The Writing Corner

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158474602009-11-27T14:56:33.403-05:00The Writing CornerBeth Wellington on politics and cultureBeth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.comBlogger461125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-85278247368865977902009-10-21T21:11:00.004-04:002009-10-21T23:54:27.465-04:00"After years of doing our part to undermine Wall Street, the darned thing fell on us!"

Graphic design used on a t-shirt used in many union actions...Northland Poster Collective dedicated itself to placing art and humor at the center of organizing strategy. I just learned that it is no more, as of June, after 30 years and three months.We don't have to tell you that maintaining a small, insurgent political art organization, without institutional backing or grant funding for thirty

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-26677774408909889472009-10-12T23:50:00.004-04:002009-10-19T23:31:50.559-04:00No Impact Man at the Lyric

Tonight, for the 7:00 show of No Impact Man, the President of Virginia Tech, in honor of sustainability week, bought any student a ticket and a drink. 200 took him up on in. The 9:15 show was slower, but Matt, Shawn and Mark were among the folks I sold popcorn and drinks.Forget the snarky review in the NYT. The movie is worth seeing, even if you have to pay to get in. It's a candid look at

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-27538796013356938222009-10-08T23:59:00.002-04:002009-10-09T00:02:53.573-04:00EPA Protest goes to Texas, thanks to Charlee

What I've been doing today. Charlee is handing this out tomorrow at the Mountain Justice Road show in TX. With my thanks to Scott Parkin at Rainforest Action Network for the map.

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-74978882881541925462009-10-07T21:47:00.004-04:002009-10-07T23:31:23.782-04:00Mark-up for Local Community Radio Act of 2009

Graphic from the Future of Music Coalition.~My friends at Prometheus Radio are leading a campaign to get the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (H. R. 1147) passed to local communities to set up low-cost radio stations.Boucher's Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet issued a media advisory Wednesday, 07 October 2009 09:42 a.m. that it would be meeting at 10 am

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-72250611607250473882009-10-03T17:38:00.004-04:002009-10-03T19:55:30.056-04:00Wondering how to raise $50k for Energy Justice Network

Illustration by Linda Zacks from Orion Magazine for Ted Nace's article on Energy Justice Network, "Stopping Coal in It's Tracks."~Can you spare $10? (Or more, if you have it...)I'm trying to figure out how to provide financial support to Energy Justice Network. Thjs shoe-string operation hosts the No New Coal Plants list which is so helpful to us here in Appalachia (plus lists and fact

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-12057630522462943892009-09-30T23:41:00.006-04:002009-09-30T23:56:45.797-04:00End Mountaintop Removal Day of Action: October 30

Photo by Robin Markle of the "We need 86 Mountains Because..." project in Philly 9/11/09The Environmental Protection Agency has announced that it is questioning 79 of the Army Corps of Engineers permits for mountain top removal mining in WV, KY, OH and TN. Questioning, but not cancelling. I'm glad the EPA has taken this action and we need for the agency to do more. The Corps needs to be

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-74887557515746310142009-09-30T12:01:00.000-04:002009-09-30T12:21:53.255-04:00Are Electric Co-ops All So Different?

Photo taken by Joseph Robers on September 10 on his way to work.The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative argues it is different than commercial utilities because it adheres to the "Seven Cooperative Principles," the last of which is Concern for Community—While focusing on members needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through policy.But sustainable development

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-35355150750015180012009-09-29T12:29:00.009-04:002009-09-30T12:25:50.864-04:00I have here in my hand...

This cartoon by Herblock (Herbert Lawrence Block) is from the 2000 Library of Congress exhibit and appeared in the May 7, 1954 Washington Post.Dendron resident Thomas Byrd waved a petition before Town Council September 14, saying he had 190 supporters for the plant, according to Smithfield Times's Jim Tuttle (email) reports in his September 16 story "Dendron to send project to county

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-33347423284566843832009-09-27T15:02:00.005-04:002009-10-01T15:39:04.261-04:00Grace Bauer: "Oh, baby. Boom or bust."

Cover of the Fall 2009 issue of Prairie Schooner.~I've know poet Grace Bauer (email, some of her poems) back from the time when she taught at Virginia Tech along side others such as Ed Falco, David Graham and Jeff Mann. Since 1994, she's been at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she has stepped in for Hilda Raz (email, webpage) to edit the Fall 2009 issue of Prairie Schooner.As she

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-29863265134029451252009-09-26T12:05:00.012-04:002009-09-29T14:07:42.527-04:00Google, does this really look like a spam blog to you?

(Don't know the original source of this illustration, but it comes from Wilson Library Reserve and Periodicals at the University of Minnesota Libraries.)~Thanks to all of you who emailed or posted comment of moral support and advice via email and facebook. Don't know if it's coincidental, but Google unlocked The Writing Corner today, after I wrote Trudy Cederman at 7:35 last night. It was no

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-39389647724246820682009-09-16T22:56:00.007-04:002009-09-16T23:49:52.902-04:00Daniel Ellsberg: 40 years later

Poster for Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America, which had its first theatrical showing today.~Daniel Ellsberg had been making copies nights since 10/1/1969---7,000 pages, a few at a time-- month after month, on a slow XEROX machine at a small advertising firm owned by a friend of a friend. A military analyst for the RAND Corporation, Ellberg had

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-51709092819763981922009-09-14T23:47:00.011-04:002009-09-16T14:26:31.389-04:00Parsing the Public Option

Cartoon by Daryl Cagle reprinted by permission. In his August 30 blog post, "How to Draw an Ugly Health Plan and Make it Pretty," Cagle (a supporter of single player--be it public or private) writes he came up with the cartoon to "comment on the speculation that the Democrats would use sentiment about Teddy Kennedy’s death to push health care legislation, possibly by attaching Kennedy’s

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-53522850839517900162009-09-13T23:23:00.006-04:002009-09-15T15:47:14.294-04:00Crystal Sutton sucumbs to cancer at 68

Photo of Crystal Sutton, the inspiration for the movie Norma Rae, at the time of a reception in her honor on June 12, 2007 on the ocassion of her donation of her papers to Almanance Community College in Graham, North Carolina (just east of Burlington--for info on the collection email Sheila Street.)At the age of 33 in 1973, she worked at the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., making

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-68475587089085582002009-09-10T23:16:00.006-04:002009-09-10T23:40:21.502-04:00Ethelbert, Coal Country's VA Premiere, and Contra Poster, WHEW

Cover of my friend Ethelbert Miller's second memoir, which he read from tonight at Volume II Bookstore at University Mall in Blacksburg.Then on to catch the crowd who had just seen Coal Country, including friends such as Marian, Anita, Betty (the new Mountain Justice Blacksburg faculty advisor) Clark, David, Kathy and Gary Selvage and Pete Ramey (all up from Wise), and filmmaker Jimmy Crawford

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-24693623007344769092009-09-09T23:14:00.012-04:002009-09-29T23:27:48.982-04:00Benefit Contra and More 11/8: Toss the Possum and Shawn Brenneman

Yes! Save the Date of November 8 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. for a benefit raise money for Montain Justice Blacksburg, Concerned Citizens of Giles County and Energy Justice Network.The contra dance band extraordinaire, Toss the Possum (check out their new logo above, and Blacksburg's equally gifted caller (musican and contra dancer) Shawn Brenneman have graciously volunteered to show us a

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-16494003084152641722009-09-08T23:34:00.005-04:002009-09-09T00:02:24.676-04:00The outrage, oh, the outrage

Cartoon by J.D. Crowe (website, email) of the Mobile (Alabama) RegisterThe White House released a transcript of this speech slated for today. It was a pep talk, nothing much controversial, with this ending:So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-43125141938798316472009-09-07T16:19:00.007-04:002009-09-07T20:58:44.675-04:00President Obama, Listen to Bill Moyers.

Photo of Billionaires for Wealth Care.Billionaires for Wealthcare is a grassroots network of health insurance CEOs, industry lobbyists, talk-show hosts, and others profiting off of our broken health care system. We are not a political, religious or even particularly well-organized group. We're simple folk, thrilled profiteers pouring out of our corner offices to dance on the grave of "Change."

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-90884547326343587502009-09-06T22:37:00.007-04:002009-09-07T16:54:22.809-04:00Latest wingnuttery: Green for All logo is secret community iconography

Logo from the website Green for All, an Oakland-based non-profit started by Van Jones to press for environmental quality, justice and economic opportunity.In the wackiest thing yet, stumbled on this comment at StealthFusion.com under research "Photo: Van Jones makes a Salute." (Look it up, I'll not bolster the Technorati score). Complete with a slew of supporting illustrations, "Ace, an

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-82880806450273176962009-09-05T17:55:00.004-04:002009-09-06T22:36:55.831-04:00Now Verizon says it's not boycotting Beck

Well, the Verizon saga continues. We know Verizon Wireless hears us now, as you can see above from a visit to my blog this morning. But Corporate Strategy and Policy chief Jim Gerace's (email, 908-559-7508) says says bloggers got the Glenn Beck story wrong. In his interview w. Steven Mufson for today's WaPo story, "Verizon Wireless Criticized by Green Groups for Backing Event," he says,We

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-37210168575684394372009-09-04T07:00:00.006-04:002009-09-08T18:18:30.503-04:00Can you hear us yet?

Banner from Verizon Wireless's Verizon Wireless' Green InitiativesWell, it's almost Labor Day Weekend, and no word from Verizon Wireless about its sponsorship of the Friends of America rally. See my August 31 post, "Can you hear us now? Verizon Wireless sponsors climate denial rally."So imagine my merriment, when I read on the company's website howVerizon Wireless works every day to protect our

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-38780220472926720642009-09-03T22:30:00.003-04:002009-09-04T00:00:03.187-04:00Why have that Star of David on Israel's flag?

Photo accompanying the May 25, 2009 story in the Telegraph, "Benjamin Netanyahu: Israel will expand settlements."The Netanyahu government in Israel is getting bolder all the time. Israel human rights group Peace Now (email) and Yesh Din have each brought suit about illegal construction on the West Bank and the state is no longer promising eventual demolition. This at least according to Haaretz,

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-24669488325640142842009-09-02T22:04:00.015-04:002009-09-04T18:42:53.651-04:00Take this job and shove it: former TMK security guards at Edwight treesit

Massey CEO Don Blankenship had told the AP thatThe coal won’t spoil for a million years. I doubt the tree climbers will be there then. Apparently Blankenship tells the AP one thing and TMK something else? Tonight, I got an email from Charles Suggs at Climate Ground Zero. He sent a link to a video of the almost hour-long interview (10 minute youtube version is here) with Chris Carey and

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-2385458818802339042009-09-01T23:17:00.005-04:002009-09-02T00:00:52.208-04:00On the Right: the next tea party: Obama's data mining?

Data mining graphic from Direct Marketing Magazine.The name is innocuous: National Legal and Policy Center. The description benign, talking about how it wasfounded in late 1991 following the release of the Senate Ethics Committee report whitewashing the Keating Five. The report made reference to the Code of Ethics for Government, but not by name, presumably for fear of giving it greater standing

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-12084997172919881202009-08-31T23:31:00.008-04:002009-09-03T17:46:08.407-04:00Can you hear us now? Verizon Wireless sponsors climate denial rally

Photo of Ted Nugent from Rolling Stone story, "Ted Nugent Threatens to Kill Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton During Vicious Onstage Rant.~New York Times columnist David Pogue drew the attention of Verizon Wireless CEO when he wrote about the cell phone industry. In his latest efforts as journalist and gadfly, he's conducting a "Take Back the Beep" campaign to get the companies to stop making

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15847460.post-49796100053334867902009-08-28T19:07:00.010-04:002009-08-29T19:00:43.633-04:00Do you have to be a liar to sell coal?

Exhibits B from The Front Porch Blog post of August 26 by my friend JW Randolph.~August 25, Jim Hoggan of DeSmogBlog reported:"The Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security (FACES of Coal)." the latest "grassroots" organization to join the public conversation on behalf of the coal industry, appears to be a project of the K-Street public relations firm, the Adfero Group, one of

Beth Wellingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318537209567202826noreply@blogger.com0