development Indicators will report poverty estimates using both the national poverty lines for each country as well as the new international poverty line that helps assess poverty comparably across all regions and countries.

By mid-September, complete country-level data will also be available on PovcalNet, a website that is currently being updated. This interactive research tool can be used to replicate Bank poverty estimates and test alternative assumptions, such as the poverty line or country groupings.

Overall progress at the global level

Ravallion’s paper on the new numbers, co-authored with Shaohua Chen, is titled “The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty.” (Read the paper, or the shorter, bulleted brief.)

The authors find that, though the estimate of the number of poor has increased, the rate of poverty reduction in the developing world is still as strong as when poverty was viewed from the lens of the 1993 price data.

Poverty has been declining at the rate of about one percentage point a year, from 52 percent of the developing world’s population in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005. This is no small achievement, given that the number of poor fell by 500 million in this period.

“Yet even at this rate, about a billion people will still live on less than $1.25 a day in 2015,” said Ravallion. “And many of those who escaped 1.25-a-day poverty across 1981-2005 would still be poor by the standards of rich or even middle-income countries.”

Also, lags in survey data availability mean that the new estimates do not yet reflect the potentially large impact on poor people of rising food and fuel prices since 2005.

An uneven picture across developing regions

Poverty in East Asia—the world’s poorest region in 1981—has fallen from nearly 80 percent of the population living on less than $1.25 a day in 1981 to 18 percent in 2005 (about 330 million), largely owing to dramatic progress in poverty reduction in China.

$1.25 a day poverty in South Asia has also fallen, from 60 percent to 40 percent over 1981-2005, but this has not been enough to bring down the region’s total number of poor, which stood at about 600 million in 2005.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the $1.25 a day poverty rate has shown no sustained decline over the whole period since 1981, starting and ending at 50 percent. In absolute terms, the number of poor people has nearly doubled, from 200 million in 1981 to 380 million in 2005. However, there have been signs of recent progress; the poverty rate fell from 58% in 1996 to 50% in 2005.

In middle-income countries, the median poverty line for the developing world—$2 a day in 2005 prices—is more relevant. By this standard, the poverty rate has fallen since 1981 in Latin America and the Middle East & North Africa, but not enough to reduce the total number of poor.

The $2 a day poverty rate has risen in Eastern Europe and Central Asia since 1981, though with signs of progress since the late 1990s.

A constant effort to improve data

“Data are never perfect, though they are getting better over time,” said Shaida Badiee, Director of the Bank’s Development Data Group. “The World Bank works constantly with partners in developing countries to improve data quality and access to data.”

An example of statistical improvement is the addition of price surveys for China to the 2005 round of the ICP. Many developing economies did not participate in earlier ICP rounds, but the 2005 ICP covered 146 countries including China.

The quality of the price data being collected has also improved over time, with product listings being specified in much greater detail. For example, in the 2005 ICP surveys, six different kinds of rice were classified by eight price-determining characteristics to ensure comparability between countries. In total, more than 1,000 products were included in the price surveys.

Ravallion notes that the scope and availability of household surveys of income and consumption have also improved vastly. “The latest poverty estimates draw on 675 household surveys for 116 developing countries, representing 96 percent of the developing world,” he said. “Yet 20 years ago we could only do these calculations properly for 22 countries. That is great progress in our knowledge about poverty in the world.”

Well, the other night I heard Governor Sarah Palin, at the RNC try to enhance her mayoral experience by saying Obama's role in Chicago as a community organizer was ",,,,sorta like being a mayor."   Inadvertantly, she just communicated what, I believe, to be one of the problems for why persons in the inner city or in other communities simply do not participate in improving their living conditions and run to the government for assistance. They are taught this behavior by well meaning but ill-informed leadership to "keep your hands off...its not your responsibility!" 

I really appreciated Roland Martin's piece on how, in Governor Palin's speech, the speechwriters dismissed the role of a community organizer.  For me, it was the classic case of somebody trying to make a point, but, not quite understanding the underpinnings of the statement's overall meaning, affect, and reinforcement of the relationship between the governed and the governor.

While I do believe her comment was written to compare her being a mayor of a small town to Barrack Obama's experiences in Chicago, the writers of the speech unwittingly lay claim to establishing that governing is far more important than the actual social partiicpation of one or more individuals taking responsibility for their lives and the homes in which they live. 

This message sent by the speech writers through Palin, indirectly, IS the message that has gotten so many inner city dwellers trapped into believing that "government is the answer and we should wait for government to provide it." 

BUT, since the intent of the comment was meant to diminish Obama's political chance for the presidency, and, because the power of the word's meaning toward those who DO organize is often ignored, Governor Palin indirectly is supporting government's role as the breast from which the poor should suckle.

In essence, there is NO difference between a small, medium, or large town mayor, other than stipend or pay, and the community organizer. And, you could say, the organizer has it tougher because they can not tax the citizenry to accomplish their goals.  

To say the small town mayor "actually has responsibilities" is to infer that the individuals of the town should leave running the community up to the mayor and help when they feel like it.  

Does this not sound like one party's accusation runs contrary of the other that "government has become much too important in the lives of others?

So, (I submit) unwittingly, the speechwriters have led Palin into becoming a person claiming or touting a belief the governor to be the only one who really has any idea or "responsibilities" for how the community should be organized; the seeds for how BIG government becomes BIGGER.  Therefore, the community organizers should care a little less about their communities because such community concerns are "the mayor's responsibility." 

In affect, the unwitting outcome of such a mindset runs contrary to the Republican Party's wish that more people should work and earn a living instead of trying to live off the public trough.  It's like a person who WISHES not to fail...but, fails because failure is what they have been taught to teach their Self as the happiest they will ever be.

As I have said, many times, the organizers will to find the better way to live genuinely will take them places unimagineable....like the presidency.  This is not to say Obama will be so...or that Palin will not.  BUT, the closer your thumb to the pulse of the community...like any organizer...the better chance you will have in hearing what is their need. 

Governor Palin's comments are the twisted and deluded outcomes of the "political conflicts" we ALL seem to inflict upon ourselves.  We hardly take notice that WE partiicpate in creating many of our own ills.  And, many of our issues are so bent with complexity we are left to simply look for somebody to blame as we stand before those with whom we believe are supportive of our stance and we say vacuous comments like "a community organizer is sorta like a mayor...BUT, a mayor actually has responsibilities."

Those who believe little in people never realize the big things they will to do when they want.

You are loved....and loved RIGHT NOW!

There is still so much to do but it can be done. Remember - if every Christian gave another 1% of their income to micro enterprise organisations such as Opportunity International then we could improve the living conditions of the poorest 1 billion people by 50% in under 1 year

Read on and let me know what you think

Andrew

In August 2008, the World Bank presented a major overhaul to their estimates of global poverty, incorporating what they described as better and new data.

The World Bank’s long-held estimate of the number of people living on the equivalent of $1 a day has now been changed to $1.25 a day.

The World Bank also adds that the previous $1 a day estimate for the international poverty line would have been $1.45 a day at 2005 prices if only inflation was accounted for.

The revised estimates include a lot more recalculations and the $1 a day measure used in some of the charts below are therefore not to be confused with the old $1 a day measure, and where available, a $1.45 measure is also provided as well as a more current $1 a day measure. (Because some developing countries also have poverty lines at $2 and $2.50 a day, those are also shown, where available.)

At a poverty line of $1.25 a day, the revised estimates find

* 1.4 billion people live at this poverty line or below
* This is more than the previous estimate of 984 million with the older measure of a $1 a day in 2004
* In 1981, the estimated number of poor was also revised upward, from 1.5 billion to 1.9 billion

The World Bank notes that “the incidence of poverty in the world is higher than past estimates have suggested. The main reason is that [previous data] had implicitly underestimated the cost of living in most developing countries.”

The data also does not reflect the recent global food crisis and rising cost of energy, which is feared will bring another 100 million into poverty.

Accounting for the increased population between 1981 and 2005, the poverty rate has, however, fallen by about 25%.

While this at least sounds encouraging, it masks regional variations, and perhaps most glaringly the impact of China:

* China’s poverty rate fell from 85% to 15.9%, or by over 600 million people
* China accounts for nearly all the world’s reduction in poverty
* Excluding China, poverty fell only by around 10%

As a result, the World Bank feels that while China is on target to reach the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty and tackle various other issues, most other countries are not.

Here are the World Bank’s new estimates of poverty at different poverty levels:

This article taken from Anup Shah, Poverty Around The World, GlobalIssues.org, Last updated: Wednesday, September 03, 2008

There is a couple, Rose and Chris, we have known them for perhaps the whole time we have been in Baseco. When we first met them they had two little boys, Christian and Barnie. Since then they have had three more children - Jim Boy, Eli (whom I call "Girlfriend") and just recently they had a little girl, Christine, a couple of weeks old.

Chris has always worked really hard carrying vegetables up and down the markets all night, earning 150p per night (AUD 3.50) 7 nights of the week. He has been a good dad and a good husband, in a world where most of the men are definetly not the best examples of manhood, Chris has been a good guy and a good friend to myself and Christine.

But, poverty puts incredible pressures upon people. Imagine working 7 nights per week for AUD 3.50 per night, long, hard, heavy work...and yet you are still unable to improve your living standards for your family, you can't afford schooling, if a medical problem comes up, you have to borrow money for the medicines and it will never change for you...this is it. You have no education, no rich friends, you have being doing this for years...this is your life. Nothing is secure or certain, you live day by day, hoping there is no great emergencey or drama that comes along and messes everything up.

If that was you, and there came a chance for some quick cash, something that would ease the pressure, if only for a week or so - would you take it...?

In the last few months Chris, got involved with the wrong crowd, criminals. They began to hatch plans to rob some of the rich businessmen in the local markets. They carry out the plan and succeed in getting 5,000p each (AUD 125, more than a months wages). Due to the success they hatch another plan, this one fails and Chris gets caught, all the other guys escape. Chris gets a good beating from the crowd and the local authorities and is then jailed in the local lockup. The lockup provides no food or water for prisoners and Chris shares a 5m square cell with 50-60 other guys. He can be there for a month or so before he goes to a real jail.

I went to visit him and as I looked in his eyes the Spirit of God showed me two things - terror, absolute fear and secondly, innocence.

The fear was there because he though he was going to be "SALVAGED". A salvage is when the rich person who you tried to rob pays people to kill you, as this is much cheaper and quicker than going through the courts. The suspect will dissappear (or escape) from the cells and be found a week or so later floating in the Pasay. It's a well known and common practice as the rich deal out justice to the poor.

The Innonence was God showing me that Chris had no understanding, no idea at all of the consiquences of his actions. He did the crime, but it was like his heart was still clean - he is not a bad person.

With the threat of salvage a real possibility, me and Marco get involved. We are in the police station at 3am the next morning, talking with the cops, eating, drinking with them, hanging around - getting to know them and letting everyone know that we are interested in Chris. This makes it harder for him to dissappear, especially as a white guy is involved. It seems to work and the salvage oeration does not happen. Chris will go to jail and may well be locked up for 10-15 years. Chris will survive jail, as he is young and very strong. He will get fed once he gets in there and will have shelter...he will be ok....

BUT WHAT ABOUT ROSE AND THE KIDS...he was their sole provider. There is no social security here, how will she survive. She will begin with relatives and friends, asking for help, daily food and milk for her kids, but they will all eventually get sick of giving day after day, she will go from organisation to organisation looking for help - some with give sporadic assistance, but it will stop. Then she will begin selling whatever things she has, but she will run out of stuff to sell. Her kids will begin to get hungry, become thin, what can she do...? Maybe she will prostitute herself, she has to get money some how. The foreigners come and prey upon people like her all the time, she will survive for a while doing this, but what will the cost be - HIV, disease. If she gets sick and dies, what happens to her kids, will they siply have no choice but to follow a similar path...tough life, tough choices. What would you do...? How would you survive...?

The only good thing about Chris and Rose, is that God has us here. From the time of Chris being incarcerated and for maybe the next 15 years, we will supply her every need. Money, food, clothing and all of the extras needed for life. We won't just give her enough to get by on...we will give her more than enough, just like Jesus did for us. When we work in our countries we want enough for our daily needs and then we want extra for all of our various "wants", we will supply her needs and there will be extra for her "wants". God blessed Abraham with abundance so that he could be a blessing to others, we are going to bless her. We will also be involved as much as we can with Chris while he is in jail.

Now listen to this, as we began to bless Rose, God began to bless Chis in the jail...

The chief inspector in charge of Chris' case began to personally provide Chris with daily food, taking him breakfast and removing him from the cell to eat in the police staff room. Rose visited Chris with the five kids, the next time she arrived at the cells, some of the police had brought old kids clothes from their homes, as well as old toys for the kids...and they gave them all to Rose. God's Spirit is one of grace and mercy, we were all guilty at some stage, but the grace and mercy of God saved us, redeemed us, paid for our sin, removed our guilt...His mercy endures forever, amen. Chris is guilty, he will go to jail and we will look after his wife and kids.

This little example of the real life struggles amongst the poor hopefully will help us re-evaluate our view of the poor. Sometimes we might travel to another country and we get hassled by all of the beggars, they are smelly and dirty, we don't want them always around us, or we see all the sex workers young and old, and we think they all should be doing something else, they need to make better choices, get a job...but who knows why they are doing what they are doing...How many kids are they trying to support, what happened in their life to get them to where they are now. There is a reason they are begging, maybe they have nothing else they can do.

In the worst case scenario, if I saw Rose out on the street, begging with grubby, dirty kids (this will never happen to her) what would I think of her, would I give to her, would I help her. Probably not. But in this case we know her, she is a friend, we know her kids, we understand her life. We can help, and so we will.

40% of this nation live on US 2 per day, 50% of them live on less than US 1, and for the vast majority of them - IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT.

Find the poor in your world, your country and help them, bless them, share with them, be Jesus Christ for them...get involved and make a differance in someone like Rose where you are.

Earlier this year, a free download of the upcoming game Dishwasher was released via XNA. I played this, and I found it to be flat out awesome. The entire game had this amazing feel to it. You couldn't really touch this, and I thought it would be well on its way to being one of the best XBLA titles ever. However, last night I came across an article from the developers of this game and my jaw dropped. They gave it a 1/10. :O WTF!? I was in complete shock and cannot believe this. Still, regardless what reviews say, I enjoyed the free download.

"The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice." - Ezekiel 22:29

Observations:

This is just one verse among many in which God spells out why he going to inflict judgment on his people. The people have fallen into idolatry (v. 4), committed all kinds of sexual sins (v. 9-11), and mistreated each other in all kinds of ways - like extortion and robbery, mentioned in this verse. This verse also shows that God has special concern for those who get left out in society, such as the poor and the aliens. God expects his people to look after such needy people, but the Israelites had failed to do that. Because of sin like this, God says he will soon be pouring out his wrath upon his people (v. 31), which he did in the Babylonian Exile.

Application:

In the current presidential campaign, both Obama and McCain are making a lot of promises for what they will do to benefit the average, middle-class American. But I hear a lot less concern for the poor and needy. Churches don't have the resources to meet all those needs, but as God's people, we need to tell our government leaders that we want them to help us care for the needy. That needs to be a priority of government. And we need to more with our immigration policy than simply build walls and keep people out. The church needs to be God's prophetic voice, telling our nation that we can't overlook the poor or mistreat the alien (i.e. the immigrant). To do so is to risk God's judgment on our sin as surely as he judged the Israelites for theirs.

Prayer:

Lord God, as a nation I feel like we've become quite self-focused, and we are not doing the kind of job you expect us to do in caring for the poor and the aliens. Help your church to speak boldly to our society and to our government leaders. Help your people stand with the poor and the aliens. And if I can be part of that prophetic work, as a pastor or in some other role, would you open the right door and show me what you want me to do? For I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.

As I was surfin' the 'net last week I ran into a rather interesting article that claimed that Americans indeed are better off economically under the Bush regime. The article is compelling, except for (at least) two glaring flaws: it uses the discredited official CPI index to measure inflation levels and it does not account for the massive new debt loads, due in large part to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that current and future generations of Americans will have to pay back. Below is the full-text of the article:

New Income and Poverty Figures Spoil the Pity Party

Cato@Liberty Blog

The Census Bureau’s release this morning of the latest income, poverty and health insurance numbers did not follow the script of those who want to paint a picture of a nation in crisis.

Opponents of free trade, immigration, and limited government constantly tell us that the middle class is shrinking, the poor are getting poorer and more numerous, and the number of Americans without health insurance is climbing inexorably. Their solution is always to restrict trade and immigration and launch expensive new programs to alleviate the obvious misery.

Spoiling the pity party is this morning’s widely anticipated report, “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007.” Among its major findings:

• The number and percentage of Americans without health insurance actually declined slightly in 2007 compared to 2006. The share without insurance in 2007, 15.3 percent, is actually lower than it was a decade ago.
• Median household income is not falling: “Between 2006 and 2007, real median household income rose 1.3 percent, from $49,568 to $50,233—a level not statistically different from the 1999 prerecession income peak.”
• The share of households earning a middle-class income of between $35,000 and $100,000 in real 2007 dollars has indeed shrunk slightly compared to a decade ago, but so too has the share earning less than $35,000 a year, while the share earning more than $100,000 continues to rise. The middle class is not shrinking; it is moving up.
• The 12.5 percent of Americans living below the poverty line in 2007 was statistically unchanged from 2006, and remains below the 13.3 poverty rate in 1997. The poverty rate has been trending downward since the early 1990s during a time of growing trade and immigration flows.
• The Gini coefficient, a statistical measure of income inequality, was .463 in 2007, down slightly from earlier in the decade and virtually the same as it was a decade ago.

We can argue all day about what policies should be adopted to spur growth and higher incomes for the broadest swath of Americans. We certainly have plenty of ideas here at Cato. But it flies in the face of reality to argue that the major indicators of economic well being in America are trending downward in some sort of crisis that demands sweeping government intervention.

posted by Daniel Griswold on 08.26.08 @ 1:23 pm

Sorry to rain on your anti-pity-party-party, Daniel, but it looks like you forgot that the official CPI is highly discredited. Some analysts put actual inflation numbers near 12-15%. Stack that onto the 1.3% increase in pay and the situation isn't so great. Believe me, I wish the news was this good, but anyone who has been to a store recently can account for higher price levels.

Also, the 3 Trillion dollar Iraq war can't be good news for the U.S. Economy. Any way you cut it, this is going to result in higher taxes in the future or the total bankruptcy of our government. Neither situation is appealing.

To the casual reader of articles like this, please take into account the basic assumptions made and question whether they fit with reality.