Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter #198
Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed
Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of
Contents * Featured Articles Calendars of Events Communication with Our Members Opportunities Petitions Commentaries from Our Members David Spring: Recovering Retro Money Over Time** Gary Fasso: Charleston Workers Don’t Work Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef Sonia Sotomayer Raises an Important Issue Lots of Liberals Past and Present* Partisan Republicans.
Bipartisan Democrats. Teabag or Demolition Derby Conservatives? State and Local Links
to the Beef David Spring: State Must Recover BIAW Rebate** Tim Eyman: Truths and Untruths SR-520 May Offer a Better Route for Light Rail Nation and World Links to the Beef Featured Advocacy Group: 350.com Dave Thomas: My Peacemaking Fantasy 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 · Substituting
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week We Should Have Sold
Somewhere between Irrational Exuberance and Infectious Greed
Deadline: November 7 for emailing the Department of Labor and Industries to
tell them you support recovering the erroneous retro payments plus interest
instead of increasing Workers Compensation rates in 2010. Inform David Spring that you have sent
the email to dl&i. Doing this is important to save employers money and stop
BIAW from using money to influence Washington State policies and elections.
Calendar of Events
Communication
with Our Members
I care about educating Liberals.
I don’t particularly care about commenting on news events before other
media. But our newsletter has certainly
scooped the Seattle PI and Seattle times concerning Rob McKenna’s protection of
BIAW’s illegally obtained Washington State funds. David Spring sent them the same information
he sent me, but they haven’t reported it.
Our 3500 Liberal members can be glad we have this newsletter to provide
such information.
I also find it interesting that none of our northwest bloggers have
posted any commentaries concerning the requirement that BIAW repay the money
that our state government erroneously gave it.
Opportunities
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Petitions
Pledge
to only contribute to Democrats that support including a public option in
health care reform.
Tell
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to protect the Grand Canyon from uranium mining.
Tell
relevant officials to pass the Clean Water Protection Act
Become a citizen
co-sponsor of the strong Kerry-Boxer climate control bill.
Tell
President Obama to make Sudan a priority in talks with China’s leaders.
Commentaries
From Our Members
David Spring: Recovering Retro Money
over Time
According to the Wyman Report, Retro agencies owe
State tax payers at least $500 million dollars from L & I over payments
dating back to 1991. They also owe over $500 million in interest for a total
owed of over $1 billion dollars. But the problem with collecting the entire
billion dollars immediately is that it would not only bankrupt many of the bad
apples in retro, it might also bankrupt many of the good apples. Approximately,
one out of every three workers in our State is employed by a retro employer.
Hundreds of employers might be driven out of business through no fault of their
own… and thousands of employees might lose their jobs. The question is how to collect this debt
without bankrupting the good apples along with the bad?
One option, supported by Attorney General Rob
McKenna, is to simply forgive this debt by only going back a couple of years
and collecting a few million dollars. The problem with this option is that it is NOT LEGAL. According to RCW
4.16.160 and RCW 51.48.260, the State is required to collect all
money owed the State, plus interest, regardless of how far back the debt
was incurred and regardless of the reason it is owed. This is not merely a
suggestion. It is the law.
So L & I must comply with the law. But it can
and should recover the over payments in a way that preserves – and even creates
jobs. I propose an option which will protect the good apples while at the same
time complying with our State’s laws. Instead of demanding that retro
organizations immediately pay back the $1 billion dollars they owe the State, I propose that we
simply credit
all future retro subsidies against the debt owed until the debt is fully paid
back. Thus, retro agencies would not incur any out-of-pocket expenses.
For example, in 2010, L & I is proposing to
give away another $100 million dollars in retro subsides. This is simply not
acceptable when we know that these same retro agencies owe the State over one
billion dollars. At the same time, L & I has proposed a 7% increase in
workers compensation rates on employers and a 10% increase in workers compensation rates on employees. These rate
increases would generate $117 million dollars… $100 million of which would go
right back out the door to pay unwarranted subsidies to retro employers who
actually owe far more money to the State than the State owes to them. If we
instead credited these subsidies against the debt retro agencies owe, the
State, the tax payers, non-retro employers and even retro employers would see
several benefits:
1.
The State would get $100 million dollars to restore solvency to the
Workers Compensation Accident Fund.
2.
The tax payers would be getting their money back over time.
3.
Non-retro employers would save $30 million dollars by avoiding a
scheduled 7.6% rate increase.
4.
Retro employers would also save $30 million dollars by avoiding the
scheduled 7.6% rate increase.
5.
Best of all, the actual workers
for BOTH retro and non-retro companies would save $40 million dollars
because the scheduled 10% rate increase in 2010 would no longer be needed.
6.
This entire $100 million dollars in savings – would all be put right
back into our economy helping create more jobs and providing a needed financial
stimulus for our State’s economy.
This
proposal will help nearly every employer and nearly every employee in the State. The only groups that would be negatively impacted by this proposal
are retro insurance agencies. These agencies would still receive administrative
fees from their members. But until the debt was paid back, they would no longer
receive subsidies from the State. Thus, they would be required to scale back
their operations to a size which could be supported solely by membership fees.
This also would be a good thing because it would greatly reduce the tens of
millions of tax payer dollars which some retro agencies have been diverting
from tax payers subsidies to control elections in our State. Thus, even the voters would win by adopting this
proposal.
If you would like to help me make this
proposal a reality, please email me (springforschools@aol.com). In addition,
you can email the Department of Labor and Industries and tell them you support
the Spring Compromise as an alternative to increasing Workers Comp rates in
2010. Written comments on the rate increase must be sent by Nov 7th to mooa235@lni.wa.gov
Gary Fasso: Charleston Workers Don’t Work
Published by Seattle Times
on 9/27/2009
I had to laugh at the photo on the front page of the
Oct. 23 Seattle Times. Did anyone —
especially at Boeing — notice there are 11 workers from Charleston’s Global
Aeronautica standing in the fuselage of a 787, but only one of them is actually
working? You get what you pay for. Gary
Fasso
Do you want to fly in a plane that is partly
constructed by low-paid tar heels? Dave
Thomas
Liberals
and Democrats
Government Watch
Also go to Whitehouse.gov.
With our focus
upon health care reform, curbing greenhouse gas emissions and regulating
financial markets, companies and practices, we may not notice other significant
changes that our Obama Administration has made.
Whereas President Bush quit enforcing protection of our consumers,
workers, and investors, our Obama Administration has greatly increased
enforcing such protections. Our EPA,
Health and Human Services and other agencies are inspecting and stopping
misleading advertisements, unsafe food and drug production, dangerous work
conditions and more.
Health Care Reform
Harry Reid
expects to get
enough votes to stop a filibuster of a bill with a public option, after
which some Democrats will vote against the bill, but still leaving enough votes
for passing the bill. For
more. The proposed
public option would include an opt-out alternative for states and would
negotiate payments to hospitals and physicians instead of paying low Medicare
rates. President
Obama is working closely with Harry Reid to get the most effective bill
possible through the Senate. This bill should meet
certain criteria. Even after health
care reform passes, lobbyists
and their corporate supporters will spend a fortune to attempt to influence
its implementation.
Congress passed
and President Obama signed the Veteran’s Health
Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act.
Michele Obama discusses the need
for everyone to have health insurance (video).
Stimulating Job Creation
President Obama
is making more
loans available to small businesses.
For
more. The
Impact Act would provide credit for green companies.
Green Technology
At MIT, President
Obama discussed the need
for America to lead in creating green technologies. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Energy
Secretary Steven Chu expressed
the same message. President Obama
announced $3.4
billion of stimulus-recovery funds to be spent to improve electrical grid.
Sonia Sotomayer Raises a Very Important Issue
Sonia Sotomayer asked
whether the courts might have been wrong in affording corporations the same
legal status as persons. A major victory
for rescuing our democracy from corporate abuse and corruption of government
officials would occur if more Supreme Court justices are appointed who would
answer that corporations should not have the same legal status as people. For
more.
Lots of Liberals Present and Past
There have been and are
plenty of Liberals historically and cross culturally: Jane Adams, Eric
Alterman, Susan B. Anthony, Paul Begala, Harry Belafonte, Robert Bellah, Julian
Bond, Bono, Barbara Boxer, Wes Boyd, Bill Bradley, Louis D. Brandeis, Robert
Byrd, Jimmy Carter, James Carville, Shirley Chisholm, Norm Chomsky, Frank
Church, Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Marie Cocco, Reverend William
Sloan Coffin, Jr., Joe Conason, Walter Cronkite, Mario Cuomo,
Clarence Darrow, John de
Graaf, Eugene Debs, Howard Dean, John Dewey, Charles Dickens, E.J. Dionne, Jr.,
Phil Donahue, Frederick Douglas, William O. Douglas, Maureen Dowd, W.E.B. Du
Bois, Marian Wright Edelman, John Edwards, Barbara Ehrenreich, Albert Einstein,
Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Russ Feingold, Jane Fonda, Barney
Frank, Thomas Frank, Al Franken, Felix Frankfurter, Benjamin Franklin, Erich
Fromm, J. William Fulbright, John Kenneth Galbraith, Mahatma Gandhi, William
Lloyd Garrison, Jose Ortega Y Gasset, Ellen Goodman, Al Gore, Mark Green,
William Greider, Woody Guthrie, Jacob S. Hacker, Michael Harrington, Gary Hart,
Thom Hartmann, Vaclav Havel, Tom Hayden, Patrick Henry, Bob Herbert, Katrina
vanden Heuvel, Jim Hightower, Eric Hoffer, Nicholas von Hoffman, Arianna
Huffington, Hubert H. Humphrey, Aldous Huxley,
Isaiah, Molly Ivins, Derrick
Z. Jackson, Reverend Jesse Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, Lyndon B. Johnson,
Barbara Jordan, Franz Kafka, Garrison Keillor, Edward M. Kennedy, John F.
Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., John Kerry, John Maynard Keynes,
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Naomi Klein, David C. Korten, Paul Krugman,
Dennis J. Kucinich, Robert Kuttner, George Lakoff, Patrick Leahy, John Lennon,
Rabbi Michael Lerner, John L. Lewis, Sinclair Lewis, Abraham Lincoln, John
Locke, Paul Rogat Loeb,
James Madison, Nelson
Mandela, Matthew, Eugene McCarthy, Jim McDermott, George McGovern, Bill
McKibben, Harold Meyerson, John Stuart Mill, C. Wright Mills, Michael Moore,
Wayne Morse, Bill Moyers, Edward R. Murrow, Ralph Nader, Geoffrey Nunberg, Barack
Obama, Keith Olbermann, George Orwell, Thomas Paine, Rosa Parks, Nancy Pelosi,
Bill Press, Ted Rall, Charles A. Reich, Robert Reich, Harry Reid, Will Rogers,
Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Rousseau,
Bertrand Russell,
Bernie Sanders, Margaret
Sanger, Robert Scheer, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., E.F. Schumacher, Reverend Al
Sharpton, David Sirota, Holly Sklar, George Soros, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Paul
Starr, Gloria Steinem, Andy Stern, Adlai Stevenson, John Sweeney, Norman
Thomas, Henry David Thoreau, Michael Tomasky, Richard Trumka, Harry S. Truman,
Mark Twain, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Thorstein Veblen, Kurt Vonnegut, Paul Waldman,
Henry Wallace, Reverend Jim Wallis, George Washington, Jim Webb, Paul
Wellstone, Walt Whitman, Woodrow Wilson, Malcolm X, Matthew Yglesias, Howard
Zinn, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and many more.
Partisan Republicans.
Bipartisan Democrats.
Nationally,
President Obama, Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus and other Democrats
have attempted to secure Republican ideas and support for health care
reform. But Republicans remain partisan
opponents.
In Washington
State, I can’t remember any Republicans endorsing Democratic candidates. But some Democrats have endorsed Rob McKenna,
Dan Satterberg and other Republicans, even though their election poses them to
run for Governor or other high offices against Democrats. Rob McKenna has also misread the law to
suggest that badly needed state funds which were erroneously given to BIAW
can’t be recovered, thus enabling BIAW to use them to defeat Democrats, reduce
state revenue and regulation and reduce badly needed state services.
Qualifications
for public office include more than competence.
They include ideology. It’s time
for Democrats to quit endorsing Conservative Republicans.
Teabag or Demolition Derby Conservatives?
Teabag
Conservatives might just as well be called Demolition Derby Conservatives. Inspired by Glenn Beck, other Fox cable news
pundits, Sarah Palin and others, they are out to wreck everything in sight,
ignoring the truth and screaming obvious lies.
Thankfully, they are primarily wrecking the Republican Party. Their town hall antics backfired to stimulate
Liberals to participate in supporting health care reform.
Here’s the Beef
Republicans
enjoy many government benefits, while attacking Liberals who created them.
55 Republicans who oppose
a public option are themselves Medicare beneficiaries.
State
and Local
David Spring: State Must
Recover BIAW Rebate
Resolution to
Recover Overpayments Owed by Retro Agencies
Whereas the recently released Wyman Actuarial Report, commissioned
by the State legislature, found three “actuarially unsound” clerical errors
which caused the Department of Labor and Industries (L & I) to give over
$500 million dollars in over payments to Retro agencies such as the BIAW since
1992…
And whereas these three errors included a computer coding error
leading to about $150 million in over payments, an occupational disease
mis-assignment leading to about $300 million in over payments and a 45 month
adjustment limitation error leading to about $50 million in over payments…
And whereas RCW 51.48.260 requires that the full amount of over payments plus
interest must be paid back to the State (Liability of persons unintentionally
obtaining erroneous payments: Any person, firm, corporation, partnership,
association, agency, institution, or other legal entity, but not including an
industrially injured recipient of health services, that, without intent to violate this chapter, obtains payments under Title 51
RCW to which such person or entity is not entitled, shall be liable for: (1)
Any excess payments received; and (2) interest on the amount of
excess payments at the rate of one percent each month for the period from the
date upon which payment was made to the date upon which repayment is made to
the state).
And
whereas RCW 4.16.160 clearly states that
there is NO TIME LIMIT for recovery of over payments owed the State (Application
of limitations to actions by state, counties, municipalities. The limitations
prescribed in this chapter (RCW 4.16) shall apply to actions brought in the
name or for the benefit of any county or other municipality or
quasi-municipality of the state, in the same manner as to actions brought by
private parties: PROVIDED, That, except as provided in RCW 4.16.310, (a statute which applies only to
defects in building construction) there
shall be no limitation to actions brought in the name or for the benefit of the
state, and no claim of right predicated upon the lapse of time shall ever be
asserted against the state…).
And whereas
WAC 296-17-90402 requires that retro employers as a group and
non-retro employers as a group fund the same portion of their total claim costs
relative to their total premium charges. (If retro groups are not required to
refund ALL over payments, then they will have paid a lower proportion of
premiums than non-retro groups which is a violation of WAC 296-17-90402).
And whereas the Director of L & I, Judy Schurke, stated at a
Senate Commerce Committee hearing on October 2, 2009 that the reason they were
not requiring Retro agencies to pay back the full amount owed was because they
“had been advised by Attorney General
that there was a 3 year time limit for recovery of over payments”
And whereas this advice by our Attorney General is clearly
contrary to the three State laws noted above… and whereas this advice by our Attorney General, Rob McKenna, could potentially
cost State tax payers more than one billion dollars…
Therefore, be it resolved that the King County Democratic Central
Committee write a letter of complaint to the Attorney General demanding that the Attorney General
immediately enforce RCW 4.16.160, RCW 51.48.260 and WAC 296-17-90402 and
require the Department of Labor and Industries to recover the full amount of
all over payments made to Retro agencies plus interest.
Be it further resolved that the King County Central Committee
write letters to our King County Legislators asking them to join in filing
complaints to fully recover retro over payments.
Be it finally resolved that if the Attorney General fails to
enforce these laws within 30 days, we further ask that Governor Gregoire
appoint an independent prosecutor to enforce these three State laws.
Submitted by David Spring, M. Ed., PCO, 5th LD,
retroreform.org Springforschools@aol.com
Approved by the King County Legislative Action Committee by
unanimous vote on October 18, 2009
Rough draft of
proposed Complaint and Demand Letter
October 29, 2009
To Rob McKenna, Attorney General of Washington
1125 Washington Street SE
PO Box 40100
Olympia, WA 98504 -0100
RE: Complaint
and Demand to Enforce RCW 4.16.160, RCW 51.48.260 & WAC 296-17-90402
Dear Attorney General McKenna,
Please consider this email/letter to be a complaint and demand
that you enforce RCW 4.16.160,
RCW 51.48.260 and WAC 296-17-90402.
In a Senate Labor and Commerce Committee hearing on October 2,
2009, the Director of Labor and Industries, Judy Schruke, was asked why she
could not recover the full amount of over payments which were improperly given
to retrospective rating agencies during the past 17 years. Judy stated that she
had been advised by the Attorney General’s office that there is a three year
time limit for recover of over payments owed the State.
We believed that this advice given by your office of a three year
time limit is in error, based upon the plain meaning of RCW 4.16.160, RCW
51.48.260 and WAC 296-17-90402:
RCW 4.16.160 Application of limitations to actions by state,
counties, municipalities.
The limitations prescribed in this
chapter (RCW 4.16) shall apply to actions brought in the name or for the
benefit of any county or other municipality or quasi-municipality of the state,
in the same manner as to actions brought by private parties: PROVIDED, That, except
as provided in RCW 4.16.310, (a statute which applies only to
defects in building construction) there
shall be no limitation to actions brought in the name or for the benefit of the
state, and no claim of right
predicated upon the lapse of time shall ever be asserted against the state…
RCW
51.48.260 states: Liability of persons unintentionally obtaining erroneous payments:
Any
person, firm, corporation, partnership, association, agency, institution, or
other legal entity, but not including an industrially injured recipient of
health services, that, without intent to
violate this chapter, obtains payments under Title 51
RCW to which such person or entity is
not entitled, shall be liable for:
(1) Any excess payments received;
and (2) interest
on the amount of excess payments at the rate of one percent each month for the
period from the date upon which payment was made to the date upon which
repayment is made to the state.
WAC
296-17-90402 requires that
retro employers as a group and non-retro employers as a group refund the same portion of their total claim costs
relative to their total premium charges. (If retro groups are not required to
refund ALL over payments, then they will have paid a lower proportion of
premiums than non-retro groups which is a violation of WAC 296-17-90402).
We ask that you correct this error by advising the Department of
Labor and Industries that, according to RCW 4.16.160, there is no time limit
for recovery of over payments; and according to RCW 51.48.260, and WAC
296-17-90402, the Department of Labor and Industries is required to accurately
determine the full amount of over payments made to retrospective rating
agencies and collect the full amount of over payments so that, after these over
payments are refunded by retro agencies, retro and non-retro agencies will have
funded the same proportion of claims relative to their premiums.
In addition, we request that you send us a copy of your letter to
the Department of Labor and Industries. Thank you for your assistance in
addressing this matter. Sincerely, King
County Democratic Central Committee on Behalf of the Citizens of King County
Tim Eyman: Truths and Untruths
For
80-90% of Washington taxpayers, Tim Eyman is telling the truth when he says
that they unfairly pay too much tax. The
remaining of taxpayers are unfairly paying too little tax.
Tim
Eyman is not telling the truth when he says Washington taxpayers pay a higher
proportion of their incomes in taxes than occurs in most other states. Due to the unfairly low taxes paid by our
highest income taxpayers, we pay a lower proportion than most other states.
Tim
Eyman is not telling the truth when he says that our state government spends
too much and spends it wastefully. Compared
to other states, our state government is spending too little on education,
health care and other services. This
spending is well managed, although some improvements might be made. We should:
·
Quit incarcerating
people for using marijuana.
·
Quit subsidizing
people without health insurance for coverage by private health insurers,
spending the money instead to stimulate
the creation of health care clinics which provide them a medical home and
coordinated health care.
·
Provide more
surveillance of possibly abused children, while being careful not to remove
those who aren’t abused from their families.
·
Provide surveillance
and control of sexual abusers who are potentially dangerous, while providing
less constraint to those who are only voyeurs or others less likely to abuse
others.
Crooked Realtors
We
know that fraudulent appraisals, loan applications and loan approvals were
major contributors to our housing bubble and its collapse. There is no reason to assume that less fraud
occurred here than in other regions of our country. A significant number of our appraisers,
realtors and loan officers profited from their fraud, without being punished or
forced to repay their fraudulently obtained profits.
None
of these have confessed, so we don’t know which ones they are. Nor have our reality firms and bank confessed
and apologized for when some of their realtors and loan officers have
done. You may want to question any
appraiser, realtor or loan officer whom you encounter concerning whether they
acted fraudulently.
Our Seattle
Times reports on Washington Mutual’s predatory housing mortgage practices,
but doesn’t address whether those who engaged in them have been identified and
punished. Perhaps because they haven’t
been identified or punished.
SR-520 May Offer a Better Route for Light Rail
Susan
Hutchison has suggested
that SR-520 might offer a better route for light rail to connect the
Seattle area with Eastside communities.
There are several reasons why she may be right, even though this would
require reconsideration of the design of a new SR-520 bridge:
·
Light rail on the
eastside should be oriented to connecting all Eastside communities, including
Renton, Issaquah, Redmond, Kirkland and further north. This requires using the BNSF right of way,
which can be more easily reached via SR-520 than I-90 (which requires crossing
environmentally sensitive areas).
·
Bellevue can be
reached without disrupting residential neighborhoods by following Bellevue Way
from SR-520.
·
There are
engineering and other reasons why it may not be feasible or favorable for light
rail to cross Lake Washington on I-90.
Getting this right may not delay implementation beyond delays that may
occur with attempting to use I-90.
Toward a Healthy Halloween
With so many children being obese due to eating high
calorie sugar and carbohydrate foods, it seems wrong to give them Halloween
candy. Maybe celery and carrot sticks
would be going too far; but how about yogurt or some fruit?
Here’s the Beef
Boeing
may initiate additional airplane fabrication in South Carolina instead of here. For
more.
As
was done with Klamath River dams, Snake River dams should be removed to protect
salmon.
A
Washington company is creating solar panels.
Washington
company Eco-rate provides consumers a way to choose green products.
Washington
is pioneering efforts to provide coordinated care oriented to outcomes, not
treatments.
Nation
and World
Featured Advocacy Group
----------------------------------------- 350.org ---------------------------------------
350.org 350.org is an international
campaign dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions
to the climate crisis--the solutions that science and justice demand. Its mission is to inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the
climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our
planet. Its focus is on the number
350--as in parts per million, the level scientists have identified as the safe
upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. But 350 is more than a number--it's a
symbol of where we need to head as a planet.
To
tackle climate change we need to move quickly, and we need to act in unison—and
2009 will be an absolutely crucial year. This December, world leaders
will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to craft a new global treaty on cutting
emissions. The problem is, the treaty currently on the table doesn't meet the
severity of the climate crisis—it doesn't pass the 350 test.
In
order to unite the public, media, and our political leaders behind the 350
goal, we're harnessing the power of the internet to coordinate a planetary day
of action on October 24, 2009. We hope to have actions at hundreds of
iconic places around the world - from the Taj Mahal to the Great Barrier Reef
to your community - and clear message to world leaders: the solutions to
climate change must be equitable, they must be grounded in science, and they
must meet the scale of the crisis.
If
an international grassroots movement holds our leaders accountable to the
latest climate science, we can start the global transformation we so
desperately need.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave Thomas: My Peacemaking Fantasy
If I could, I would:
· Have every
improvised explosive device (IED) and land mine explode as is was being placed
· Have all
explosives explode as soon as they are placed on suicide bomber
· Have every car
bomb explode as soon as it is placed in the car (or other vehicle
· Have all
Israeli settlers on the west bank develop a dehabilitating illness until they
leave
· Have any
setters who destroy settlement property develop a dehabilitating illness which
lasts much longer
· Have any
Israeli who attacks the West Bank and any Palestinian who attacks Israel immediately
die
· Have any man
who attempts to rape a woman or man as part of ethnic cleansing suffer
immediate castration
In a similar vein, other immediate ill consequences can be imagined for
people who commit various other types of abuse and violence. They
might be extended to all acts of violence, except that violence may sometimes
be necessary to stop abuse. They can’t
easily be extended to all acts of abuse because abuse comes in so many forms. However, we can imagine ill consequences for
those who use violent tactics which harm significant numbers of civilian
bystanders.
Here’s the Beef
Information
about the December Copenhagen meeting concerning reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
Future
manned space flights will require more NASA funds.
Obama
Administration supports American group that is oriented to Israeli peace. For more.
Our
Liberal Spirit
Infectious Greed
We have all encountered
situations in which others are successfully acting immorally, illegally or
otherwise wrongfully. We have a choice
to act similarly to become successful, or refrain from such actions with the
result that we are less successful. We
may even have experienced a boss insisting that we should cheat.
We can accept less success or
even quit altogether, or cheat. We can
rationalize that if we don’t cheat some one else will do it, such that our
cheating will cause no extra harm. The
same rationalization that was likely used by Germans who killed Jews during the
holocaust. The same rationalization that
is used by politicians who vote for something they oppose or otherwise act
deceptively in order to pass something they favor.
We are thus faced with a
choice between our morality and our success.
The best way to resolve this dilemma is to have alternative ways to be
successful. Absent such alternative
ways, most of us at least cut corners.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
William Martin (Ed.), 2008, What Liberals Believe. Thousands of Quotes
on Why America Needs to Be Rescued from Greedy Corporations, Homophobes,
Racists, Imperialists, Xenophobes and Religious Extremists
The numerous quotes in William Martin’s book provide an education about our Liberal Values and the obstacles we face to their realization. These quotes can also be used to illustrate the lessons that we want to teach. I highly recommend this book. Dave Thomas