Duty to Warn
Set phasors to Stimulus!
Liberal bloggers seem to be lining up in favor of the $1 trillion-plus stimulus bill to rescue Starship Free Enterpise by boldly going where no economy has gone before.
One guy at Huffpost, Jason Rosenbaum, in a column whose gist is chastising progressives for not supporting the stimulus package enough, believes the economy will never recover if the bill doesn't pass. Then he reminds that there goes health care and all our other cute pet causes with the bath
The President, meanwhile, assures us if the bill does not pass there will be catastrophe, no doubt about it. Both sides of the debate (Cut Taxes! Deficit Spend! Cut Taxes! Deficit Spend!) seem to concur that disaster is immiment if nothing is done.
Maybe not.
Liberal bloggers seem to be lining up in favor of the $1 trillion-plus stimulus bill to rescue Starship Free Enterpise by boldly going where no economy has gone before.
One guy at Huffpost, Jason Rosenbaum, in a column whose gist is chastising progressives for not supporting the stimulus package enough, believes the economy will never recover if the bill doesn't pass. Then he reminds that there goes health care and all our other cute pet causes with the bath
The President, meanwhile, assures us if the bill does not pass there will be catastrophe, no doubt about it. Both sides of the debate (Cut Taxes! Deficit Spend! Cut Taxes! Deficit Spend!) seem to concur that disaster is immiment if nothing is done.
Maybe not.
I want to thank each and everyone of you for your efforts in my urgent time of need, you cannot imagine how much my spirit has been lifted from the cards and letters, the phone calls and how everyone kept up the pressure. My gratitude is really more than I can express.
My return to Lewisburg was met like a hero’s welcome, and many people came to assure me of my safety there. It is so ironic that the prisoners in a federal maximum-security prison can guarantee my safety, but the Bureau of Prisons will not. I did not say, “cannot”, but “will not” do so. You have to remember the BOP is a little brother to the FBI and they came from an illegitimate mother called the JUST-US (Justice) Department.
My return to Lewisburg was met like a hero’s welcome, and many people came to assure me of my safety there. It is so ironic that the prisoners in a federal maximum-security prison can guarantee my safety, but the Bureau of Prisons will not. I did not say, “cannot”, but “will not” do so. You have to remember the BOP is a little brother to the FBI and they came from an illegitimate mother called the JUST-US (Justice) Department.
Our new President and Vice President rode the rails to D.C., echoes of history in the air. Obama's deliberate choice of a train for his inaugural journey and Biden’s famed love for Amtrak raise hopes that the new Administration will make public transportation a priority. Unfortunately, the current recovery bill heads directly down the opposite track.
Transportation drives our oil dependence and our global warming impact. The sector is responsible for 70 percent of our oil consumption and second only to electrical generation in its global warming footprint. Congress finally raised fuel economy standards in the 2007 energy bill, for the first time in decades. And this will help. But far more needs to be done, and the current bill just cut allocations for intercity rail almost 80 percent from new House Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar's original proposal, and made similar cuts for public transit.
Transportation drives our oil dependence and our global warming impact. The sector is responsible for 70 percent of our oil consumption and second only to electrical generation in its global warming footprint. Congress finally raised fuel economy standards in the 2007 energy bill, for the first time in decades. And this will help. But far more needs to be done, and the current bill just cut allocations for intercity rail almost 80 percent from new House Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar's original proposal, and made similar cuts for public transit.
I write simply not to remain silent in the face of U.S. and Israeli aggression against the Palestinian population in general, and the Gaza population in particular.
Where to start? There are so many other writers and spokespersons appearing regularly on the internet alternate media that speak clearly, passionately, and knowledgeably about the Israeli atrocities in Gaza. On the regular media, the corporate controlled agenda continues its endless reiterations of the Israeli line that their purpose militarily is to stop Hamas’ rockets, a position so grievously out of context and so contrary to the obvious war crimes being committed against the people of Gaza. The governments of the west, part and parcel of the same agenda, proffer up political platitudes about regretting civilian casualties, about proportionality, about the right of Israel to defend itself. The reports themselves disingenuously seek “balance” by equating the ineffective and feeble rocket attacks with the thunderous bombardment of U.S. Hellfire missiles fired from U.S. helicopters and war planes, the use of phosphorous bombs, cluster bombs, and other modern creations of “precision” warfare.
Where to start? There are so many other writers and spokespersons appearing regularly on the internet alternate media that speak clearly, passionately, and knowledgeably about the Israeli atrocities in Gaza. On the regular media, the corporate controlled agenda continues its endless reiterations of the Israeli line that their purpose militarily is to stop Hamas’ rockets, a position so grievously out of context and so contrary to the obvious war crimes being committed against the people of Gaza. The governments of the west, part and parcel of the same agenda, proffer up political platitudes about regretting civilian casualties, about proportionality, about the right of Israel to defend itself. The reports themselves disingenuously seek “balance” by equating the ineffective and feeble rocket attacks with the thunderous bombardment of U.S. Hellfire missiles fired from U.S. helicopters and war planes, the use of phosphorous bombs, cluster bombs, and other modern creations of “precision” warfare.
In 1972, my mother wore a red, white, and blue flag design long-sleeved shirt to the Democratic National Convention. A housewife and mother, struggling to find her own identity as well as a future for her five daughters, she ran as a delegate for Shirley Chisholm. Chisholm was the first black woman to run for President, and though she didn't win enough delegates to gain a serious place at the negotiation table in the party, her race for the white house made a seismic shift, both in racial and gender political realm. My mother chose the shirt as a statement in the middle of the Vietnam War that, though a divided country, the flag belonged to every American, to every opinion, to every voice.
I was 2 years old when my mother wore her American flag shirt. I remember growing up in the whirling energy of those times, when things were happening so quickly and tangibly, and each American was part of something important and big.
Now I am nearly the same age my mother was, and my daughter is 2 years old. This summer and fall, I wore that same flag shirt each time I went to a political rally or to work to register voters.
I was 2 years old when my mother wore her American flag shirt. I remember growing up in the whirling energy of those times, when things were happening so quickly and tangibly, and each American was part of something important and big.
Now I am nearly the same age my mother was, and my daughter is 2 years old. This summer and fall, I wore that same flag shirt each time I went to a political rally or to work to register voters.
A steady stream of reporters from corporate news media outlets warmed things up at a frigid Camp Hope in Chicago yesterday, when CNN and the local affiliates of ABC, NBC, FOX, and CBS all called at Drexel Park on day two of the 18-day vigil urging President-elect Obama to make good on his campaign pledges.
Universal, publicly funded health care was the theme yesterday, highlighted by a presentation from one of the nation’s top authorities on the subject, Dr. Quentin Young, MD.
For decades, Dr. Young has promoted the benefits of a Canadian-type, “single-payer” system like most of the world’s industrialized nations. Young’s office is in Hyde Park, the same venerable neighborhood where Camp Hope is pitched, a few short blocks from Barack Obama’s home. His partner in the practice has been Barack Obama’s personal physician since the Senator moved into the historic district a few years ago.
Universal, publicly funded health care was the theme yesterday, highlighted by a presentation from one of the nation’s top authorities on the subject, Dr. Quentin Young, MD.
For decades, Dr. Young has promoted the benefits of a Canadian-type, “single-payer” system like most of the world’s industrialized nations. Young’s office is in Hyde Park, the same venerable neighborhood where Camp Hope is pitched, a few short blocks from Barack Obama’s home. His partner in the practice has been Barack Obama’s personal physician since the Senator moved into the historic district a few years ago.
Determined to keep President-elect Barack Obama true to his promise of change, peace and economic justice activists kick off an 18-day outdoor vigil January 1, four blocks from the Illinois Senator’s home in Chicago.
Camp Hope, headquartered in the Windy City’s Drexel Square Park, seeks to have Obama swiftly enact eight initiatives on issues he supported during his campaign.
A Thursday, 1:00 pm news conference will feature ministers, a Chicago City Alderman, a 25 year-old father facing deportation after living in the U.S. for 17 years and the mother of Tomas Young, a paraplegic Iraq war veteran featured in the movie, “Body of War.”
Kathy Kelly, co-director of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the Chicago group organizing Camp Hope, said, “We feel responsible to give visibility to needed, progressive change at a time when the powerful seek to maintain the status quo of warfare and unbridled greed. The reckless abandon they exhibit is a sad reminder of the Bush Regime.”
The Chicago native said the camp is simply saying to President-elect Obama, “Don’t leave these ideas out in the cold. They are from the people who put you in office.”
Camp Hope, headquartered in the Windy City’s Drexel Square Park, seeks to have Obama swiftly enact eight initiatives on issues he supported during his campaign.
A Thursday, 1:00 pm news conference will feature ministers, a Chicago City Alderman, a 25 year-old father facing deportation after living in the U.S. for 17 years and the mother of Tomas Young, a paraplegic Iraq war veteran featured in the movie, “Body of War.”
Kathy Kelly, co-director of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the Chicago group organizing Camp Hope, said, “We feel responsible to give visibility to needed, progressive change at a time when the powerful seek to maintain the status quo of warfare and unbridled greed. The reckless abandon they exhibit is a sad reminder of the Bush Regime.”
The Chicago native said the camp is simply saying to President-elect Obama, “Don’t leave these ideas out in the cold. They are from the people who put you in office.”
"Violence is the first refuge of the incompetent."
- Isaac Asimov
The Army Times reported on September 30 that a combat brigade, about 4,000 troops, which could be called on for “civil unrest and crowd control,” had been assigned inside the United States for the first time since Reconstruction.
Civil libertarians reacted immediately, noting the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal military personnel from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States. Peace activists condemned the decision as well. “It is a sad day for America when our government is preparing to protect itself by using the military on its own citizens,” Michael McPhearson, Director of Veterans For Peace, said in response to the news.
- Isaac Asimov
The Army Times reported on September 30 that a combat brigade, about 4,000 troops, which could be called on for “civil unrest and crowd control,” had been assigned inside the United States for the first time since Reconstruction.
Civil libertarians reacted immediately, noting the Posse Comitatus Act prohibits federal military personnel from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States. Peace activists condemned the decision as well. “It is a sad day for America when our government is preparing to protect itself by using the military on its own citizens,” Michael McPhearson, Director of Veterans For Peace, said in response to the news.
While talking heads sway back and forth between bashing progressives for their lack of "realism" and bashing republicans for their lack of reality, the really neat thing that seems to be occurring is the realization of a desperately needed three-party system in America.
It seems like only a decade ago - wait a minute, it was a decade ago - that angling for a viable third party was akin to liberal treason. Voting Green, for example, was throwing your vote away or worse, just handing it over to the Republicans.
In the frightful tug-of-war between Nazi and Nazi-lite, it was all hands on hemp (so to speak) and "lesser of two evils" was the battle-cry pragmatic progressives were reduced to.
Well, screw that now.
The emerging political landscape is the most fertile one yet for a three-party democratic system, and what's most intriguing about it is that it gets to happen within the existing two-party architecture.
My rationale for this lies in math you don't even need a calculator to compute.
It seems like only a decade ago - wait a minute, it was a decade ago - that angling for a viable third party was akin to liberal treason. Voting Green, for example, was throwing your vote away or worse, just handing it over to the Republicans.
In the frightful tug-of-war between Nazi and Nazi-lite, it was all hands on hemp (so to speak) and "lesser of two evils" was the battle-cry pragmatic progressives were reduced to.
Well, screw that now.
The emerging political landscape is the most fertile one yet for a three-party democratic system, and what's most intriguing about it is that it gets to happen within the existing two-party architecture.
My rationale for this lies in math you don't even need a calculator to compute.