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KMH,
Can you give me a quick primer on how to insert a photo along with your posts?
So your kids are not seeing breast cancer on the internet?
So lets keep our kids as innocent as possible and them give them jobs in our fabricated wars.
Mark,
What a powerful description of events in your life. So much in peoples' lives is governed by fear, reinforced by those who crave power. I have often thought that our relationships (as humans) with each other might be so different if we were disembodied spirits not influenced by race, gender, status or other distracting influences. But, I also believe that we are here on earth to learn.
Here is one person (of many, for example) from whose beliefs I try to learn and understand and, if I'm lucky, I may even model --- the late Bruce Lee. Lee was a philosophy major in college. When he came to the U.S. from China, he encountered SO much prejudice. When asked about how he dealt with poor treatment he said he becomes like water --- water is resilient and becomes whatever shape it is poured into, but always stays itself. He said if he didn't do this, he wouldn't be Bruce Lee! Here are some of his thoughts which you might find interesting:
BRUCE LEE WORDS OF WiSDOM AND PHiLOSOPHY part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZMSiuqXV2I&feature=related
Be Water original
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ijCSu87I9k&feature=related
When we experience injustice, we have so many choices concerning how we deal with it. Whether or not they will be effective is often not known until later. But we still make a choice.
I am not critiquing your experiences. Please forgive me if I sound that way. I am only trying to share some of my thinking in MY life. Life experience is meted out so unevenly (or, one might say unfairly across the human "family.")
You sound like a remarkable person with a lot to offer this world.
Boy KBR still doing well....have no fear....Obama & Holder are on top of it, LOLOLOL...I bet the former Vice Pres is making good money on those stocks options he has. The Oddity Of Hope...Imperial Occupations with out end called WAR. A TV EYE MORE THAN WILLING TO PLAY ALONG..... US economic hit men and global speculators bleeding humanity. Troops being forced to do endless tours, Troops killing themselves in great numbers because they know this whole thing is BULL...they have been given no way out while we all try not to watch what is really going on. George Bush and all his people new once they opened this can of worms no-one would have the courage to stop the occupations maturation. Yet executive power trumps the origins of the founding of this country. I guess my vote was again for the Lesser Of Two Evils. "Two Party Trap" I hope the Justice Department does its job. Millions are dead and lives ruined so these IVY League Ruling Class Kings Can Have There Way.
Lisa Birnbach, filling in for Ron Reagan, devoted much of her show Wednesday on the Sonia Sotomayor nomination, which ended-up being a sickening parade of callers who—following the lead of Newt Gingrich, Glen Beck and others—referred to her as a “racist.” The basis of this assertion was Sotomayer’s admission that as a Latina, she had experiences that white males (like Scalia, Alito and Roberts) did not share. This is merely stating a simple fact, but it is perfectly “understandable” why people like Gingrich—whose own state Georgia was the center of a Southern Poverty Law Center report on its abuse of Latino immigrants—might feel the way they do. Not all Republicans feel they need the support of Latino voters, especially given the fact that their constituencies tend to be virulently anti-Latino. Many have also made use of anti-Latino sentiment and scapegoating as a tool to divert their constituency’s attention from other issues.
There is no getting around the virulence and hypocrisy of those who oppose Sotomayor’s nomination based simply on her race. I see the prejudice and stereotyping all around me in the way many people consciously and subconsciously react when they encounter a Latino, prejudices reinforced by the media and the highly subjective nature of the “facts” it chooses to disclose, which skews toward the negative. The bottom line is that those who oppose Sotomayor because of her “racism” are in fact revealing the fact of their own racism; whenever I hear someone say that they judge people of other races by the “content of their character” I ask myself “How would they know what it is if they don’t even bother to find out?” These people don’t want someone on the Supreme Court who directly contradicts what's in their own mind's dark place.
You'd be surprised by the kind of things that go on in schools. Otherwise forgettable Kent, WA made the news a few years ago when the NAACP sued the school district for allowing security guards to put plastic hand-cuffs on kids as young as six. The district superintendant commissioned a panel that included a African-American retired general, and the panel concluded that the practice should be stopped. But being a right-wing community, the superintendant, surprised that her hand-picked panel didn't support the practice, ignored its recommendations, and nothing came of the lawsuit.
Anyways, here I am off to a world that most people who listen to this show are unfamiliar with. I think it is a fair question to ask what constitutes “criminal” in regard to police officers. Sexual misconduct, or trashing a patrol car while hard partying is likely to land a cop in hot water. But not much else. Killing unarmed suspects certainly won’t do the job, or putting forty bullets into a man standing in a doorway, or beating an elderly man. Or, for that matter, chasing an innocent man, and “pushing” his head “within acceptable limits” into concrete, causing critical brain injury. This latter occurred recently in Seattle, where a sheriff’s deputy was found not conducting criminal behavior in doing to the wrong “suspect” what witnesses said sounded like the crack of a baseball and bat.
Richard Nixon told David Frost that if the president does it, it’s not against the law. Police operate on the same principle. The police are not merely enforcers of the law, but they believe they are the law—nay they respect no law. All-white inquest juries have repeatedly told them that they are above the law, a law unto themselves. In fact there is no law that cops respect, other than their “right” to act as arbitrarily as the wish. And who is to blame? You, and you, and you, because anything is justified to protect you from “them.”
People have this idea that the state of Washington is “progressive,” but that is a matter of semantics. King County, regarded as the most liberal, is generally Republican country outside of Seattle. Kent is one of these places. It’s practically an armed police camp, with their “volunteer” police (usually blond-haired Arian-Nordic white women), and unmarked police cars that light-up like Christmas trees and sound like coyotes in heat. More people expire per-capita by “death by police” that any other state-wide community, according to a cement-filled coffee can sitting on the sidewalk placed by a lonely activists, holding a small cross and a poster. The poster depicts headshots of two dozen people, accompanied by the words "Murdered by KPD" and "Stolen Lives." All but two or three are minorities.
There is a shopping area with yuppie-type hang-outs called Kent Station. It’s located in a low-to-lower middle class neighborhood, which explains why 1940s and 50s big band music is constantly blaring (“keep out” is the subliminal message). I never go there, until I used a public restroom recently, A security guard followed me in, inspired by the usual paranoia of these guys toward minorities, and he proceeded to look into every nook and cranny in an effort to intimidate me into leaving before I was ready. I told him I wasn’t impressed. He asked what I wasn’t impressed about. I told him I wasn’t impressed by his attempt to intimidate me. He asked me how long I would be there, and I told him I would be leaving shortly to go to work; he told me he’d wait until I left, and stood rather unmanfully close to me. I was angered by this behavior, and decided not hang around any longer. He then told me to leave the premises. I had no intention to stay, since I had to go back to the bus station and catch an 8:30 bus, but this security guard prejudicially-inspired actions upset me further. What had I done wrong? What crime had I committed? For what reason the bullying? Because I look like a “Mexican.”
I decided I wasn’t going to take this, accept sitting down, so I sat on a near-by bench. Henry David Thoreau preached civil disobedience, and civil rights activist Rep. was arrested for it in Sudan the other day protesting the genocide in Darfur. I decided to do my own sit-in protest for my rights as a human being. The guard summoned the Kent police, who essentially rubber-stamped his prejudicial behavior. One of police officers proceeded to (or pretended to) write a ticket, and informed me that I was not allowed on the premises for a year, or else I would be charged with criminal trespass.
This is the world I live in. I have no illusions about it.
To: madisonmichele
Global Climate change means different things to different geographic areas. In Europe it will eventually mean that it freezes over but it can also mean drought in Australia and higher water level in the United States.
Tom please excuse that lady that blamed California's problems on illegal immigration. We have a horrible right winger problem here. We have an array of right wingers on the stations here and two inparticular are very popular and talk about nothing other than illegal immigration(John and Ken.) They venerate Lou Dobbs and are equally, if not worse, than Lou.
Screw giving Obama a chance. He had his chance when he refused to return to the Senate and filibuster Mukasey rather than fund-raise and play Presidential Candidate.
Now, Obama NEEDs to be reminded DAILY that the United States of America is a representative democracy and he has the job of representing us.
I think I saw that same sexual hypnotist on "How to Marry a Millionaire." He turned out to have a "commitment" problem (and was a real jerk!) The "matchmaker" refused to find him any more matches!
Minnesota is going the same way as CA and OR. The Republican governors must have gotten the same "lesson plans" from Rove.
We have a group of old buzzards here called the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association and they will not let their chompers off any representative that wants to raise taxes. They are true vigilantes for the right wing and as Schwarz said himself in a European interview that these right wingers are CRAZY EXTREMISTS!
I am promoting Kibbutz as I really think those fortunate enough to be on one will be luckier than others. BTW check out localharvest.org to find local food cooperatives.
All this crap in California plugs into Republicans in the Legislature sign that farging “Club for Growth” “No New Taxes” pledge and sticking to their guns while having exactly ONE too many bodies to be ignored.
Arnold wants desperately to look good while eviscerating the State Government. This is the reason for Props 1A-1E last week.
The DEMs were desperate for the money and they were willing to sale CA’s future for a stop gap today.
The REPs were willing to give one year stop gap to sewer the budget for the next ten years AND the ability to blame it all on the voters.
THE VOTERS SAID “F. you.”
Schwarzennegger wants to see Alcatraz, too!
What exactly is the best prediction concerning global warming? Are we facing an ice age, because of the loss of the gulf stream warm water converyor belt in the Atlantic ocean?
Or severe drought brought on by higher temperatures?
Thank you
Michele
Regarding Carol's comments earlier, I understand what she is saying about giving Obama a chance. Believe or not, I think this appropriate regarding holding the Bush administration accountable and health care. Do not despair regarding accountability. Holder is doing his job and letting the health care issue run its course through the end of the summer. But I just have a strong feeling that the main stream press is totally misreading Obama on this.
As health care, I'm less certain. I'm starting to feel that we are about to be sole down the road on this. The only thing that keeps me hope is that Obama knows that it is the paramount issue on which his presidency will be eventually judge. He can't afford to blow it.
However, I couldn't disagree more with Carol as to Obama's intent regarding the financial industry. He did not hire Sumners and Geitner only to fire them later. That's absurd. He does not know the industry well enough to totally dismantle it. He will heed his advisors' advice in this area. Moreover, he does not believe he has the power to fix it. You may have heard that the banks own capital hill now. Also, Obama fears what major changes or a hostile financial industry could do to his presidency and this country. He should. This selfish group of people could destroy him and us . . . and themselves. As the Haitian elite have proven, I think they would be okay living behind walled off compounds that they can't leave without risking their lives.
Obama will tweak around the edges of the financial industry. Then, leave the problem for his successor to tackle, Bush like, during the next financial crisis in about 5 - 7 years (unless a sooner collapse forces his hand). If he's lucky, it won't occur until a year or two after he leaves office. Maybe that will be the only major thing on that President's plate.
Mark,
That's why it's said that economics is as much an "art" as a "science." Like predicting the weather, only more mysterious. LOL
BTW, I just sent the following email to Obama (www.whitehouse.gov/contact):
Dear President Obama,
Let me preface my question by saying that I am a life-long Democratic activist and delegate. I WANT you and your administration to succeed.
WHY won't you listen to progressive economists like Ravi Batra (www.RaviBatra.com), Paul Krugman, Rbt. Reich or others? These people WILL PROVE TO BE RIGHT and your Wall Street/financial market advisors WILL BE PROVEN WRONG.
Ravi Batra is, this very minute, saying that the U.S. economy is currently in a "holding pattern." By about July, 2009, it will take a nose-dive, worse than what we have seen so far. This is because:
1) Oil speculation will absorb most of the emergency funding the gov't. has put the the hands of consumers.
2) Propping up banks and the financial markets will only reinflate the credit bubble. This will fail because citizens are "tapped out." They have nothing left on which to borrow. The real problem here is that INCOMES HAVE NOT KEPT UP WITH PRODUCTIVITY FOR THE LAST 30 YEARS.
Americans have lost income, assets and savings, along with jobs. As long as the government caters more to corporations and the wealthy, this country WILL FAIL.
This is very discouraging.
Watch and see. This is what we can expect. Why don't you change your direction NOW? Are you REALLY willing to listen to other points of view? I don't think so...At least, I don't see it happening.
I invite Thom to discuss the possibility that antitrust laws could prohibit a national health care program that is not controlled by insurance and drug companies, as suggested in the NY Times article below
New York Times
May 27, 2009
Antitrust Laws a Hurdle to Health Care Overhaul
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s campaign to cut health costs by $2 trillion over the next decade, announced with fanfare two weeks ago, may have hit another snag: the nation’s antitrust laws.
Antitrust lawyers say doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and drug makers will be running huge legal risks if they get together and agree on a strategy to hold down prices and reduce the growth of health spending.
Robert F. Leibenluft, a former official at the Federal Trade Commission, said, “Any agreement among competitors with regard to prices or price increases — even if they set a maximum — would raise legal concerns.”
Already, some leaders of the health care industry who appeared at the White House on May 11 say the president may have overstated their cost-control commitment. Three days after the gathering, hospital executives said that they had agreed to help save $2 trillion by gradually slowing the growth of health spending, but that they did not commit to cutting the growth rate by 1.5 percentage points each year for 10 years.
White House officials say even the more limited commitment is significant. Under current law, federal officials predict that health spending will grow an average of 6.2 percent a year, to $4.4 trillion in 2018.
Mr. Obama is asking the industry for detailed proposals to control costs. But so far the administration has not offered the industry any relief from antitrust laws and has, in fact, vowed to step up enforcement.
As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama said consumers had suffered because of “lax enforcement” of antitrust laws in many health insurance markets.
In 1993, when President Bill Clinton made the last major effort to overhaul the health care system, the lobby for the drug industry, then known as the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, devised a voluntary cost-control plan. Under it, each drug company offered to limit the annual increase in the average price of its prescription drug products to the increase in the Consumer Price Index.
The Justice Department rejected the proposal, saying it would violate antitrust laws. In blocking the proposal, the department said the Supreme Court had made clear that agreements setting maximum prices were just as illegal as agreements that set minimum ones.
“Such maximum price-fixing agreements create the risk that the maximum prices will become minimum or uniform prices,” the department said in a business review letter signed Oct. 1, 1993, by Anne K. Bingaman, then the assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division.
In 1978, hospitals also asked the Justice Department for an assurance they would not be charged with antitrust violations when they undertook a “voluntary effort” to curb costs as an alternative to legislation proposed by President Jimmy Carter. The department would not provide such an assurance.
Many savings now envisioned by the health care industry would require much closer cooperation by independent doctors and hospitals, taking them into a gray area of the law where federal agencies have not provided clear guidance.
In a recent letter to the Senate Finance Committee, the American Hospital Association said uncertainty about enforcement of the antitrust laws “makes it difficult for a hospital and doctors to collaborate to improve care” and lower costs.
Doctors often want to collaborate and share information about prices without sharing financial risk or fully merging their office practices. The American Medical Association has asked Congress to revise antitrust laws so doctors can collectively negotiate with insurers over fees and other issues.
The Federal Trade Commission has repeatedly challenged such collective action as illegal price-fixing, even though doctors say they are at a severe disadvantage in trying to negotiate with giant insurance companies.
A new study by an economist at Northwestern University, Leemore S. Dafny, finds that a growing number of geographic markets are dominated by a handful of insurance companies, and that the decline in competition may contribute to higher prices.
Among the groups that say they have joined together to rein in health costs, besides the hospital and medical associations, are America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
Jamie Court, the president of Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, said he was wary of such joint efforts.
“When companies that control the health care system get together to change it, there is a serious risk that they are doing it to stifle competition at the expense of consumers,” Mr. Court said.
The Federal Trade Commission says that while cooperation among health care providers can benefit consumers, it can also increase the bargaining power of hospitals and doctors, making it easier for them to set prices and eliminate competition.
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Economists with their various and conflicting computer models, politicians doing what is politically expediate for themselves, corporations headed by management that only looks to see how much money they can make personally before they get out, most of the public having no real idea of what is going on beyond their own circumstances, and talking heads speaking out of their fundaments--anyone who claims to know the perfect solution to this perfect economic storm should be in an insane asylum. Economic policy has never been anything more than hit or miss.
NEWS FLASH: Hyper-inflation held in check by corporate salary supression . . .
Hi Kim-
Are you receiving emails from OFA to host events? I do and do set up events. I am frank and kind with those who show up. I also remind everyone that JFK was shot only 1000 days into his presidency. So- it could be that the President is mindful of this and frightened. He most likely feels he is doing the best he can do while keeping himself alive and we need to be out there doing exactly what Thom says- we need to take over the Democratic Party and this might also mean joining the Green Party. But my experience is no matter how blatant I am to the Obama Camp, they do still allow me in their quarters and reminded of my views by my blogs and fairness of assessment of the issues at hand. My secret feeling is truly that Obama is Sheriff of Rockinghman in Blazing Saddles. Go host an event!
Thom,
I think you misunderstand Pres. Obama. Look (again) at *Team of Rivals*. Goodwin claims that Lincoln had a masterful sense of where the public was. He waited with emancipation until he sensed that it would get the support it needed. He ignored attacks from both right and left so he could stay his course. I suspect Obama is more progressive than he is showing us, but that he's a Lincolnesque politician.
For example, I expect (hope for) progress on gay rights when and as the majority of the country come around to that point of view. That will happen, if only by the death of older, more conservative citizens. When it does, Obama will move.
What *we* have to do is move the public to the left. You contribute mightily to that cause. Keep up the good work.
so, we need to put more progressive pressure on Obama the centrist. How? Tell me what to do. I don't have any money to do anything with because of the state of the economy. I sign petitions, and send emails. What else can I do?
I am thinking that we need to infiltrate the local Democratic party. What else?
Here is what made me angry about the latest Obama email into my account. His organization Organizing for America set up a vigil to support those who lost the Prop 8 ruling yesterday. I shot the email back:
I know that President Obama came out against Proposition 8, but the fact of the matter is he did say during a debate that both he and his Vice President were against gay marriage. We cannot have it both ways. If he feels differently now, he should make a statement. He helped this measure pass.
Below, see how Miss California used the President's statements to reinforce her outright desire to take away the rights of gay people. I am not gay, but I see today's decision an assault on all of us since we are now vulnerable to a vote as to whether or not we will have a right to be ourselves at the scrutiny of someone else's church.
________________________________________________
Miss California's actual statements includes confirmation from the President.
.
I will not back down for my right to take away freedoms from gay people.
I was punished on that stage. It was my assault on my freedoms and constitutional rights Which should not happen in America – unless you are gay. In which case you should quietly understand that God does not agree with you.
To hear the remark about the President, play this clip
Watch this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwNHE3QXVc4
Clarence Thomas was the "First" Black justice on the Supreme Court?!? What was Thurgood Marshall? An ET? Not that I would want to see Thurgood Marshall brought down by a comparison to the current president. But, Thom - you were a bit too reactionary there.