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Table of Contents *Featured
Articles Calendars of Events Communication with Our Members -- Opportunities Petitions Commentaries from Our Members Warren Guntheroth Supports an Income Tax
Initiative Fatima Morales: Stop Border Raids Rich Austin: Contractual Double Standards Jeff Upthegrove: About Israeli Killing of Peace Activist Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef President Obama’s Eisenhower Strategy** Compare Democratic and Republican Leaders Porn Is Most Indulged by Red State People State and Local Links
to the Beef Featured Advocacy Group: Washington CAN* Three Candidates for King County Executive Nation and World Links to the Beef Hate Groups and Crimes Increase * Americans Are Changing their
Religious Commitments Our Liberal Spirit Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
Security and
Equal Rights ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these Let’s
End Our National Nightmare
Let’s
Restore Our American Dream More on Conservative opposition to our
American Dream Washington State’s 5 Major Needs ·
Federal
Funding for Health and Education · Substitute
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week “A president must be capable of doing more than one thing at a
time." Barack Obama on
September 25, 2008
Elaine
Phelps:
Support an Online Seattle PI
Calendar of Events
Saturday, March 21 at 10 AM – 5 PM at
Saturday, March 28 (10 AM – 7 PM) and Sunday (11 AM – 6 PM) at
Friday, April 3 at 7 PM at Kane Hall, Room 120 (University of Washington,
Seattle) – 4th Annual Physicians for a National Health
Program – Western Washington Public Meeting, including addresses by
Oliver Fein, Representative Jim McDermott and Robby Stern.
Saturday, April 11 at 6:30 PM at Bill Bradburd’s home (1640 S Lane Street, Seattle) – inSPIRe Potluck,
Social and Discussion, with John de Graaf concerning work/life balance,
time, sustainability, vacations and the concept of Affluenza.
Friday, April 24 (3-9 PM); Saturday, April 25 (9 AM-6 PM); and Sunday,
April 26 (9 AM – 3:30 PM) at Seattle – Camp
Wellstone training for citizen activists, campaign workers and
candidates. $50 - $200. To
register.
Communication
with Our Members
This issue continues our Obama Watch,
promotion of a
Opportunities
and Petitions
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Obtain Progressive
States Networks resources for improving many state government services.
Great
youtube contest winner about the future we choose.
Subscribe to Dean
Baker’s blog for excellent analyses of our current economic mess.
Petitions
Express your
support for Obama’s comprehensive 2010 budget. An Organizing for
Listen to President
Obama’s message. Call your congress members to ask them to support his budget.
Join
Health Care for All - Washington
Tell
Congress that now is the time for health care reform.
Tell
President Obama to oppose worldwide discrimination against and exploitation of
girls.
Tell your congress
members to support GIVE, which provides for a large increase in volunteers.
Tell your congress
members to support President Obama’s call for global warming action.
Tell the
BLM to keep coal mining out of Hunter Canyon in northwestern Colorado.
Tell
President Obama to make elimination of nuclear weapons a high priority. For
more.
Tell our
Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor concerning torture and other
war crimes.
See list of 150
groups which support appointment of a special war crimes prosecutor.
Tell your Washington
state legislator to support cap and trade legislation. Another petition.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Warren Guntheroth
Supports an Income Tax Initiative
An initiative for an income tax is a
splendid idea! Warren Guntheroth
Ray McBain: Replace Blue Dogs with Obama
Supporters
I sympathize with Rich Austin’s wish for the Blue Dogs to stop nit-picking on financial issues and to start
supporting Obama and the main stream Democrats. They sound more like
Republicans than like Obama democrats. However, I believe there is no way,
short of voting them out of office, to realign their interests. Which include
support for wars. Which suggests to me their support comes from manufacturing
interests that gain financially from wars, and from folks that are paid by or
secondarily receive income from the military.
By the way, The Nation (a recent issue) has an
excellent article on those Blue Dogs.
So, here's a thought: VOTE OUT THE BLUE DOGS! SUPPORT OBAMA! Ray
McBain
Talking Points:
Responding to the
Last week, 28 workers, including 3 mothers, were
chained and arrested in a factory in
We need reform, not raids
·
Massive workplace
raids with heavily armed officers, black SUVs, ankle chains, and helicopters
are designed for maximum intimidation, visceral headlines, and do not make us
safer.
·
Raids hurt our
businesses, our communities, all workers and immigrants.
·
Sewing fear in
immigrant communities is the problem, not the solution.
·
Taking parents
from their children, holding detainees incommunicado – out of the reach of
lawyers – and whisking detainees to distant detention facilities to minimize
their chances of mounting a reasonable defense are practices that are
unacceptable and smack of the Chertoff-run ICE.
·
Conducting
enforcement of our immigration laws is one thing, recognizing that these are
parents with families, respecting the rights of detainees, allowing them to
consult with attorneys, and using the minimum force necessary to accomplish the
mission is the least we can expect from our government. As the President
said Tuesday, “living our values doesn't make us weaker. It makes us safer, and
it makes us stronger.”
“Business as usual” at ICE is not “change we can
believe in.”
·
The ghosts of the
Bush Administration’s enforcement regime must not haunt the Obama
Administration’s approach to immigration.
·
Loose or
non-existent oversight by DHS in
·
With all the
problems identified with mis-targeted enforcement, arrest quotas to be filled
by ICE teams, deaths in detention, and unclear or non-existent oversight by
·
Raids terrorize
the very communities that helped bring change to the White House and elect
President Barack Obama.
·
In this time of
economic hardship it is completely unacceptable for the Obama administration to
be executing raids on our workforce, businesses, and communities- it is time
for him to hear from us.
We will not enforce our way
out of our current immigration mess
·
It is silly to
think enforcement alone can address the fact that we have more some 12 million
undocumented immigrants living, raising families, and working in the
·
We will not enforce our way out of our current immigration
problems. With 12 million undocumented immigrants – 1 in 20
·
Most undocumented
immigrants aren’t leaving no matter how horrible the enforcement regime or how
bad the economy. Most have been here more than five years, live in
families, have roots in the community, and the sooner we recognize that they
are here to stay and bring them into to the system – rather than drive them
further underground – the better.
·
We deport an
average of 10,000 parents of
·
Regardless of the
pretense for this raid or why ICE agents initially targeted this business, it
is clear they picked up whoever happened to be there. Untargeted
enforcement actions going into workplaces, homes, and neighborhoods make every
immigrant family feel vulnerable and do nothing to make us safer or solve our
immigration problems.
·
Immigration and
employment laws must be followed, and businesses and government must do their
due diligence. If the company involved in the Bellingham raid’s statements are
true, that the employer was working with authorities to fulfilled their
obligations under the law, then ICE’s actions were more questionable.
We have been in denial since we first
learned of the possibility that the P-I would end its life as a print daily
newspaper. The P-I has been part of our lives for many decades.
But this past week, starting Sunday, we
have been reading the "farewell" columns by the P-I regulars. Now,
today, we saw the article that makes it hard to pretend that
"something" will happen to prevent this terrible loss.
Yet we want to believe that there is a
glimmer of hope that we will not lose this important voice for our city and
state. There was an ad on page A4 (Wednesday) stating that, should the P-I in
fact cease to exist on paper, a group has been formed to support an online web
site. We can reach this group at seattlepostglobe@yahoo.com.
While we hope the P-I will continue to publish as it
has for all these years, just in case this is not to be, we should support this
alternative endeavor. Elaine Phelps
Rich Austin:
Contractual Double Standards
And the [double standard] beat goes on….. We are being told that AIG’s contracts with
its CEOs that ‘guarantee” generous bonuses are sacrosanct. Auto workers, as you may recall, were
required to re-negotiate their contracts as a prerequisite for Congressional
approval of structured loans to the Big
Three automakers.
Evidently, the contracts for working men and women are less than
sacrosanct. That’s a double
standard. How much more will we
take? How long are we going to allow surrogates
for the wealthiest 10% to dictate living conditions for the remaining 90% of
us? Jeez…it doesn’t make [ethical]
sense. Rich Austin
Jeff Upthegrove: About Israeli Killing of Peace
Activist
March 16, 2009 marked the sixth
anniversary of the killing of the American peace activist Rachel Corrie. She
was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in Rafah on March 16,
2003, a few days before the
In a remarkable series of emails to her
family, she explained why she was risking her life. Very worth the time to read. Jeff Upthegrove
Liberals
and Democrats
Obama Watch – Week 8
Also go to Whitehouse.gov.
Multi-Tasking Big-Time
President
Obama is simultaneously dealing with a large number of major issues: taxes,
jobs, infrastructure investments, conservation, energy, health and
education. And other issues: government
ethics and transparency, science, women’s rights, and more. And making appointments and getting them
approved. And communicating with the public much more than any previous
president. For more.
Obama
administration is taking ethics seriously.
Obama
administration is taking military spending reform seriously.
President
Obama created an advisory committee to advise him on issues facing women. For
more.
President
Obama created a Food Safety Working Group to upgrade our food safety laws.
President Obama
restricted the use and sale of cluster bombs.
President Obama seeks
cooperation with and support for the United Nations.
Note
that President Obama never promised to eliminate all earmarks, as did John
McCain.
President
Obama is faced with gay rights decision concerning health benefits for
partners.
Apparently,
immigration reform will not be attempted until this fall. For
more. For
more.
Will
President Obama replace all U.S. Attorneys at once or stagger the replacements?
Large and Small Businesses and Community
Banks
During
his talk
with Business Roundtable leaders, President Obama defended his initiatives
to deal with a number of issues that affect our economy. He also indicated his desire to work closely
with leaders of large businesses and help them succeed in sensibly regulated
economy.
I
have long regretted that Democrats did not serve small businesses better,
noting that more families have members engaged in small businesses than have
members of unions. Small businesses
produce many innovations and new jobs. Yet
Democrats have often imposed unfunded mandates on small businesses, instead of
initiating tax and other programs to assist them. The result is that small businesses have
supported Republicans.
I
have also suggested that our government should assist local and regional banks
to offer more credit instead of focusing upon the large banks which largely
caused our credit crisis. So I am
pleased that President
Obama met with owners of small businesses and managers of community banks
to express his support for them. He is
restoring the ability of the Small Business Administration to assist low cost
loans to small businesses. Our Treasury
Department will purchase $15 billion of loans from community banks, so that
they can recover funds to make more loans.
Large financial companies will be required to report their loans to small
businesses. Various tax breaks which
will benefit small businesses will also be implemented. For
more. For
more. For
more.
Government by Shock and Awe Miracles
We
could call it government by miracles. A
miracle is simply a surprise. When
something happens that no one expects.
Although almost all of President Obama’s actions were promised during
his campaign to become election, most of our public was skeptical. So now we are impressed. During these difficult times, Obama’s
popularity is increasing.
Nervous
Liberals are warning that Obama is taking on so much that he will fail. For
more. For more. They are worried that he may try to go one
bridge too far. But by attempting many
bridges across the same river, he improves the chances of crossing the
river. Obama honestly says that not all
of his initiatives will work. But then
he will try others until we succeed. The
relevant question is: Can Congress cross many bridges quickly?
Conservatives Are Losing Ground
Obama
is providing Conservatives so many targets that they can’t concentrate their
fire. They whine about this, then about
that, simply repeating the same lies and prescriptions that were disproved by their
rule. For
more.
To
obtain a relevant balance, it would make sense for our television forums to
feature arguments between Liberals who think Obama is compromising too much
with Liberals who think he is only making necessary short-term compromises,
leaving scratched-record Conservatives out of it. But the more Conservatives repeat their same
old proven wrong diagnoses and prescriptions, the more unpopular they become.
Controlling Health Care Costs
Little
noticed is a comment that President Obama made during his health summit. He said that he would not restrict older
persons from receiving health care that younger people receive. I have assumed that one necessity for
reducing health care costs is to use cost benefit calculations to restrict
expensive end-of-life care as other countries do. Obama’s statement will reassure older people
who might otherwise oppose health care reform.
73%
of voters support having public health insurance as one alternative.
We should offer
public health insurance (like Medicare) to all.
How Strong Is our Economy?
Pundits
are noting an inconsistency between President Obama’s statement that our
economy has fundamental strengths (entrepreneurial spirit, workers who work
hard, an excellent higher education system); but before the election, he
criticized John McCain for saying our economy is fundamentally strong. The difference is that before the election,
John McCain downplayed our economic recession, while Obama has consistently
emphasized it. Obama’s message is that
while we are having a severe recession, we have the resources and the will to
recover.
Even
as unemployment (a lagging indicator) continues to increase, there are
various indicators that our economy is beginning to stabilize. A
manpower survey of 31,800 employers found that only 14% plan to cut their
payroll. Moderate
inflation instead of deflation occurred in February. Housing
starts are increasing. Obama said
that the days of overheated housing markets and maxed-out credit cards are
over. He said that “It is very important
even as we’re focused on the financial system and credit markets, that we are
laying the foundation for what I’m calling a post-bubble economic growth
model.”
The Good News and the Bad
President
Obama repeatedly presents various groups with both good news and bad. He gives them some of what they want, while
denying them other things they want. He
will pay teachers more and work closely with them to set standards; but wants
merit pay and charter schools. He will
allow private insurance, but will remove their subsidies and may provide a
public insurance alternative. He will
seek input from business leaders as he implements regulations. He will considering lowering corporate taxes,
but will close loopholes which now allow businesses to escape most taxes. He will help American businesses to be
competitive with foreign ones, but will make it disadvantageous for them to
move jobs abroad. He will seek equal
rights for GLBT people, but not marriage.
You
get the idea. The various groups have
the choice of gratefully accepting what he gives, or of insisting they must
have more. Which runs the risk that they
will get less.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a
Refreshing Change
I am
impressed that Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is holding daily (weekdays) press
conferences, at which he relates well to the press, with a balance of this is our
policy, I don’t want to steal the president’s message tomorrow, I don’t know,
I’ll find out, your question is trivial, etc.
He
often banters with the press: During Monday's press briefing, CNN's Ed
Henry asked Robert Gibbs to respond to Dick Cheney's withering attack on
President Obama. Gibbs
fired off a good one-liner in response, joking that apparently the GOP
didn't have Rush Limbaugh available, so they trotted out Cheney, the "next
most popular member of the Republican cabal." Also
read CNN’s supportive interview with Dick Cheney, with John King as straight
man. Yuk.
I
don’t get the impression that Robert Gibbs will lie to us in order to make the
president look good, as has been common practice among past press secretaries. But he may equivocate and make excuses.
President Obama’s Eisenhower Strategy
During
World War II, General Montgomery wanted our allied armies to thrust forward
toward
Economically
As critics
call upon President Obama to concentrate upon reviving credit, he is instead
taking a multi-pronged approach:
·
Free large
financial companies of toxic loans;
·
Provide a
stimulus-investment package (tax cuts; assistance to state and local
governments and schools to maintain jobs; infrastructure, conservation and
non-carbon based energy investments; and other measures to maintain and
increase private and public jobs)
·
Enable homeowners
with defaulting mortgages to reduce their payments
·
Assist family
security through extending subsidized health coverage
·
Reinsure for
community bank loans
·
Give tax breaks
to small businesses
·
And more
A
million jobs here, 500 thousand there, several hundred thousands here and
there. Soon there are real numbers,
millions of jobs maintained or restored.
Politically
President
Obama is not simply relying on support of Democrats and their allied interest
groups (such as minorities, labor unions, teachers associations and GLBT groups. He is reaching out to a variety of other
groups to which Democrats have traditionally given little attention: White
working class males through job creation, women through defending their rights,
health providers and insurers, executives of large businesses, small business
owners and managers, and even Republicans.
A few million supporters here, a million there, hundreds of thousands
elsewhere and pretty soon there are real numbers, millions of supporters widely
spread throughout our social fabric.
I
notice that Michelle Obama arranged for a White House fountain to turn green in
celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Will
this produce more support from thousands of the 51 million Americans with Irish
ancestry? It all adds up. Just teasing.
As
in basketball with which he is familiar, Obama is executing a full court
press. As financial advisors suggest, he
is maintaining a balanced portfolio.
Instead of placing all his eggs in a one basket, he is hedging his
bets. This strategy is particularly
sensible when dealing with new situations, in which solutions are
uncertain. My optimism about Obama’s economic and political success is based upon
his superb implementation of Eisenhower’s European war strategy. His strategy is audacious in fighting on so
many fronts, but less audacious than dramatically plunging on one or a few.
As
is often true, pundits are wrong to criticize Obama’s broad based economic and
political strategies. Obama’s success
will drive them nuts. They will look
for, but be unable to find, one or a few dramatic activities which explain his
success. What we need are fewer
commercial audience oriented pundits and more well educated social analysts,
able to make historical and social comparisons.
President Obama has hosted meetings which included
employers, private health insurers and health providers, big and small business
executives and bankers. But note that he
hasn’t hosted union leaders (Labor feels excluded.),
nor Hispanic leaders concerned with immigration or GLBT people. Is he assuming that he already has their
support? Or can act to obtain it later?
Neither
President Obama nor the Change
for America book which prescribes structures and proposals for the
Obama administration have given much attention to
Compare Democratic and Republican Leaders
President
Obama is a devoted husband and father, with a healthy lifestyle (except for
smoking). Self indulgent Rush Limbaugh
is a bulky, cigar-smoking, pain killer addicted, thrice divorced owner of a
$400,000 car, private plane and 24,000 square foot house. Unlike Barack Obama, Rush Limbaugh thrives
upon expressing hate.
Other
differences include their respect for truth, their respect for American
traditions and their compassion, with Rush Limbaugh failing on all three. Many other Republican leaders resemble Rush
Limbaugh much more than they resemble Barack Obama.
Porn Is Most Indulged by
8 of
the 10 top porn-buying states voted Republican in our 2008 election.
Workers
are more exploited in Red states.
Here’s the Beef
Most
Americans prefer Liberals, including Democrats and Independents and people
outside the south.
Young
people are Liberal, will give Democrats a majority for a long time.
Even
Republicans don’t like our Republican leaders.
A
majority of Americans support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Contrary to
Conservative claims, tax increases on wealthy will affect few small business
owners.
TARP
beneficiaries are using some of the money to bribe lawmakers to provide more
TARP money.
President
Obama is called a New Democrat, but unlike the DLC, he will oppose business
abuse.
Obama
administration is creating a comprehensive energy policy.
Unlike
Bush administration, Our Obama administration is helping New Orleans.
Our Obama
administration is conducting health town meetings.
State
and Local
Toward Tax Reform
During
2007, I continually promoted campaign
finance reform. During 2008, I
continually promoted tax reform, including obtaining more revenue while
reducing taxes for 90% of our people through substitution of a progressive
income tax for some of our regressive sales, excise and property taxes.
Since
then, our declining state revenue has threatened disaster for our education and
social safety net. By spending money
from our state rainy-day fund, spending federal stimulus funds and cutting
spending during the remainder of this fiscal year, the $8.5 shortfall
in our state’s budget can be reduced to $3.5 billion. But without additional revenue, this requires
cuts in essential education and other social support services. This has
motivated some
civic leaders to call for a tax on higher incomes. We need more civic leaders and civic
organizations to join them. Only be
creating a strong movement, can we enable our politicians to take what
otherwise would be too risky a stand.
The imperative for all of you who
support an income tax is to express this support.
·
To your family,
friends and acquaintances.
·
Through
attempting to gain support from the organizations in which you
participate.
·
And support from
prominent civic leaders.
·
Through
expressing yourself publicly through letters to the editor and calls to talk
radio.
·
Rallies and
marches might be organized.
The
alternative is that our progress toward better government will be
destroyed. The voters will blame the Democrats
for failure to protect and extend our progress.
Conservatives will regain power and progress will cease. If you believe and care about this, you
should act. Express your support for a
progressive tax increase. Encourage
others to express their support.
Washington
State Revenue Department lists 134 possible revenue sources.
Democratic
legislative leaders consider asking voters whether they want tax increases.
Problem-solving
for the public good requires an income tax, instead of massive program cuts.
State
workers ask lawmakers to raise taxes instead of just cutting programs. For more.
Statewide
Poverty Action Network calls for exploring ways to raise revenue.
“During this time of economic insecurity, our state needs to expand
services and get us through the crisis, while keeping a balanced budget. Social
supports like health care and housing assistance boost household budgets. When
these investments are cut, there is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in consumer
spending, which only serves to weaken the economy more.
As the state struggles with this record deficit, our lawmakers will look
at many options to balance the budget. Some of these options will include cuts
to crucial Near General Fund programs. To protect state investments and the progress we have made, lawmakers
should explore a variety of options, including ways to raise revenue. This is the only way to ensure that everyone can meet
their basic needs and have opportunities to prosper.”
Washington State
PTA calls for adequate funding for education and programs that benefit children
and youth, but doesn’t suggest how this should be done when our state
revenue has declined so much. What other
social support programs do they think should be cut?
Featured Advocacy Group --------
Washington CAN -------------------------------
With over 30,000 members, Washington CAN
is the largest statewide, grassroots lobbying organization in
·
Economic, racial, gender and social justice for all.
·
Shared community and collective responsibility.
·
Respect for diversity and building strong communities.
·
Decent quality of life for all.
·
Change relations of power so all individuals can
significantly impact decisions that affect their lives.
·
Truly democratic society with open honest
participation by all.
Washington CAN attempts to increase
citizen participation in economic and political decision-making; to win
meaningful and concrete improvements in the lives of
·
Recruit members and do fundraising through
door-to-door and telephone canvasses, involve members in action groups, and
train them.
·
Develop a limited agenda of issues that members of the
Washington CAN coalition agree on by consensus.
·
Work with
·
Develop the ongoing capacity to successfully run
statewide issue campaigns, backed by research, education, local organizing,
media work, and grass-roots public outreach.
Formed many decades ago, Washington Can
has many legislative accomplishments, typically through working closely with
other advocacy organizations. For example,
during the last 10 years. More
important, Washington CAN is an incubator for assisting politically inactive
citizens to become effective political advocates.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bye bye PI
I like the online version of the PI better than I
liked the print version. I just arranged to receive only those
types of articles in which I am interested.
Any ads will be less obtrusive.
And we’re not harvesting so many trees.
Three Candidates for King County Executive
Three men are now seeking to be named King County
Executive: Dow Constantine, Fred
Jarrett and Larry Phillips. I haven’t met any of these candidates, but
they all appear to be Liberals with much relevant experience.
Eastside Light Rail Update
Sound Transits plan to extend light rail across our
I-90 bridge may be stopped by both engineering and legal issues. Our I-90 bridge was not engineered to support
light rail without changes which would endanger its structural integrity. Federal law does not allow use of federal
highways for transit.
Even though a new SR-520 bridge will pass over a light
rail tunnel connecting Capital Hill with our University District, there has
been no consideration of connecting the two, or of engineering SR-520 to
support light rail. Any eastside rail
may have to connect to
Here’s the Beef
Create your own
balanced Washington State budget. I
did it without cutting any education or social programs, mostly through
non-regressive tax increases.
Tell your Washington
state legislator to support cap and trade legislation.
During
recession, Washington traffic is slightly decreased.
Without
money, states are reducing the school year and laying off teachers. And
freeing prisoners.
24,000
Washington children are homeless, with dire results.
Labor is taking a beating in
Olympia.
Washington
State Labor Council suggests that its contributions depend upon legislation. Oops.
Stimulus-investment
package is already stimulating green jobs in Puget Sound.
California
Governor Schwarzenegger is creating a green jobs training program for youth.
States
are stimulating broad band deployment.
Religious
groups use MySpace to proselytize in Washington public schools.
See the 2008 turnout
and presidential votes for King County Legislative Districts.
Nation
and World
Hate Groups and Crimes Increase
I
have long supported the Southern
Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which:
·
Tracks the number
of U.S. hate groups
·
Provides schools
with materials for teaching
tolerance
·
Brings lawsuits against
hate groups which commit violence to bankrupt their operation
Our
SPLC lists a 4% increase this year from 888 to 926 hate groups. These include Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi, White
Nationalist, Racist Skinhead, Christian Identity, Neo-Confederate, Black
Separatist and general hate groups, which express various combinations of
anti-Black, anti-Semite, and anti-immigrant hate.
In
addition, 149 patriot groups (increased from 131), which include militias,
‘common-law’ courts, publishers, ministries and citizens’ groups which oppose
any ‘new world order’ or advocate extreme anti-government activities. These groups occur in all
states in rough proportion to their population, with larger numbers in
southern states. There are also numerous
hate and patriot websites.
We
liberals support freedom of expression, including allowing people and
organizations to express their hate. We
also support strongly expressing our condemnation of hate against ethnic group
members, immigrants, gays and others.
The most effective way to prevent hate crimes is to create a climate of
opinion which strongly condemns them.
Just as communities have been touted as drug-free zones, they should be
touted as hate-free zones.
How Many Friends Do We Have?
The Dunbar number of 150 is
the hypothetical limit on the human brain’s capacity for social networks. The average Facebook user has 120 friends in
his or her network, but men only interact intensely with about 7 and women
about 10. The average home receives 116
television channels, but people typically watch only 16. I wonder if we often like a number of
choices, but predominantly only choose a few of them. Alternatively stated, we may have a few
interests and hobbies to which we give lots of our time and effort, more to
which we give less, and more still to which we give still less, etc.
Some
of us focus more intensely on a few interests, some of us attend to more,
perhaps less intensely and some appear to have few interests. A major dilemma for those of us with many
interests is how to limit our attention to some in order to free up time and
energy for others.
Americans Are Changing their Religious Commitments
1990 Present
Catholic 26.2 25.1
Baptist 19.3 15.8
Mainline Protestant 18.7 12.9
No religion
8.2 15.0
I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to pay taxes owed April
15, but all is not lost.
I have paid these taxes: accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL tax,
cigarette tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, federal income tax,
unemployment tax, gasoline tax, hunting license tax, fishing license tax,
waterfowl stamp tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, liquor tax, luxury tax,
Medicare tax, city, school and county property tax (up 33 percent last 4
years), real estate tax, social security tax, road usage tax, toll road tax,
state and city sales tax, recreational vehicle tax, state franchise tax, state
unemployment tax, telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal state and
local surcharge tax, telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, telephone state and
local tax, utility tax, vehicle license registration tax, capitol gains tax,
lease severance tax, oil and gas assessment tax, Pennsylvania sales tax, and
many more that I can't recall but I have run out of space and money.
When you do not receive my check April 15, just know that it is an honest
mistake. Please treat me the same way you treated Congressmen Charles
Rangel, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, and ex-Congressman Tom Daschle and, of
course, your boss Timothy Geithner. No penalties and no interest.
P.S. I will make at least a partial payment as soon as I get my stimulus check.
Here’s the Beef
Responding
to recession, bye bye trash. Hello
bartering. And Gardening. Aren’t people resourceful?
To
maintain a healthy economy, the Federal Reserve needs more authority.
Bankruptcy
for Lehman Brothers was too much shock.
But controlled bankruptcy now is sensible.
Alternatives for
recapitalizing large financial companies.
Our
Federal government will pay the stimulus bills, but local officials will claim
the credit.
Military Secretary
Robert Gates is preparing military budget with large weapons reductions.
U.S. is reducing
number of contracted private U.S. employees in Iraq.
We
need to return to Earn instead of Borrow.
Most
Americans support labor unions.
Unionization
doesn’t create loss of jobs.
Will
states (facing our financial crisis) legalize Marijuana?
What
is needed to promote production and use of locally grown food?
Only $33 billion a
year ($5 per global inhabitant) would provide local clinics for poor and more.
Brazilian city works with
nearby farmers to eliminate hunger.
Interview
with new El Salvador’s new Liberal president, ending 130 years of Conservative
rule.
The
misleadingly-called Israeli lobby drew attention by opposing Obama nominee. For
more. More.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Multi-Tasking
As we go through life, we all deal with numerous
tasks. Some are obligations which are
forced upon us or which we commit to.
Some are tasks we do primarily for their consequences; others because we
enjoy doing them. Some are responses to
opportunities and others are responses to threats. Some occur repeatedly, others sporadically
and others only once. Some require much
time and effort and others can be done quickly and easily. Some we are confident that we can do and
others we are not. Sometimes we have
many tasks in our in-basket and other times we have only a few.
In these various situations, we form and enact
agendas. We decide how much weight to
give to the value of the task or its urgency.
We decide whether to attack one or more major tasks, or to clear the
decks of minor ones. We decide whether
to face our reluctance to do some tasks, or to procrastinate. We bunch various tasks together for efficient
performance. Some of us make conscious
agenda decisions; others act more spontaneously. Some of us revel in loading our plate; others
restrict the tasks that they consider doing.
Deciding what to do with our lives is complicated.
·
“I know there's some who believe we can only handle one challenge at a time.
And they forget that
·
Likewise, President
Roosevelt didn't have the luxury of choosing between ending a depression and sending
us to the moon.
·
President Kennedy
didn't have the luxury of choosing between civil rights and sending us to the
moon.
·
And we don't have the luxury of choosing between getting
our economy moving now and rebuilding it over the long term.”
Barack Obama appears to carefully decide his
agenda. He regards many of the tasks he
does as investments which will provide resources (political capital) for
performing future tasks. He focuses upon
quickly, but carefully dealing with a major issue, then moving on to
another. All the while, he continually
addresses smaller ones. Our general
public is often not aware of the smaller ones, which are primarily noticed by
particular audiences to which they are important.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Mark Green and Michele Jolin (eds), 2009, Change for
This excellent book describes
in detail many of the changes which President Obama has and is making in the
organization of the White House and its policies. I suggest it as a valuable reference book to
understand and anticipate his actions.
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