Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter #177

Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in Puget Sound and Beyond

Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.

 

Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed Puget Sound Liberals working together.

 

          3000 members                               June 5, 2009                    formerly Lake Hills Liberals                

 

 

 

 

                                                     

Our Website                                   Our  Editor                  To Unsubscribe

 

              Table of Contents  * Featured Articles

 

About Puget Sound Liberals

Calendars of Events

Communication with Our Members

Opportunities

Petitions

 

Commentaries from Our Members

Donald Smith: Competent Government Is a Solution

Norm Conrad: Hold Office Holders Accountable

 

Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef

Government Watch

What Dick Cheney Isn’t Telling Us

 

State and Local Links to the Beef

Organizing for America Meets in Bellevue*

Ways to Create a Low Consumption Local Economy

Featured Advocacy Group: World Future Council

 

Nation and World Links to the Beef

Several Needed Lawsuits

Good, Bad and Ugly Countries*

U.N. Official Asks Investigation of U.S. Unlawful Deaths

Help U.S. Increase Diplomatic & Development Tools

Michael Moore’s Plan for General Motors*

Our New Thriftiness

 

Our Liberal Spirit

Good, Bad and Ugly Habits

 

Recommended Books

 

 

 

Our Political Values

 

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

·       Stop Corporate Abuse

·       Public Campaign Financing

·       Substitute a Progressive Income Tax

·       Replacing Conservative Legislators

 

Quote of the Week

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – Title of spaghetti western film starring Clint Eastwood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Calendar of Events

Saturday, June 6 at 12 Noon at Whatcom Educational Credit Union (600 East Holly Street, Bellingham) – Organizing for America Listening Tour

Saturday, June 6 at 6:30 at Nordic Heritage Museum (3014 NW 67th Street, Seattle) – Progressive Majority Fifth Annual Casino Night Fundraiser.  $50 - $500.  To register.

Thursday, June 11 at 7:30 at Seattle Central Library Washington Mutual Foundation Meeting Room (1000 Fourth Avenue, Seattle) – King County Executive Candidate Forum on the Future of Growth in King County, hosted by Futurewise.  For more.

Friday June 12, 2009, 7 to 9 pm at the Rainier UU Center (835 Yesler Way, Seattle Second Friday ForumDavid Korten on Wall Street”.  For more.

Saturday, June 13 at 6:30 PM at LueRachelle Brim-Atkins’s home (7611 South 115th Street, Seattle) - inSPIRe Potluck and discussion of racism.

Saturday, June 13 at 6 PM at South Seattle Community Center Brockey Center ( ) – 3rd Annual Washington Public Campaigns Awards Banquet.  Reception, Dinner, Auction, Program keynoted by Congressman Jim McDermott. 

Thursday, June 18 at 6:30 at South Lake Union Discovery Center (101 Westlake Avenue North Seattle) – King County Executive Candidate Forum and straw poll, sponsored by Young Democrats of Washington. $5.

Friday, June 26 at 6:30 at King County Library Services Center (960 Newport Way NW, Issaquah) – Eastside Movies that Matter: The Iron Wall, a look at Jewish settlements and walls in the West Bank.  Refreshments and discussion.

 

 

Calendars of Events                             

 

King County Democrats - LD Meetings            Some 2008 Legislature Lobby Days

Thurston County Progressive Net                  Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation

Alliance for Democracy                                Democratic Underground.Com                          

Sierra Club Cascade Chapter Calendar           Cool State Washington

Washington Public Campaigns Calendar          Town Hall Seattle Calendar

Washington State Labor Council                    Whatcom County Peace and Justice Calendar 

Conversation Cafe      Drinking Liberally          Seattle NOW          

Wallingford Neighbors for Peace and Justice – Friday Night Movies      Liberal films on PBS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Communication with Our Members

 

Norm Conrad, whom I met at our Organizing for America meeting, has suggested the following books.  I will read and report on the ones that have not already been reported in our newsletter.  I welcome suggestions from the rest of you:

Benjamin Barber, A Place for Us
Ravi Batra, The Myth of Free Trade & The New Golden Age & Greenspan's Fraud
Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, Democracy & Capitalism
John Dean, Broken Government and Conservatives without Conscience
Stewart Ewen, PR! – A Social History of Spin Lawrence Goodwyn, The Populist Moment
William Greider, Who Will Tell the People & Secrets of the Temple
Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine
Juliet Schor, The Overworked American
Thomas Wolff, Top Heavy
Roy Morrison, We Build the Road as We Travel

Norm also recommends the Progressive Book Club.

Opportunities

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.

Create your own petition.

Conduct your own home energy audit.

See all of President Obama’s weekly (Saturday) addresses.

Listen to Pete Seeger singing and hear about his history of political singing (video).  For more.  I have a signed Pete Seeger songbook that I got in 1945 when I listened to him sing in a Boulder, CO union hall.   Dave Thomas

 

Petitions

Tell your congress members to support the SLUM Assistance Act.

Tell your congress members to maintain funding for Serve America Act.

Tell your congress member to support early education funding proposed by President Obama.

Tell your congress members to support allowing LGBT persons to sponsor their partner for immigration.

Thank New Hampshire Governor John Lynch and legislators for passing marriage equality.

Tell Dr. Teller’s family members and women’s health care providers that you condemn his murder.

 

Commentaries From Our Members

 

Donald Smith: Competent Government Is a Solution

Published by Bellevue Reporter on 5/30/2009

 

Conservatives often say things like: Government can only confiscate wealth from productive citizens and give it to unproductive citizens; government itself produces nothing of value.  Balderdash!

 

Thanks to government, we have civil rights, traffic regulations, safe aviation, labor laws, sanitation, seat belts and contracts.  Thanks to agencies like the National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation, we have childhood immunization, new drugs and the Internet. The FBI and the police fight crimes such as murder, robbery, rape, identity theft, child pornography and embezzlement. Aren't conservatives in favor of law-and-order, as well as strong national defense? Regulatory agencies like the SEC protect us from financial mismanagement (reckless deregulation was a major cause of the subprime crash). The Centers for Disease Control and Safety fight diseases such as swine flu. The FDA battles unsafe food and medicines. The EPA tackles toxins and environmental degradation. FEMA comes to the rescue for disasters.

 

Locally, government provides public transportation, water, sewage, licensing, parks, roads, land management, courts, emergency services, snow removal and libraries.  The social safety net cares for the sick, poor and elderly. And public education works. The University of Washington and public schools in communities like Bellevue are excellent.  In most industrialized nations, government provides national health care at a fraction of the cost, and with better coverage, than America's market-based system.

 

Is government often corrupt and wasteful?  Absolutely! But so is the private sector (consider Enron, Wall Street, Bernie Madoff, banks and AIG). Moreover, corruption, waste and mismanagement flourished when Republicans ran the federal government, from 2000 to 2006.  Yes, government can be tyrannical (unnecessary war, torture). Yes, many Democrats are corrupt, too. Yes, government is often co-opted by special interests. But let's acknowledge all the good that government does and can do.

 

The solution isn't to give up and minimize government; we'd end up dysfunctional, like Somalia. The solution is to weed out corruption and incompetence, via voter-funded elections, media reform and increased accountability. 

 

Given our massive public debt and the increasingly skewed distribution of wealth, we must raise taxes on the well-to-do. Conservatives complain that taxation and national health insurance amount to socialist redistribution of wealth. But in reality, government has tended to redistribute wealth to the rich, via corporate welfare, no-bid contracts, tax breaks and (recently) bailouts.  Washington State has a particularly regressive tax system. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the wealthiest one percent of Washington taxpayers pay 3.2 percent of their income in taxes, compared to 17.6 percent for the poorest fifth of taxpayers.

 

It's sad when middle class people fall for relentless conservative propaganda about government and taxes.  Government isn't the problem. Corruption and lack of accountability are the problem.  Donald A. Smith

 

Norm Conrad: Hold Office Holders Accountable

 

It was good to meet you.  I have a suggestion for encouraging better representation from wayward Democratic Senators and Representatives.  Find out what that Senator's margin of victory was in the last election.  Get a petition drive going with the objective of gathering signatures from twice as many registered voters as that margin of victory. 

 

The petition would be a pledge to refuse to vote for that Senator (or Rep.) in his/her next re-election attempt unless we see a significant change in his/her voting record by a specific date.  If we see no acceptable change, our names would be a great start toward a primary challenge to send her/him back home to private life.  Norm Conrad

 

 

Liberals and Democrats

 

Government Watch

Also go to Whitehouse.gov.

 

Speech to Moslems

President Obama’s speech to Moslems (transcript and video).  Obama described our historic differences, called for a new beginning and cited 6 Mid-East issues to be resolved: terrorist extremists, Iraqi sovereignty, Israeli/Palestinian statehood, nuclear non-proliferation, democracy and women’s rights.  He spoke unpleasant truths to all, while offering pleasant futures through cooperation.

 

Health Care Reform

President Obama tells supporters to tell congress that we must have health care reform now.  For more.  Senator Ted Kennedy says Health, Education, Labor and Pensions subcommittee will include public health insurance in its report.  For more.  Senator Max Baucus supports public health insurance option.  Kennedy and Baucus will try to create a single bill, which includes a public health insurance option.  For more.  For more. 

 

Regulation and Enforcement

FDIC Chair Sheila Blair seeks to restrict power of large financial companies.

 

In 1932 through 1934 the Senate Banking Committee, led by its Chief Counsel Ferdinand Pecora, ferreted out the deeper fraud and corruption that led to the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. The Pecora Committee's findings helped change the political mood, and laid the groundwork for the sweeping financial reforms of Roosevelt's New Deal. Roosevelt himself often conferred with Pecora, encouraged him, and depended on Pecora's work to build the public support for reform. He appointed Pecora to one of the newly created results of his handiwork, the Securities and Exchange Commission, though Pecora was disappointed not to be its chairman.  President Obama has now signed legislation, The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, which among other things creates an investigative commission inspired by Pecora.  For more.

 

How the Obama Administration developed its American auto industry recovery strategy.  For more.

 

For more.  Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack ends discrimination against Black farmers.  Obama Administration gives Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack sole authority on development in roadless areas for one year. 

 

President Obama appoints Republican congressman as Secretary of the Army.

 

What Dick Cheney Isn’t Telling Us

 

·       Prior to 9/11, his administration rejected pleas by the FBI to increase funding and manpower for counter-terrorism.

·       CIA intelligence reports told the President that al-Qaeda was planning a major attack, probably by air.

·       Following 9/11, the Administration carried out a systematic shredding of six Constitutional amendments in the mistaken belief that somehow snipping away at America's fabric would protect us from further harm.

·       Although torture was used, contrary to every international law, it did not, according to senior officials at both the FBI and CIA, produce valuable intelligence.

·       It was probably his paranoia and fears that pushed the nation's military and intelligence communities to use torture.

·       Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction or ties to al-Qaeda and 9/11.

·       By diverting America's military forces from Afghanistan to Iraq, his Administration probably allowed Osama bin Laden and a significant part of al-Qaeda to remain at large for almost eight years, while more than 4,000 Americans were killed and another 30,000 wounded, many with injuries that will never heal.  For more.

 

Here’s the Beef

Contrary to what commercial media pundits say, most Americans are Liberals.

MSNBC has become the Liberal equivalent of Conservative Fox News.

George Lakoff says Conservatives are trying to frame empathy as irrational.

Notice how Liberals are speaking out both to support and oppose President Obama’s views.

Grass roots support is necessary to get the reforms we want.

Our Obama Administration has made a series of anti-environmental decisions.

1000 advocacy organizations, 30 million members, $82 million for Liberal health care reform.  More. 

An Assistant Treasury Official for Tax Policy should be appointed soon.

Large financial companies organize to lobby against regulation.

Some employers support the Employee Free Choice Act.

Why is our Obama Administration not applying pressure to Sudan about Darfur?

 

State and Local

 

Organizing for America Meets in Bellevue

 

A successor to our Obama Campaign Organization, Organizing for America is conducting a dozen Listening Campaign meetings in Washington State.  The best attended meeting was held Sunday evening in Bellevue, with 80 attendees, most of whom have not been active in our Democratic Party State and Legislative District activities.  My impression is that while all of the attendees hold Liberal views, many consider themselves to be Independents, pessimistic about the willingness of Democrats to make many of the changes we need.

 

Participatory Procedures

Ten groups seated at round tables, spent forty minutes discussing:

·       How can we connect our concern with local issues with our priorities for federal action?

·       What resources to reach our goals do we need and have in our community?

·       What should Organizing for America look like at the end of 2008?

Each person at each table was encouraged to speak with no one dominating the conversations.  Notes were taken and each group reported their thoughts to the whole meeting.  This participative procedure (which I often used in my community development activities) produced a variety of constructive ideas.

 

Relating Local Concerns to National Priorities

People noted that due to our lousy tax system, our governor and legislature has trashed our education, health and other social services.  Global warming will increase our fire danger and reduce our snow pack, necessary for providing water during the summer.  On the Eastside, in Seattle and the Yakima Valley, we have many undocumented immigrants who lack legal protections.  We need to be protected from arbitrary arrest, confinement without due process and torture.  These and other issues can be resolved best by our federal government.

 

Major Needed Resource is Local Communication

Our tasks are to mobilize public opinion and influence our federal and state legislators to support needed changes.  The major resource that we need is the capacity to communicate with each other to organize such activities as rallies, marches, vigils, house parties, neighborhood canvassing and blog-type discussions.  And such activities as organizing forums for our congressional and legislative candidates and incumbents; meeting, phoning, emailing and writing them; and sending them petitions. 

 

We need internet groups at State, Puget Sound, Seattle, Eastside and other levels, which we can join to discuss issues and propose and arrange activities.  We need communication among our members as well as top-down and bottom-up communications with our leaders, something that has been missing outside of the Obama campaign.

 

Coalitions with Advocacy Organizations

People suggested that our major available resources are our hundreds of local, state and national advocacy organizations.  These have expertise concerning our many issues.  We can join with coalitions of these organizations to act together to realize the changes we want.  An example was the large rally which was held Saturday for health care reform.  Our state and local Democratic Party organizations were not mentioned.

 

The End Result

At the end of 2009, Organizing for America should look like Barack Obama’s campaign was in October 2008.  Able to communicate and organize locally to influence public opinion.  We need to be able to raise money and other resources to both influence public opinion and our national and state legislators.  Our legislators must be persuaded to support our priorities which are necessary for the well-being of our state and local areas.

 

Ten reasons why we need an organized independent Liberal movement.

 

Ways to Create a Sustainable Low Consumption Local Economy

By Sara van Gelder Published in Summer 2009 Yes Magazine

 

At Home

1.      Rent out a room in your home, or swap space for gardening, child or elder care, or carpentry.

2.      Buy less so you can buy higher quality. Buy from companies that “internalize” costs by passing along to you the cost of living wages, low carbon footprints, or organic production.

3.      Take your money out of predator banks and put it into a credit union, local bank, or an institution like Shorebank Pacific that supports sustainable businesses.

4.      Pay off debts. Try life without credit cards.

5.      Downsize your home and shrink your mortgage.

6.      Fix things. Mend clothing, repair the vacuum, fix the car—instead of replacing them. Or give them away on Freecycle.org.

7.      Invest with passion. Know where your money is and what it’s up to. Go for a living return that builds your community. Or invest in tangible things like a prepaid college fund or a piece of land.

8.      Shorten the supply chain. Pick the wild greens and extra fruit growing in your neighborhood. If you can’t do that, then buy direct from a farmer. If you can’t do that, then look for local produce in season at your locally owned grocers.

9.      Support other people’s local economies by urging your representatives in Congress to cancel debts to poor countries (see www.jubileeusa.org).

10.  Find a place, put down roots, and stay put. Get to know people from other generations. Turn off the TV and talk to friends and neighbors.

11.  Support local green businesses rather than distant energy conglomerates by insulating your house, upgrading windows, and installing solar.

TOGETHER WITH FRIENDS

12.  Form a dinner club and hold a weekly potluck, or trade off cooking and hosting.

13.  Dip your toe in the barter economy. Check out Craigslist’s “barter” category, and learn what WTT means (Willing To Trade). Even better, ask the guy at work who makes microbrews to trade a sixpack for a dozen of your chickens’ eggs.

14.  Get together with coworkers and start a list of things you can do at work. For example, buy fair trade coffee, change to energy-efficient lighting, or carpool.

15.  Start a Common Security Club in your faith community or neighborhood to help folks cope in the crisis and act together to create the new economy (www.commonsecurityclub.org).

16.  Exchange care of children and elders. Better yet, bring the generations together and support each in offering love and care to the others.

17.  Pool funds with a group of friends for home repairs, greening projects, or emergencies.

18.  Do home work parties. Each month, go to a different household to do major home greening, a garden upgrade, or some deferred maintenance.

19.  Keep more people from becoming homeless by challenging evictions and occupying vacant homes.

20.  Create a space at a farmers market to exchange or sell used clothes, electronics, games, CDs, plants, seeds, compost, and books. Encourage people to swap services, too, like haircuts, photography, or prepared dinners.

21.  Reach out to groups that are organizing people on the frontlines of the crisis, like Jobs with Justice (www.jwj.org) and Right to the City (www.righttothecity.org).

IN YOUR COMMUNITY

22.  Link up people looking for job skills with people who can offer apprenticeships.

23.  Start a local currency or time dollar program to help link needs and offerings, those with time and those starved for time.

24.  Use publicly owned lands for community gardens, farmers markets, business incubators, community land trusts (with affordable housing), community-rooted grocery stores.

25.  Hold on to the local businesses you already have. Help retiring entrepreneurs sell to employees or other locals.

26.  Create a car, kayak, and electric pick-up truck co-op to save money and carbon, and provide access to a variety of vehicles.

27.  Create or join a chapter of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) or similar groups. Work together to find services or products you could substitute for imported ones, local assets you can build on, and ongoing institutions that could be serviced locally.

28.  Start a community bank, loan fund, or credit union to invest in local well-being, or encourage existing ones to rethink their lending.

29.  Declare an end to corporate personhood in your community. Barnstead, New Hampshire did, and, more recently, three communities in Maine have done it. You can too.

30.  Hold a weekly dinner for the hungry. Ask those who attend to help serve food at subsequent dinners. (Having an opportunity to give is important for everyone’s dignity).

31.  Keep your energy dollars circulating locally. Launch a clean energy cooperative to install wind turbines or solar roofs, and to weatherize homes and businesses.

 

Featured Advocacy Group ---- World Future Council ------------------------------

 

Voice of Future Gnerations

The World Future Council brings the interests of future generations to the centre of policy making. Its 50 eminent members from around the globe have already successfully promoted change. The Council addresses challenges to our common future and provides decision-makers with effective policy solutions. In-depth research underpins advocacy work for international agreements, regional policy frameworks and national lawmaking and thus produces practical and tangible results.  For more.

 

Vision

We envision a sustainable, just and peaceful future, where the dignity and rights of every living being and the connectedness of human beings to all life are universally respected.

 

Mission

The WFC aims to be an ethical voice for the needs and rights of future life.

 

Values

The World Future Council endorses the principles embodied in the Earth Charter and will incorporate them in its own proposals for policy reform.

·       Respect for earth and life in all its diversity 

·       Care for the community of life 

·       Integrity of Earth's ecological systems

·       Social and economic justice and gender equality

·       Just and participatory democracy, non-violence and peace

 

Key Challenges

The Council has been set up to address key environmental, economic, political and social challenges. The foundation’s statutes outline that the Council shall develop and help implement best policy solutions for current problems facing mankind, with the main work being carried out by Expert Commissions and campaigns, on themes such as

·       Climate Protection and Renewable Energy

·       Protection of Forests and Oceans

·       Sustainable Cities and Agriculture

·       Corporate Accountability and Trade Justice

·       Sustainable Production, Cyclical Production Systems and Ecological Tax Reform

·       Science and Spirituality

·       Human Rights and Rights of Indigenous People

·       Peace Education and Disarmament

·       Reform of International Organizations

 

Programs and Projects

In order to achieve a just, sustainable and peaceful future, the World Future Council has defined four key areas of action for the upcoming years: Future Justice, Climate and Energy, Living Economies and Future Finance, and KidsCall/Youth. The World Future Award and the Science and Spirituality Study are two additional current projects.

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Here’s the Beef

Initiative for Global Development promotes reducing global poverty as moral and political priority.

High-tech Northwest businesses may lead U.S. economic recovery.

Micro lending in U.S. can create jobs during current recession.

Renewed Lake Hills shopping center

Bellevue is supporting neighborhood development projects.

Instead of light rail, 2-way bus only lanes on our I-90 bridge should be used by frequent buses between many places on both sides of Lake Washington.

Rail speed between Eugene, OR and Vancouver, BC can be improved, but fast speeds need new rails and more money than currently available.

A Portland, OR architect is designing super insulated homes, can be heated with a blow dryer.

NW governors ask Energy Secretary to fund BPA study of using renewable energy.

Seattle firm has created seeds that can provide biofuel that can be used by airplanes.

Rob McKenna and other state’s attorneys general defend Israeli actions in Gaza.

 

Nation and World  

 

Several Needed Lawsuits

 

I don’t understand why two badly needed lawsuits have not be made.

 

Corporations Aren’t People

Based on a note attached to a Supreme Court decision by a court reporter, our courts have assumed that corporations have the same legal status as people.  Defenders of corporate personhood have frequently referred to the 14th amendment to our constitution, which was certainly not written to address this issue.  This issue is addressed fully in Thom Hartmann’s 2002 book, Unequal Protection. The Rise of Corporate Domination and the Theft of Human Rights and in Marjorie Kelly’s 2001 book, The Divine Right of Capital.  Dethroning the Corporate Aristocacy.

 

Since corporations have many more resources than people, they have much more power.  To give them rights of privacy, rights of expression, rights of petition to our lawmakers and executors, is to give them much more power than people. 

 

Yet while people have broad sets of values, our corporations have focused upon their own self interests oriented to making profits, often produced through abusing their employees, consumers, suppliers, our environment and even their stockholders.  If corporate rights were restricted as they are in Europe, we would be able to make many of the reforms that our public wants.

 

Federal Reserve Shouldn’t Be Directed by Private Bankers

Our Federal Reserve is a creature of our Congress.  As such, it should not be controlled by private interests.  Yet it is controlled by bankers.  Thus instead of the priority of low unemployment, its priorities are low inflation and maintenance of bank profitability.  A lawsuit should be instituted to remove bankers from control of our Federal Reserve.  This issue is addressed fully by James Galbraith in his 1998 book, Created Unequal.

 

Good, Bad and Ugly Countries

 

Last week, I described good, bad and ugly economic stimuli and different approaches that are being taken to them.  These categories (good, bad and ugly) may be applied to other phenomena, such as countries or personal habits.  Good Countries have governments which primarily attempt to improve the lives of their people.  Bad Countries have military, religious or other dictatorships which control and abuse their people.  Bad countries also include failed states in which weak governments allow control and abuse of people by competing warlords or other factions.  Ugly Countries include crony capitalist and other governments which reward private businesses at the expense of their people.  Some countries are difficult to classify, because they exhibit mixtures of good, bad and ugly and appear in transition between these categories.  I don’t know enough about some to classify them.

 

Good Countries

The best examples of good countries are countries within the European Union.  And other countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and perhaps India.  Democratically responsive to their people, they regulate their businesses.  (India is headed toward demographic and environmental catastrophe as declining water supplies and increased fertilizer costs are destroying its green revolution.)

 

China, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, most South American Countries and South Africa have been or are in transition from bad to good countries.  Iraq has transitioned from bad to an occupied failed state toward perhaps a good country.  Iran may be transitioning from a bad country (first under the Shah and then under Khomeini) to a good country.  Indonesia has transitioned from an ugly country to a good country.  Many of these have some ugly elements in which businesses with political influence gain at the expense of the public.

 

Bad Countries

Dictators control Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe and various Mid-East countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.  Israel is a Jewish democracy which dictatorially controls Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.  Many sub-Saharan African countries have been dictatorships, with some transitioning to good countries.

 

In Afghanistan, Congo, Pakistan and Somalia, weak governments are unable to control warlords which control significant parts of the country.  In each case, the result is armed conflict.

 

Ugly Countries

Our U.S is a crony capitalist country, in which special corporate interests are able to abuse our people.  Japan, the Philippines and Nigeria are controlled by private interests.  Mexico is transitioning from an ugly country to a good one, although drug lords threaten its control of some areas.  Some of the other countries which I have classified as transitioning to good countries may be partially ugly.  After a bodacious struggle, our U.S. may transition to a good country.

 

The good news is that more countries are becoming good countries.  The bad news is that bad and ugly countries still exist.  And our world trade is largely ugly.  Since the situation of many countries is mixed or in transition, my classifications may be faulty.  I welcome your comments.  Dave Thomas

 

U.N. Official Calls for Investigation of U.S. Caused Unlawful Deaths

 

The U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings called for a special prosecutor to investigate the policies and practices that have led to unlawful deaths and other abuses in the United States' international operations. In a report made public late yesterday, Special Rapporteur Philip Alston said there have been "chronic and deplorable accountability failures with respect to policies, practices and conduct that led to alleged unlawful killings."  Alston's report also highlights issues of unlawful deaths within the U.S. for which the government may be responsible, including flaws in the death penalty system that increase the likelihood that innocent people will be executed and deaths in immigration detention.  Alston's report includes several recommendations for the U.S. government to address unlawful killings:

·       Ensuring that imposition of the death penalty complies with fundamental due process requirements

·       Providing greater transparency into law enforcement, military and intelligence operations that result in potentially unlawful deaths

·       Investigating and punishing unlawful deaths in U.S. international operations

·       Promptly and publicly reporting and investigating all deaths in immigration detention and ensuring medical care consistent with international standards

·       Adhering to due process requirements under international human rights and humanitarian law in the prosecution of Guantanamo detainees

·       Releasing complete and unredacted investigations and autopsy results into the deaths of Guantánamo detainees to family members

For more.

 

Help U.S. Increase Diplomatic & Development Tools

 

Next week the House is expected to consider the House Foreign Affairs Committee the 2010 Foreign Relations Authorization Act (H.R. 2410), a bill that would significantly strengthen the tools of diplomacy, development and international cooperation in the United States.  Your voice is needed to ensure that your Representative votes FOR this important legislation. Included in this bill is support for:

·       Finally, paying back U.S. dues and arrearages to the United Nations and other international organizations, as well as re-synchronizing payments so that they are no longer received a year late.

·       Developing U.S. capacity for early warning and genocide prevention to combat situations where mass atrocities against civilians occur.

·       Increasing global training of peacekeepers and helping to refurbish helicopters desperately needed in Darfur and other peacekeeping operations.

·       Paying our fair share of international peacekeeping activities, as well as increasing U.S. logistical support for such missions.

 

Urge your representative to vote for H.R. 2410 when it comes to a vote on the House floor next week!  Laura Hendrick, Outreach Director, Citizens for Global Solutions

 

Michael Moore’s Plan for General Motors.

1.      Just as President Roosevelt did after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the President must tell the nation that we are at war and we must immediately convert our auto factories to factories that build mass transit vehicles and alternative energy devices.

2.      Don't put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce -- and most of those who have been laid off -- employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.

3.      Announce that we will have bullet trains criss-crossing this country in the next five years.

4.      Initiate a program to put light rail mass transit lines in all our large and medium-sized cities. Build those trains in the GM factories. And hire local people everywhere to install and run this system.

5.      For people in rural areas not served by the train lines, have the GM plants produce energy efficient clean buses.

6.      For the time being, have some factories build hybrid or all-electric cars (and batteries).

7.      Transform some of the empty GM factories to facilities that build windmills, solar panels and other means of alternate forms of energy. We need tens of millions of solar panels right now. And there is an eager and skilled workforce who can build them.

8.      Provide tax incentives for those who travel by hybrid car or bus or train. Also, credits for those who convert their home to alternative energy.

9.      To help pay for this, impose a two-dollar tax on every gallon of gasoline.

 

Well, that's a start. Please, please, please don't save GM so that a smaller version of it will simply do nothing more than build Chevys or Cadillacs. This is not a long-term solution.  For more.

 

Beyond manufacturing, we need to increase training and earnings of personal service workers.

 

Our New Thriftiness

 

Compared to January, 2008, we are purchasing about the same amount of services (up 0.9%).  Our purchase of durable goods is down 9.2%.  Automobiles and parts down 21%; Furnishings down 14%; Electronics and appliances down 12%; Sporting goods, hobbies, books and music down 2%.

 

Here’s the Beef

Southeast Asia is weathering our global economic collapse better than most other regions.

Chinese auto makers are gaining market share in growing home market.

Repayment, default and discrimination are reducing number of unidentified toxic loans.

Global warming may already be causing 300,000 deaths per year from heat waves, fires and floods.

Suppose we did everything we can imagine to curb global warming.

Simulation has been developed for global warming effects in local areas.

The biggest bang for the stimulus-investment buck may be in energy conserving buildings.  For more. For more.

Houses have increased from 1050 sf in 1950 to 2500 sf.  More people are opting for smaller houses.

Manufactured homes may include green features.

Obama Administration asks congress to restore federal regulation of all wetlands and streams.

Drivers may only get 10% of walking exercise they need for good health.

25% of employees may be stuck in their jobs for fear of losing health insurance.

Funding community health centers saves money and lives.

Buying the right foods can offer good nutrition while saving money.

Education should be for living, not just for getting a job.

20% of Harvard Business School graduates sign a pledge to be ethical.

Is a more tolerant post-evangelical church emerging?

Federal customs officials harass peace activist Nobel prize winner.

Several of 96 countries that signed treaty banning cluster bombs are already destroying them.  More.

Iraqi government plans to arrest 1000 government officials for corruption.

Pakistan will next attack Waziristan, the tribal area which has been a Afghanistan insurgent sanctuary.

Should any Israel or any country have the right to exist as a religious state?

Can our Obama Administration settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without dealing with Hamas?

Israel wrecked Gaza’s infrastructure and blockades its repair.

Israel insists on expanding West Bank Jewish settlements.

 

Our Liberal Spirit

 

Good, Bad and Ugly Habits

 

Good Habits

Our good habits include caring for ourselves to the best of our abilities.  Recognizing, accepting and attempting to carry our responsibilities.  Being kind and compassionate toward others.  Being a low maintenance person who leaves a light footprint.

 

Bad Habits

Our bad habits include abusing others and our environment.  Contributing to the worsening of our world.

 

Ugly Habits

Our ugly habits include various passions and addictions, such as alcohol, drugs, tobacco and shopping which harm us and engender bad habits.  Our ugly habits make us high maintenance people.

 

We should honestly inventory our various habits.  We need to find mentors and create a network of supporters to assist us.  With their help, we need to decide ways to implement and increase our good habits.  This includes becoming low maintenance instead of high maintenance persons.  We need to get help to address our ugly and bad habits to minimize their harm to us and others.

 

Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals

 

Michael Lux, 2009, The Progressive Revolution.  How the Best in America Came to Be.

 

This is an easy-to-read comprehensive history of American Liberalism.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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