Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Obama administration on exports
Justice Department files suit against Arizona on its new immigration law
The Justice Department has filed suit against Arizona on grounds that the state's new immigration law illegally intrudes on federal prerogatives and will seek a preliminary injunction to stop the legislation from taking effect.
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/46MP2V/RRM7G/UTUD4Q/6E0O8B/XZ2BP/ID/t
Support ACORN and their lawsuit
From: ACORN Team <newsacorn@acorn.org>
Date: June 22, 2010 5:31:12 PM EDT
To: Jason@jasongooljar.com
Subject: Thanks for standing up against unconstitutional attacks
Reply-To: newsacorn@acorn.org
Thank you for taking the time to write to your Congress member and Senators demanding that they go on record denouncing their decision to unconstitutionally defund ACORN. This issue goes far beyond ACORN, which has ended all field work, and impacts all organizations that stand up for working families against those with power in the United States. By taking a stand you are letting Congress know they can’t get away with demonizing people’s organizations for political expediency.
With ACORN’s lawsuit against the Defund ACORN Act speeding through the courts, we need lawmakers to hear from as many people as possible about standing up against unconstitutional abused of power by Congress and the Executive Branch. Please click here to ask you friends to add their names to send their own emails demanding Congress go on record against this breach of constitutional rights.
Stay connected with ACORN and we’ll keep you posted on the progress of this campaign.Look for us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Sincerely,
— The ACORN Team
The FTC and new media
Textbook Definition of a Tea Bagger “Tea Party Patriot”
I was reading the article in The Nation. about the Mad Tea Party when a paragraph describing what the Tea Party is made up of hit me. Thank Jonathan Raban from the New York Review of Books for writing this.
teabagger
\tea-BAG-ger\ , noun;
Libertarians criticize CPAC conservatives
I just got this press release from the Libertarian Party which I simply must display in full. It really is interesting. As a progressive liberal, I don’t agree with everything libertarians are for, but I sure don’t agree with everything conservatives are for either. Furthermore, was it not libertarians and Ron Paul supporters who began the tea party movement in the first place?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 18, 2010
Contact: Wes Benedict, Executive Director
E-mail: wes.benedict@lp.org
Phone: 202-333-0008 ext. 222
Libertarians criticize CPAC conservatives
WASHINGTON – As the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) holds its annual conference, Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict offered the following statement:
I’m sure we’ll hear an awful lot about "limited government" from the mouths of CPAC politicians over the next few days. If I had a nickel every time a conservative said "limited government" and didn’t mean it, I’d be a very rich man.
Unlike libertarians, most conservatives simply don’t want small government. They want their own version of big government. Of course, they have done a pretty good job of fooling American voters for decades by repeating the phrases "limited government" and "small government" like a hypnotic chant.
It’s interesting that conservatives only notice "big government" when it’s something their political enemies want. When conservatives want it, apparently it doesn’t count.
- If a conservative wants a trillion-dollar foreign war, that doesn’t count.
- If a conservative wants a 700-billion-dollar bank bailout, that doesn’t count.
- If a conservative wants to spend billions fighting a needless and destructive War on Drugs, that doesn’t count.
- If a conservative wants to spend billions building border fences, that doesn’t count.
- If a conservative wants to "protect" the huge, unjust, and terribly inefficient Social Security and Medicare programs, that doesn’t count.
- If a conservative wants billions in farm subsidies, that doesn’t count.
It’s truly amazing how many things "don’t count."
Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh can’t ever be satisfied with enough military spending and foreign wars.
Conservatives like Mitt Romney want to force everyone to buy health insurance.
Conservatives like George W. Bush — well, his list of supporting big-government programs is almost endless.
Ronald Reagan, often praised as an icon of conservatism, signed massive spending bills that made his the biggest-spending administration (as a percentage of GDP) since World War II.
Some people claim that these big-government supporters aren’t "true conservatives." Well, if a person opposes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, opposes the War on Drugs, opposes border fences, and opposes mandatory Social Security and Medicare, it’s hard to believe that anyone would describe that person as a conservative at all. Most people would say that person is a libertarian (or maybe even a liberal).
Obviously, most liberals don’t want limited government either. It’s just that their support for big government leans toward massive handout and redistribution programs.
The fact is, liberals and conservatives both want gigantic government. Their visions sometimes look different from each other, but both are huge. The only Americans who truly want small government are libertarians.
An article posted at CNS News, linked prominently from the Drudge Report, noted that the Obama administration is on track to beat the Franklin Roosevelt administration in terms of average federal spending as a percentage of GDP. However, the article failed to note that the Reagan Administration already beat the Franklin Roosevelt administration easily. Roosevelt’s average was 19.4 percent of GDP, while Reagan’s average was 22.3 percent of GDP. (Source: White House OMB data)
Wes Benedict will be observing the proceedings at the CPAC conference on Saturday, February 20. For more information, or to arrange an interview, call Benedict at 202-333-0008 ext. 222.
The LP is America’s third-largest political party, founded in 1971. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets and civil liberties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party at our website.
###
This is why I laugh at the nativists who are anti-immigration like Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan
Of all the American contenders to try and break the 27-year men’s drought in the New York City Marathon, Meb Keflezighi may have represented the American dream more than any of them. Born in war-torn Eritrea, one of 11 siblings in a village with no electricity, Keflezighi now wears his American citizenship on his chest. He was the one American contender who wore the letters U.S.A. on his running top Sunday.
via Keflezighi’s ‘U.S.A.’ Breaks the Tape – NYTimes.com.
A long time ago Spain had decided to expel from it’s country Jews, Muslims and Moriscos.
In 1469, the crowns of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united by the marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. In 1478 began the final stage of the conquest of Canary Islands and in 1492, these united kingdoms captured Granada, ending the last remnant of a 781-year presence of Islamic rule in Iberia. The Treaty of Granada guaranteed religious tolerance toward Muslims.[20] The year 1492 also marked the arrival in the New World of Christopher Columbus, during a voyage funded by Isabella. That same year, Spain’s Jews were ordered to convert to Catholicism or face expulsion from Spanish territories during the Spanish Inquisition.[21] Not long after, Muslims were also expelled under the same conditions
As a result Spain lost its power as this expulsion allowed other nations to become great. Now contrast this to the present.
Keflezighi pointed to those letters as the Central Park crowd roared as he crossed the finish line first, capturing the first American victory since Alberto Salazar last won it in 1982. When his victory was assured, Keflezighi dropped to the ground, tears streaming down his face. It was the first marathon victory of his career and washed away years of American futility here.
“U.S.A. gave me all the opportunity in the world, education, sports, lifestyle,” Keflezighi said. “This is so special to me.”
The only way the United States will continue to remain functioning at the level it is on the world stage is by being pro-immigration. Put those here illegally on a path to citizenship and continue to welcome those who come here legally as well. We must shout down the likes of Peter King and Jim Sensenbrenner and all the rest.
“Michael Moore’s Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now”
——– Forwarded message ———-
Date: Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 6:57 AM
Subject: "Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"
"Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"
You've Seen the Movie — Now It's Time to ACT!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Friends,
It's the #1 question I'm constantly asked after people see my movie: "OK — so NOW what can I DO?!"
You want something to do? Well, you've come to the right place! 'Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken system.
Here they are:
FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:
1. Declare a moratorium on all home evictions. Not one more family should be thrown out of their home. The banks must adjust their monthly mortgage payments to be in line with what people's homes are now truly worth — and what they can afford. Also, it must be stated by law: If you lose your job, you cannot be tossed out of your home.
2. Congress must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All Americans. A single, nonprofit source must run a universal health care system that covers everyone. Medical bills are now the #1 cause of bankruptcies and evictions in this country. Medicare For All will end this misery. The bill to make this happen is called H.R. 3200. You must call AND write your members of Congress and demand its passage, no compromises allowed.
3. Demand publicly-funded elections and a prohibition on elected officials leaving office and becoming lobbyists. Yes, those very members of Congress who solicit and receive millions of dollars from wealthy interests must vote to remove ALL money from our electoral and legislative process. Tell your members of Congress they must support campaign finance bill H.R.1826.
4. Each of the 50 states must create a state-owned public bank like they have in North Dakota. Then congress MUST reinstate all the strict pre-Reagan regulations on all commercial banks, investment firms, insurance companies — and all the other industries that have been savaged by deregulation: Airlines, the food industry, pharmaceutical companies — you name it. If a company's primary motive to exist is to make a profit, then it needs a set of stringent rules to live by — and the first rule is "Do no harm." The second rule: The question must always be asked — "Is this for the common good?" (Click here for some info about the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.)
5. Save this fragile planet and declare that all the energy resources above and beneath the ground are owned collectively by all of us. Just like they do it in Sarah Palin's socialist Alaska. We only have a few decades of oil left. The public must be the owners and landlords of the natural resources and energy that exists within our borders or we will descend further into corporate anarchy. And when it comes to burning fossil fuels to transport ourselves, we must cease using the internal combustion engine and instruct our auto/transportation companies to rehire our skilled workforce and build mass transit (clean buses, light rail, subways, bullet trains, etc.) and new cars that don't contribute to climate change. (For more on this, here's a proposal I wrote in December.) Demand that General Motors' de facto chairman, Barack Obama, issue a JFK man-on-the-moon-style challenge to turn our country into a nation of trains and buses and subways. For Pete's sake, people, we were the ones who invented (or perfected) these damn things in the first place!!
FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US:
1. Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief calls: One to the President (202-456-1414), one to your Congressperson (202-224-3121) and one to each of your two Senators (202-224-3121). To find out who represents you, click here. Take just one minute on each of these calls to let them know how you expect them to vote on a particular issue. Let them know you will have no hesitation voting for a primary opponent — or even a candidate from another party — if they don't do our bidding. Trust me, they will listen. If you have another five minutes, click here to send them each an email. And if you really want to drop an anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter!
2. Take over your local Democratic Party. Remember how much fun you had with all those friends and neighbors working together to get Barack Obama elected? YOU DID THE IMPOSSIBLE. It's time to re-up! Get everyone back together and go to the monthly meeting of your town or county Democratic Party — and become the majority that runs it! There will not be many in attendance and they will either be happy or in shock that you and the Obama Revolution have entered the room looking like you mean business. President Obama's agenda will never happen without mass grass roots action — and he won't feel encouraged to do the right thing if no one has his back, whether it's to stand with him, or push him in the right direction. When you all become the local Democratic Party, send me a photo of the group and I'll post it on my website.
3. Recruit someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next year — or, better yet, consider running for office yourself! You don't have to settle for the incumbent who always expects to win. You can be our next representative! Don't believe it can happen? Check out these examples of regular citizens who got elected: State Senator Deb Simpson, California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall, Tempe, Arizona City Councilman Corey Woods, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Chris Danou, and Washington State Representative Larry Seaquist. The list goes on and on — and you should be on it!
4. Show up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money. Hold vigils and marches. Consider civil disobedience. Those town hall meetings are open to you, too (and there's more of us than there are of them!). Make some noise, have some fun, get on the local news. Place "Capitalism Did This" signs on empty foreclosed homes, closed down businesses, crumbling schools and infrastructure. (You can download them from my website.)
5. Start your own media. You. Just you (or you and a couple friends). The mainstream media is owned by corporate America and, with few exceptions, it will never tell the whole truth — so you have to do it! Start a blog! Start a website of real local news (here's an example: The Michigan Messenger). Tweet your friends and use Facebook to let them know what they need to do politically. The daily papers are dying. If you don't fill that void, who will?
FIVE THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES UNTIL WE GET THROUGH THIS MESS:
1. Take your money out of your bank if it took bailout money and place it in a locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union.
2. Get rid of all your credit cards but one — the kind where you have to pay up at the end of the month or you lose your card.
3. Do not invest in the stock market. If you have any extra cash, put it away in a savings account or, if you can, pay down on your mortgage so you can own your home as soon as possible. You can also buy very safe government savings bonds or T-bills. Or just buy your mother some flowers.
4. Unionize your workplace so that you and your coworkers have a say in how your business is run. Here's how to do it (more info here). Nothing is more American than democracy, and democracy shouldn't be checked at the door when you enter your workplace. Another way to Americanize your workplace is to turn your business into a worker-owned cooperative. You are not a wage slave. You are a free person, and you giving up eight hours of your life every day to someone else is to be properly compensated and respected.
5. Take care of yourself and your family. Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but she's right: Find a place of peace in your life and make the choice to be around people who are not full of negativity and cynicism. Look for those who nurture and love. Turn off the TV and the Blackberry and go for a 30-minute walk every day. Eat fruits and vegetables and cut down on anything that has sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour or too much sodium (salt) in it (and, as Michael Pollan says, "Eat (real) food, not too much, mostly plants"). Get seven hours of sleep each night and take the time to read a book a month. I know this sounds like I've turned into your grandma, but, dammit, take a good hard look at Granny — she's fit, she's rested and she knows the names of both of her U.S. Senators without having to Google them. We might do well to listen to her. If we don't put our own "oxygen mask" on first (as they say on the airplane), we will be of no use to the rest of the nation in enacting any of this action plan!
I'm sure there are many other ideas you can come up with on how we can build this movement. Get creative. Think outside the politics-as-usual box. BE SUBVERSIVE! Think of that local action no one else has tried. Behave as if your life depended on it. Be bold! Try doing something with reckless abandon. It may just liberate you and your community and your nation.
And when you act, send me your stories, your photos and your video — and be sure to post your ideas in the comments beneath this letter on my site so they can be shared with millions.
C'mon people — we can do this! I expect nothing less of all of you, my true and trusted fellow travelers!
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
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Another example of special-interest influence
From: Lawrence Lessig, Change Congress <change-congress@mail.democracyinaction.com>
Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2009 at 5:27 PM
Subject: Another example of special-interest influence
Jason,
The past couple weeks, as the national health care debate has raged on, people have been coming to Change-Congress.org in droves to join our fight for fundamental campaign finance reform.
Moments ago, we saw another example of why.
The Senate Finance Committee just voted for a health reform bill — without the public health insurance option that polls show Americans overwhelmingly favor.
As you know, killing the public option has been a top priority of the health and insurance industries that have showered Congress with campaign donations.
The debate now moves to the full Senate floor, and 30 Democratic senators recently wrote a letter to Majority Leader Harry Reid demanding that a public option be added at that stage of the fight.
Our friends at MAPLight.org dug into who signed — and who didn't sign — this letter. Here's what they found:
The 30 Senators who signed the letter in support of the public option received an average of $15,937 in campaign contributions from the health insurance industry between January 2003 and June 2009, 54% less than the $34,400 received by the 30 Senate Democrats (or Independents that caucus with Democrats) who did not sign the letter.
We need to make clear to our friends, family, and associates that if we want progress on the big issues of our time, electing Democrats or Republicans isn't the solution. We need to fundamentally change the system in which they operate. MapLight's research is just the latest example.
Can you forward this message to people you know who care about big issues like health care, global warming, and others – ask them to join our movement for fundamental campaign finance reform today. They can click here to join us.
We'll keep you up to date on our progress. Thanks for helping to Change Congress.
Lawrence Lessig
Republicans: Please keep on focusing on social issues I beg you
Please keep this up! It will only help us in the center and on the left of center even more.
Many Republicans have been arguing that the party’s focus on social issues is a mistake at a time when voters are concerned about the economic downturn and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But the emphasis at the summit, sponsored the Family Research Council, was still decidedly on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion. The crowd rose to its feet to applaud Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California who caused a furor by denouncing same-sex marriage at the Miss USA contest, as she declared that “God chose me” to make the case she made.
Here’s Mike Huckabee further standing with the party of Limbaugh.
“There are so many people who have told us as conservatives that we should move to the center, on the sanctity of marriage or the sanctity of life,” said Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas who ran for president in 2008 and is likely to run again in 2012. “ ‘Just move to the center.’
“I’m not sure the center makes a whole lot of sense when it’s coming from people who certainly don’t have our interest, or our country’s interest, at heart.”
How does he know we don’t have our country’s interest at heart? I think he only has his Christian Nation at heart when he talks.
