Marjie Lundstrom: GOP's petty jab only energizes drive to honor Berkeley legend

Sacramento Bee ^ | 10/6/5 | Marjie Lundstrom

[SmithL]

BERKELEY - What's in a name?

If we're talking about the Berkeley post office, we're talking a Category 5 storm of petty partisan politics, compliments of congressional Republicans.

But liberal-minded Berkeley may get the last licks in this brouhaha, which has city leaders and citizens alike spitting mad.

First, a little history.

In case you missed it, our fearless leaders in Congress outdid themselves last week with their thumbs-down vote on a normally routine matter: the naming of a post office.

According to Roll Call, measures to name post office buildings make up 12 percent of the laws Congress passes - ho-hum items that usually breeze through the House with little ado.

Not this time.

It seems that Republicans, led by Iowa Rep. Steve King, decided that 94-year-old Maudelle Shirek wasn't American enough for that honor in Berkeley.

The House rejected the resolution, 215-190, mostly along party lines, with King declaring that Shirek - the granddaughter of slaves - was affiliated with the Communist Party and didn't represent American values.

Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of Oakland, who had sponsored the resolution to honor her longtime friend and mentor, was furious. This led to a prickly volley of words between the two representatives, with Lee rightly accusing King of being "better suited to the era of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover."

King then reportedly declared that McCarthy was a "hero for America," and the former FBI director was "a giant when it comes to law enforcement."

It makes my head hurt.

The Republican red-baiting is bad enough - what decade are we living in, anyway? - but the snubbing of Maudelle Shirek is unconscionable.

[SmithL]

All of the communist-sympathizers have their panties in a bunch over this.

[flashbunny]

Berkeley.
Madison.
Ithaca.

The axis of socialist weasels.

[NormsRevenge]

Hey Marjie!

The vet called, the test was negative.

[ElkGroveDan]

...and a clip fom the Wayback Machine:

Ethnic NewsWatch
Oakland Post

December 16, 1998

Lee Urges End To Cuba Embargo

Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, Monday called for an end to a longstanding U.S. trade embargo with Cuba after she returned last week from a five-day factfinding mission on the neighboring nation.

Lee and the 15 citizen delegates on the mission called for a thorough review of the U.S. policy on Cuba, including an end to the comprehensive ban on economic, trade and travel relations between the countries.

"The U.S. embargo on Cuba is a failed policy that has only served to impede understanding and dialogue between our two countries," Lee said.

Other citizen delegates who appeared at a news conference with Lee in Oakland Monday included Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, Berkeley Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek and Oakland City Councilwoman Jane Brunner.

"I have learned a lot from the Cubans and I believe Oakland and the state of California have much to gain from the end of the embargo," Brunner said.

Several delegates said the 36-year-old embargo has had a devastating impact on Cuba's ability to acquire food, medical supplies and other necessities.

Lee said the embargo also has created a "lost opportunity" for American businesses that cannot compete for Cuban trade.

A group of 20 U.S. senators led by Senator John Warner, R-Virginia, wrote to President Clinton last month requesting the establishment of a new bipartisan commission to review the U.S. Cuba policy.

[tophat9000]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1498015/posts
Send her here...'Victims of Communism Memorial' Planned for Washington

[okie01]

Let me guess.

Miss Marjie of the Sac Bee is a Commie, too?

[vpintheak]

Screw the commie SOB's!!!!

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Steve is MY congressman and I'm proud of him.

[madprof98]

This from the website of Berkeley's People's Park:

"I strongly support acquring People's Park -- for the people, by the people and of the people. Until we secure that land it will be subject to University mismanagement and the threat of inappropriate development. Look at the history of park management. We can do much better, but only if we have control over the park. The way we get control is by owning the park."
--Maudelle Shirek: January 1996.

Last I saw it, People's Park looked a lot like the photos of Castro's socialist paradise, only the homeless bums had not been locked out of sight.

[kcvl]

Marjie Lundstrom is a Senior Editor/Columnist and Writing Coach of The Sacramento Bee.

TV news is 'horrifying,' Asner says at conference

Leading journalists and others gathered January 13 for a conference about ethics, standards and editorial decision-making. Participants in "Reporting on Celebrities: The Ethics of News Coverage" included actor Ed Asner, L.A. Times managing editor Dean Baquet, and professor Leo Braudy. "Communication is the infrastructure of our culture, but it is also that which weakens, corrodes or debases, so why do we do it?" asked professor Jay Harris, who facilitated the forum. The conference was co-sponsored by USC Annenberg and the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Writing in the Sacramento Bee, columnist Marjie Lundstrom (pictured, above) said the discussion revealed "the incredible tension within news organizations and quasi-news organizations -- and between competitors -- on how much is too much, and the blurring line between journalism and pap."

[Chuckster]

Several delegates said the 36-year-old embargo has had a devastating impact on Cuba's ability to acquire food, medical supplies and other necessities.

Well, its my understanding that that is exactly what an embargo is supposed to do. Too bad about the cigars though.

[kcvl]

She nuts!




Time to stop glossing over ugly risks of beauty products.

By Marjie Lundstrom -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, July 3, 2004

Last month, a solemn group gathered in San Francisco's Mission District - most of them women - focusing on a topic very close to home: deodorant, toothpaste, nail polish, perfume, shampoo, hair gel and other beauty goo.

No sales pitches here. No free tote bags or "gift with purchase." This was about the cancer-causing potential of all the stuff we slather on our skin and dab on our toes, products whose ingredients may not be as safe as we think.


snip


So far, it's been a disappointing year for those of us who understand that pollution is more than dirty air, unclean water and roadside litter.

It's about polluted bodies, too. It's about toxins and contaminants that find their way into us.

Assemblywoman Judy Chu gets this, which is why the Monterey Park Democrat has resurrected a bill that would ban by 2006 the use of phthalates in all personal-care products made or sold in the state. Chu backed off a more stringent proposal in April that would have banned even more chemicals after it ran afoul of Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn, a fellow Democrat who chairs the Assembly Health Committee.

snip

In September, new regulations take effect in Europe banning cosmetics with phthalates, an ingredient often used in nail polish that some studies have linked to reproductive birth defects and cancer.

"Preventing birth defects is far more important than producing nail polish that doesn't chip," said Chu. "It's unacceptable for women in America not to have the same health protections as women in Europe."

The buzz around beauty products intensified last month with the release of a study saying that 89 percent of the ingredients used have not been evaluated for safety. In its investigation of more than 10,000 personal-care products, the Environmental Working Group found that 1 in every 100 on the market contains ingredients "certified by government authorities as known or probable human carcinogens."

snip

Look no further than the fate of the biomonitoring measure, a ground-breaking bill by Sen. Deborah Ortiz to measure the presence of toxic chemicals in our bodies by analyzing bodily fluids, beginning with breast milk. The bill, strenuously opposed by the Chamber of Commerce and chemical companies, failed by one vote last month in the Assembly Health Committee.

snip

Memo to the guys in the suits: We don't want to give up the stuff. We just want to know that what's in it is safe.

Reach Marjie Lundstrom at (916) 321-1055 or mlundstrom@sacbee.com.

[DUMBGRUNT]

According to Roll Call, measures to name post office buildings make up 12 percent of the laws Congress passes...

If we let them rename everything after each election, perhaps it would keep the pols out of my pockets?

[Bonaparte]

I predict Berkeley will name it after their favorite communist anyway -- and absolutely nothing will come of it.

[garandgal]

I predict Berkeley will name it after their favorite communist anyway -- and absolutely nothing will come of it.

Not so. We in Iowa got to see the DM Register go absolutely nuts when Congressman King called McCarthy a "great American." It's always fun to see libs have a conniption fit!

[Bonaparte]

Me too. You can't praise Senator Joseph P. McCarthy enough!

[heleny]

According to Roll Call, measures to name post office buildings make up 12 percent of the laws Congress passes

These special post office names make everything so confusing, especially because they usually aren't extremely famous people's names. And, besides, who would know where the so-and-so post office is, even if the name were familiar, like, say, Lincoln or Washington?

Still, any obscure patriot's name would be better than one of the Communists' names.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Spose Steve can prevent some commie lover from naming something after Comrade Harkin after he leaves?