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Thom,
You talk about us taking control of the Democratic Party. Do you really think that we can wrestle control from the corporations?
thom check out the soka school system the foundard is daisaku ikeda. google daisaku ikeda.
hi scott peace to you my brother
One other thing on the Supreme Court’s New Haven decision: the reason why Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was felt to be necessary was because “tests,” particularly those given to determine “eligibility” to vote, were designed specifically to disenfranchise and discriminate against blacks and other minorities. It used to be that job performance determined promotions; now, tests that do not measure performance are being used to give whites advantages that adherence to equal opportunity would not give them. High tests scores may be impressive in school, but they in no way a reliable indicator of future success (I should know). In the firefighter line of work, live performance, not tests, should be the principle criteria for determining promotion and hiring.
In regard to Diane Feinstein, she is a great disappointment. But then again, one can interpret her self-appointment as a king (or queen) maker during the “summit” between Barack Obama and the still bitterly aggrieved Hillary Clinton as delusions of grandeur. Perhaps she has visions of opposing the “inadequate black male” in the 2012 primary. If she does, Democrats should remember her position on one of the most important issues facing this country, and how she failed most miserably by positioning herself as an opponent of meaningful healthcare reform, favoring the greed of insurance companies over the welfare of the people.
whers dicky morris. thoms wisdom must of scared him. my day will not be the same. i was so looking to the debate with little dicky morris
Note to Thom: Keep your shoes on whilst "confronting" Morris.
'nuff said.
government represent s the people of the nation. government must be stronger than corperations . bring back the laws that keep corporations in check. this must be done. corperation interest is in only for profit.
bring back thoose laws rigght on thom thank you
i would rather be a poor man that lives with human dignity and compassion for others than a rich man that will do anything for profit.
the solution for the wold ills is that corparations must understand that they have great respondsability to sociey not just to shareholders everything must be based on human dignity.
Interesting discussion on the healthcare public option:
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5938
"Is Rahm Emanuel Really Undermining Obama’s Public Plan Proposal?"
Ha! Brian, I was just thinking the same thing!
Still scary that someone that oily was so close to the Clintons. Oh, wait a minute . . . that's right . . . they hired him.
thom show no mercy to morris.
What is the name of the writer Thom mentioned yesterday who is researching Michael Jackson's life?
I listened to the clip posted on the subject but it's incomplete and I can't seem to find it anywhere else on the site.
It's listed as "the real cause of Michael Jackson’s death - It has not yet been discussed."
TIA!/Scott
'Sorry, Thom. I just sent another irreverent email to the White House:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/
Is anyone in the White House listening to progressive talk radio around the country? You are so sheltered you apparently are not aware of the anger of progressive Dems. around the country over the sabotage of the "public option" (not to mention single payer) in the upcoming healthcare legislation.
People are talking about changing registration from Democratic to Independent or Green. Others are talking about not voting (giving the Republicans an edge.)
Caller after caller (often from ACTIVISTS) confirms these changes. I'm an activist and I'm getting disgusted.
It's up to you. Please keep your promises or Hell will indeed freeze over!
Yes we can?
Fein: Obama 'shuts his eyes' to 'open confessions' of Bush-era war crimes
Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, former Reagan administration Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein lamented President Barack Obama's decision to shut his eyes to open confessions of war crimes by members of the prior administration.
"It's at the highest levels that the rule of law finds its greatest majesty," he told reporters. "That's why the United States was so idolized after Nixon left. We said that the most powerful man in the world is subject to the law. He cannot defy it."
Fein was making the historical argument with respect to the Obama administration's continued refusal to investigate the Bush administration's torture program, which was designed and specifically authorized by high-level officials.
"[Today] we have an instance where the President of the United States -- Harvard Law Review, a Constitutional Law professor who knows what the law is -- shuts his eyes to open confessions," he said. "We authorized torture, for which there is no exception."
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/06/fein-obama-shuts-his-eyes-confessions-t...
What is so compelling about Dick Morris to give him airtime? He wrote a whole book about how the presidential election was going to be between Condi and Hillary. That's some unique inside the Beltway insight that he's got there. More like mythical intelligence. Hehe.
Ex-Gov. Siegelman asks for new trial; Filing cites new
evidence, alleges jury, witness tampering: Developing...
Are there other unfair prosecutions and unaddressed injustices (other than the major ones concerning DOMA, single-payer health care, the wars in Iraq, Aftganistan, etc.) still occurring that Obama will not or cannot stop? or deal with?
DRichards,
I read that Herbert column, too. That, along with the continued prosecution of Don Siegelman for no good reason make me wonder what's going on.
Are there other unfair prosecutions and unaddressed injustices (other than the major ones concerning DOMA, single-payer health care, the wars in Iraq, Aftganistan, etc.) still occurring that Obama will not or cannot stop?
Pam Marten's Counterpunch piece:
"Four institutions, Bank of America Corporation, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc., four institutions out of 8,246, control 35% of all the insured domestic deposits and 46% of the assets according to the March 31, 2009 figures from the FDIC."
http://www.counterpunch.org/martens06012009.html
PDF of Taibbi's Bubble article: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16763183/TaibbiGoldmanSachs
Anyone else having trouble posting comments?
Here's the one I've been trying to post since yesterday
Remind me...what was the 2008 election all about, again?
A tragic, must-read column from Bob Herbert of the New York Times tonight:
No one seems to know how old Mohammed Jawad was when he was seized by Afghan forces in Kabul six and a half years ago and turned over to American custody. Some reports say he was 14. Some say 16. The Afghan government believes he was 12.
What is not in dispute is that he was no older than an adolescent, and that since his capture he has been tortured and otherwise put through hell. The evidence against him has been discredited. He has tried to commit suicide. But the U.S. won’t let him go.
The decorated Army officer once assigned to prosecute Jawad is now working with the ACLU to seek his release. But at least Barack Obama was elected to fix problems like this. Right? Right? Mr. President?
There is no credible evidence against Jawad, and his torture-induced confession has rightly been ruled inadmissible by a military judge. But the Obama administration does not feel that he has suffered enough. Not only have administration lawyers opposed defense efforts to secure Jawad’s freedom, but they are using, as the primary basis for their opposition, the fruits of the confession that was obtained through torture and has already been deemed inadmissible — without merit, of no value.
Changing the president was easy! Changing the system is a lot harder.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/
I found this link in the comments section from a Matt Taibbi article about AIG from the March Rolling Stone:
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/10954
It talks about a Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland, and according to the author, "The bank now controls the financial affairs of planet Earth." Surprise, surprise, some of the people involved were previously with Goldman Sachs.
There is a quote from Dick Morris in the article, so maybe during the discussion on Tuesday he could shed some light on this group.
It is frightening to think that people so devoid of any semblance of moral consciousness like Peter Ferrara of the fascist “American Civil Rights Union” actually exist in this world, but there you go. What kind of world would this be of such people were allowed to operate in a human rights vacuum, where nationalistic paranoia and xenophobia allows any outrage against some demonized “other” to be permissible?
In regard to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the New Haven fire department case, this despicable outcome flies directly in the face of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment “tests” that have a disparate impact on minority applicants. And in no other public institution is racism and racial discrimination more prevalent than in a city or town’s fire department, in every part of the country. The reasons for this is simple enough; firefighters generally work in shifts as long as 24 hours, spending most of their time in firehouses where they eat and sleep together. Unless they operate in southern California, firefighters rarely have need to leave the firehouse and do something useful, and are “forced” to spend many hours living with people they must get along with. Obviously, white people would rather be with other whites, and the token black firefighter who might be the target of hazing and harassment might prefer to have other people like himself to talk to. If one looks too closely behind the reverse-discrimination claims by whites, one will discover that racial prejudice runs deep. In New Haven, for example, the animosity of the large Italian-American population toward the African-American population is obviously not without precedent, and it goes without saying this animosity carries over into the firehouse. The Supreme Court’s ruling, in effect, gives racism and discrimination its full backing. Chief Justice Roberts has referred to the notion of equal opportunity as a “sordid business”; he has now seen to it that his own sordid worldview has the force of law.
On a local note, Boeing announced an “indefinite” delay for the launching of the 787 on top of previous delays, due to structural issues with wing attachments to the fuselage. The Japanese end say it is Boeing’s engineers who are at fault. Boeing, not wishing to make an issue of the lack of standardized quality control over disparate parts of the plane being built over disparate regions of the globe, naturally defended the Japanese and took all of the blame. But the question remains why Boeing thought it could make the 787 cheaper and more efficiently in this way. It is already experiencing canceled orders over its bungling, and will doubtless lose future orders as well. It is one thing to outsource technical support to other parts of the world where English is barely spoken; but it is quite another to outsource major sections of a complex piece of machinery like a commercial aircraft to different parts of the world, each with different standards and having no idea how one part fits into another, and then ship the parts to a central location for assembly and expect everything to fit perfectly. This is one case where American jobs should have stayed in America.