Watch the video at this link. The cool stuff (beginning about 15 minutes into the video) is transcribed below.

JIM HIGHTOWER: Well, you support those that support us. And there are corporations that do that. But you also do something else. And that is devise alternatives. There’s a huge cooperative movement in America that you almost never hear about. There are some 72,000 co-ops operating today. Most of them are consumer co-ops. There are insurance co-ops. There are health care co-ops. There are food co-ops, of course. There are banking co-ops. There are all kinds of cooperatives out across the country. And those entities have 120 million people participating in them. Members.

You never hear about this movement. I’ve worked with a number of them. There’s a great one, Madison Cab Company. Union Cab Company, Madison, Wisconsin. A bunch of cabbies going broke back in the ’70s. Getting treated like Kleenex by the manager. And so, they formed a union. And the owner said, well, hell with that. I’m not dealing with any union. You know, I’ll just sell the thing.

So, they said, well, what the hell. We do the work here. You know, we do the dispatching and the driving and mechanical work. We could run it. So, they created a co-op. And they had a lot of ups and downs. But over the next 30 years, they were able to make it. And it’s the most successful cab company in all of Madison, Wisconsin. They get a high consumer approval rating.

And I learned about this, because I rode a cab to the airport there in Madison once. And the guy turned around, full body, by the way, to look at me in the back. And you know, you’re in a union cab. And I said, well, no, I didn’t. And then he told me the story. But he said, he was one of the original founders. And he had been able to put his two kids through college driving a cab. Because the owners were the workers themselves. And doing a great service to the public.

Nearly 31 years in business (nine of which I’ve been a part), Union Cab is still thriving. And unlike many of the Fortune 500, we haven’t had to steal taxpayer dollars to stay in business. Which reminds me: have you seen this yet?

From bunnyblinks

Thanks to Ramy for the tip!

Update: Apparently, last time the Capitol was lighted blue was for a slightly different cause.

Another update: Credit where it’s due. This guy snapped a gorgeous pic and posted it yesterday, noting the typo.

Kaufman also reiterated his belief, expressed in several previous floor speeches, that the only way to “truly eliminate” the problems of “too-big-to-fail” banks is to break them apart, thus limiting their size and leverage. “The Great Depression of the 1930s must be avoided at all costs,” said Kaufman. “If you believe these mega-banks are too big, if you reject the choice of bankruptcy that will lead to a recession or depression, then breaking them up is the logical answer. That’s the only way that greatly diminishes the future probability of financial disaster.”

Hear hear! But can he really get away with saying this on the Senate floor? Especially if you represent this state? I guess so, if you have no intention of running for re-election.

Guess we’d better pass this now.

It’s early on, but this strikes me as good news. If Mitt were to win the  2012 Republican presidential nomination, disgruntled teabaggers would surely need to run a third party against Socialist Mitt. Splitting the right-wing vote promotes the idea of a viable third (or fourth, or fifth) political party, and all but assures four more years of Obama — good results all around. Go, Mitt, go!

An added bonus: while it’s hard to smile knowing that this might mean we’ll be subjected to the crazed ramblings of the teabagger-endorsed ticket for months on end, at least Mitt seems capable of wiping up Santorum in the primaries. My mother’s honor rests on us getting that man out of the political picture as fast as possible.

Then there’s the hot dog paella. You gotta give me that these aren’t just any hot dogs, but I won’t blame you for asking if a Spring celebration should really have so much to do with leftovers. (Answer: it should if you’ve missed six of thirteen work-weeks in 2010 on account of unplanned travel.) Turns out it wasn’t bad, but you’d have to be a fool to advertise on the internet you’d be trying it again next year.

That girl is so dangerous. That girl is so dangerous. That girl is a bad girl. I’ve seen her type before.

My nephew, inquiring with surprising innocence:

I don’t get it, Mom. What could be so dangerous about the way she types?

Enter (brain right) another “Manuela,” this one played by Cecilia Roth in Almodovar’s Todo Sobre Mi Madre. Toward the end of the film Manuela comes face-to-face with Lola, the baby daddy (now baby mami — it’s Almodovar, after all) of their son, who dies near the beginning of the film, so I can skip the spoiler alert.

Lola’s past actions and Manuela’s pain have led us to expect a confrontation marked by anger, rage, and hatred. Instead, there is calm, peace, and acceptance, although not reconciliation, since there is nothing to reconcile.

Anger is an abandoned possibility. Manuela would not choose to hate, and she understands that a person must decide to be angry. Anger, she has learned, does nothing for those you love, including (especially?) your own damn self.

Back to the then present moment, I opened up a web-browser to check my Facebook newsfeed. Cabby Dave had written a thoughtful post, “A Dishonorable Man,” about an easy target for the Madison Left, Dick Cheney. Scanning  the post’s comments, I jumped to the words of Rebecca, my friend, life coach, and coworker:

Wishing an asshole like Cheney dead does, in fact, commit spiritual violence, which is why it’s a self defeating wish that plunges the wisher into his world. Not a world I want to be part of.

Whereas pain can be inflicted,  anger is an emotional state we enter by choice, usually but not always a bad one. My job is filled with moments where understanding this can make the difference between comfort and exasperation.

My own mother, however, would have freely admitted she did not teach me this lesson. She would sometimes revel in her anger, refining it to a point whereupon she was clearly having fun, such as that time when out of nowhere and with great pride she announced during her last Thanksgiving dinner that she hoped Rick Santorum would someday “get caught fucking his cat.” (I think he preferred talking about “man on dog,” but whatever.) My mother was more like Manuela’s friend Agrado, who ruffled her costumes until they were real. She had fun faking it til she was making it, having learned to love it by the time she succeeded.

]]> http://bunnyblinks.com/2010/02/27/all-about-my-mother-of-a-daydream/feed/ 1 BunnyBlinks http://bunnyblinks.com/2010/02/14/a-mans-gotta-dream/ http://bunnyblinks.com/2010/02/14/a-mans-gotta-dream/#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:35:04 +0000 BunnyBlinks http://bunnyblinks.com/?p=329 ]]> My 10-year-old nephew reports that my 66-year-old dad has announced plans to patent the video game “Tuba Hero.”

According to my nephew, what’s truly funny about this pronouncement is that he can’t tell if his grandpa is joking.

In other tangentially guitar-hero related news, my 7-year-old niece is working on a re-write of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” The little I’ve heard so far sounds promising: “He’s smelling us all with the nose …… of the Tiger!”