Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter #229
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Contents * Featured Articles Opportunities Petitions Communication to Our Members* Commentaries from Our Members Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef Creating Jobs with Fair Earnings** Protecting from Oil Drilling Spills Teabag Conservatives Are Beating NRSC Choices Rating and Ranking U.S. Presidents What
President Obama Must Do to Be Rated ‘A’* State and Local Links
to the Beef Put Middle Class Relief on the Ballot, Yes on I-1098* MoveOn on Maria Cantwell’s Support for Wall Street Nation and World Links to the Beef We Shouldn’t
Teach Erroneous Financial Information Israeli
Murder of Humanitarians Featured Advocacy Group: U.S. PIRG Our Liberal Spirit Recommended Books 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 No News is Good News. Robert
Benchley
Calendar of Events
Saturday, June 5 10 AM at Columbia Park (4721 Rainier Avenue
South, Seattle) - Seattle Vote 2010
Kick-Off event. For
more.
Wednesday, June 9 at 6:30 PM at the
Mercer Island Community Center (8236 Southeast 24th Street,
Mercer Island) - Northwest
Progressive Fundraising Gala. $45
Individual, $75 household. For more.
Saturday, June 19 at 6 PM at South Seattle Community
College Jerry M. Brockey Center, (6000 16th Ave. SW, Seattle) - Washington
Public Campaigns Fourth Annual Awards Banquet. $55 For more.
Opportunities
Commentaries
that have addressed major issues
Obtain
a free ‘Corporations Are Not People’ bumper sticker.
Petitions
Tell
Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid to make preventing child abuse a high
priority.
Tell
our senators that we support repealing ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’.
Communication
To Our Members
Free Books
Since I was a child, my parents and then
I have purchased books and kept most of them.
They have served as my off-head storage.
But now, it is often easier to use the internet to answer my
questions. Several times before with
great pain, I have gotten rid of some of these books. I have now decided to get rid of some
more. I can just donate them to the King
County Library, which would sell them individually to interested buyers. But I want to give away some sets of books,
with each set containing a comprehensive collection of related books. If any of you want the following sets (all of
which are in like new condition), please inform
me:
·
1923 twenty
volume set of Book of Knowledge, in which I avidly read while in elementary
school the historical and fictional hero stories, the things to make and do
(which were arts, crafts and science projects) and more. These would make an excellent supplement to
video games, if not a substitute.
·
50 volume set of
Harvard Classics, which includes commentaries by many Americans such as
Benjamin Franklin, John Woolman and William Penn.
·
9 volume set of
the World’s Orators, including orations by such orators as John Quincy Adams,
Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, John Randolph, Thomas Hart Benton, Daniel Webster
and John Calhoun.
I also want to give away two sets of
humanities books:
·
About 40 feet of
books which comprehensively contain humanities (history, philosophy and
literature) books about early civilizations, Greece, Rome, the Orient, Middle
Ages, Renaissance, Reformation up to the 1800s (with bookcases).
·
About 40 feet of
books which comprehensively contain humanities (history, philosophy and
literature) books about America, including native Americans, colonial period,
formation of our United States, civil war, industrial revolution, age of
reform, 1920s speculative bubble and collapse and President Roosevelt’s reforms
(with bookcases).
·
About 8 feet of
books concerning evolution and the development of our various plants and
animals
·
About 8 feet of
books concerning ecology and the various ecosystems
It greatly pains me to get rid of these,
but I much prefer to get rid of them as collections instead of letting them be
broken up as would occur if I can only give them to the King County Library.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Liberals
and Democrats
Our
congress is in recess this week, so there is little news to report.
Creating Jobs with Fair Earnings
This
week, increases of retail sales, manufacturing jobs and construction jobs have
been reported. The monthly report of
employment and percentage of unemployment will be reported today, but after
this newsletter is posted. Based on the
increases noted above, I expect continued improvement in the number of jobs. For
more.
In
spite of limited credit and demand for credit, more jobs are being created, enough
to provide jobs for people who are newly entering the job market and some more,
such that people who have quit looking for jobs are now looking again. President Obama
defends his actions to assist job creation. Even more jobs could be created if state and
local governments would adopt best practices of those state and local
governments which are stimulating job creation by encouraging successful
entrepreneurs to serve as advisors to would be entrepreneurs. And if people would transfer their savings
from stocks offered by Wall Street speculators to smaller local banks and
credit unions. They could also be
enabled use their retirement savings to purchase additional Social Security
payments. In addition, the Obama
Administration could increase penalties for companies which use illegal means
to oppose unionization. And it could provide jobs
for young people through a program similar to the WPA program instituted by
President Roosevelt.
State and local governments, traditionally among the biggest
seasonal employers, are knee-deep in budget woes, and the stimulus money that
helped cushion some government job programs last summer is running out. Private employers are also reluctant to
hire until the economy shows more solid signs of recovery. So expect fewer
lifeguards on duty at public beaches this summer in California, fewer workers
at some Massachusetts state parks and camping grounds and taller grass outside
state buildings in Kentucky.
Very important is to greatly increase unionization through greatly
increase penalties upon companies that illegally oppose unionization.
Regulating Wall Street
The senate
will pass financial regulatory reform which must then be reconciled with
the house version. Unfortunately (due in
large part to Senator Chris Dodd and the acquiescence of President Obama), major
reforms that are needed to prevent continued Walls Street speculation are not
included:
· Breaking up ‘too big to fail’ banks
· Eliminating
naked derivatives
· Reinstating the separation of commercial banks and
investment banks
It
is unlikely that Wall Street speculators will again be bailed out. But in the meantime, they are continuing to
drain money that could be used to create Main Street jobs.
Message from Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
This
round of Wall Street reform is entering its final phase. Last month, the Senate
passed its Wall Street reform bill. It contains several strong, positive
elements, but should be much stronger.
Now the bill goes to a House-Senate conference committee, where members of both
houses of Congress will reconcile the differences between the two bills they
passed. Because it is a closed process, conference committee is traditionally a
lobbyist's dream - the place where they can insert clauses that benefit their
clients or delete crucial elements, all without a trace. Public Citizen is leading a campaign to make
sure the conference process is open - with proceedings televised, with
amendments made public before they are agreed on, and more. You'll be hearing
more from us in the coming days and weeks about this effort.
We are also, of course, working to make sure the final bill is as strong as
possible. When the Senate began its
consideration of Wall Street reform, we highlighted a number of key priorities.
Here's where things now stand, and how we expect them to move forward.
CREATING A CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Both the Senate and House bills set up a new agency to protect consumers from
dangerous financial products: mortgages, student loans, credit cards, etc. The
Senate embeds its consumer bureau in the Federal Reserve - among the agencies
most hostile to consumer protection over the last decade - although the bureau
would nonetheless be independent. We prefer the House version on this issue,
which would create a standalone agency.
There are other important issues related to the agency. One is whether it will
have jurisdiction over car dealers, who often issue predatory car loans. The
car dealers won an exemption in the House and managed to have a nonbinding vote
in the Senate urging that they be exempt from the new agency's jurisdiction.
We're working to close this loophole.
BREAKING UP THE BANKS
The Senate voted down a measure - the Brown-Kaufman amendment - that would have
capped the size of the largest banks, and required the biggest six to shrink.
The measure was defeated 33-61, but it is notable that we were able to do this
well - with a position that a month ago seemed unlikely to garner more than a
dozen votes. This issue is not going away. We will be pursuing it once this
round of financial reform is complete.
We also highlighted the importance of making the banks be banks, and forcing
the banks to close down their "proprietary trading" operations -
offices engaged in speculative betting on Wall Street, rather than making
loans. Many of you called your senators, urging them to vote for the
Merkley-Levin amendment, which included these needed reforms. Hundreds of you
entered information on our "citizen whip count," reporting what your
senators said about Merkley-Levin. Unfortunately, because of nefarious
parliamentary maneuvers, the Senate never voted on this amendment - which stood
a very good chance of winning passage. We will work to get the amendment
adopted in conference.
CLAMPING DOWN ON EXECUTIVE PAY
The House and Senate bills mandate non-binding shareholder votes on executive
pay, and nothing more aggressive was seriously considered. There will be a lot
more work to do in this area after the Wall Street reform bill is finished.
ENDING THE CASINO ECONOMY
We favor a financial speculation tax, which would impose a small fee on stock,
bond and derivatives trades, and slow some of the dangerous churning on Wall
Street. We see a lot of opportunity to work on this issue in the months ahead.
It was not part of the Wall Street reform debate.
Another key element of ending the casino economy is imposing some meaningful
regulations on derivatives trades. The House adopted rules on derivatives very
friendly to Wall Street. The Senate, somewhat unexpectedly, adopted quite
meaningful reforms. One part of the Senate package would require that almost
all derivatives be traded on clearinghouses or exchanges. This would bring some
openness to the trading practice and end price manipulation by the biggest
players. It would also require derivatives traders to hold capital against the
risk of a bad bet. We are very happy with the Senate approach in this regard,
with one major caveat: It does not include enforcement language to make sure
derivatives traders follow its rules. This should be easily fixed in the
conference committee - if there is will to maintain this basic framework.
The Senate bill also includes language that would require commercial banks to
spin off their "swaps desks" - their derivatives trading operations -
though the banks would be able to maintain them in the parent company. Such a
move would require the banks to raise billions in new capital - not federally
insured - behind the derivatives trading arms. Getting this provision removed
is Wall Street's number one priority.
PREVENTING GLOBAL DEREGULATION
We warned about a provision in the Senate bill that would potentially subject
state insurance regulation to deregulatory rules in international trade
agreements. Unfortunately, this language survived. We will be working to get it
removed in the conference committee.
WHAT NOW?
The final Senate bill was 1,615 pages, so it contains a lot not covered in this
review. Both the Senate and House bills require audits of the Federal Reserve,
and the Senate bill contains a very useful provision on credit rating firms, to
name just two very positive features not highlighted above.
The big failure of the bills, however, is to address the basic structure of the
financial industry. They do not shrink the biggest institutions. In general,
they do not separate speculative activity from the important banking functions
of providing credit and allocating capital. And they do not prohibit activity
that poses too much risk to the financial system. We may yet win some such
reforms in this legislation, but in general it is fair to say that the
legislation relies on improving regulation rather than fixing the industry
structures that make harmful behavior almost inevitable.
From our vantage point, a few things are clear as we go forward. First, the
bills would have been much weaker but for the engagement of Public Citizen
members like you and others from an outraged public. Second, our ability to
prevail on the remaining contentious issues (and to ensure that lobbyists can't
change key elements with stealth maneuvers) depends crucially on ensuring the
conference committee process is as open as possible. And last, this Wall Street
reform bill will be the first of more to come.
It's been quite exciting over the past several weeks to see so many Public
Citizen members act on this issue - and make a difference. We have a lot of
work to do before a bill finally becomes law, and we look forward to continuing
to work with you to get the job done right!
Sincerely, Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
Fiscal Responsibility
The
Obama Administration still shows no sign of increasing taxes on Wall Street and
other high income earners in order to reduce the federal deficit, thus
continuing to be vulnerable to concerns by Tea Bag Conservatives and others
about the high deficits. For more. For
more. Without raising taxes to
reduce deficits, the emphasis is upon reducing Social Security benefits. For
more. For
more. For
more. For
more.
I
believe that fiscal responsibility requires
increasing taxes on Wall Street and other high income earners. Dave Thomas
At
over $700 billion this year, total military spending rivals Social Security as
the largest item in the federal budget. We are spending more than at any time
since World War II, yet our principal enemy has no multi-million person army,
no air force, no navy, no sophisticated anti-aircraft systems – in short, none
of the kinds of weapons our arsenal is best designed to fight against. And of
that $700 billion per year, the vast bulk – over $500 billion – goes towards
the Pentagon’s base budget, not the wars in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A forthcoming report from the Sustainable Defense Task Force – a
group of defense and budget experts convened with the encouragement of Rep.
Barney Frank – presents a menu of options for making cuts in the Pentagon
budget without undermining our basic security. Look for details within the next
two weeks.
There
are plenty of savings to be had from eliminating unneeded weapons systems and
cutting waste, fraud and abuse, but it is important to note that any
substantial reduction in Pentagon spending will have to involve reducing U.S.
global commitments. We can’t and shouldn’t continue to structure our forces as
if they should be able to go anywhere and do anything. This is directly
relevant to the new National Security Strategy.
As
Gordon Adams
puts it in an analysis released today by the Budget Insight blog of the
Stimson Center’s Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense project: “On the
military side, no clear prioritization of missions. As in the QDR
[Quadrennial Defense Review], the NSS provides no priorities among military
missions, but repeats a long shopping list that could drive force structure and
budget expectations even higher than they are now.”
As
the NSS also notes, there are plenty of ways to engage that don’t involve
military force, from diplomacy to development to cooperation in law enforcement
and intelligence. There will be many circumstances in which these will be the
preferred modes of action, not merely complements to force or the threat of the
use of force. We should structure and finance our military accordingly. For
more.
Defense
Secretary Robert Gates promotes eliminating wasteful Defense Department
spending. For
more. I believe many more reductions
should be made. We could greatly reduce
the number of troops that we have in Europe, South Korea and Japan and
eliminate perhaps 90% of our foreign military bases which exist more to further
American influence over other countries than to counter terrorism. We could also eliminate much other military
spending which is not useful with respect to any realistic assessment of
present and future enemies. However,
many Democrats are supporting military waste if it will create jobs in their
districts. Dave Thomas
Health Care Reform
Having
emphasized the benefits of health care reform immediately following its
passage, attention has shifted to regulating Wall Street speculation. But the Obama Administration will continue to
describe the benefits of health care reform before the fall elections.
Citizens in 18 states
are promoting state level single payer health care.
Immigration Reform
Passage of immigration reform appears impossible, due to
Republican opposition. If passed, it
would motivate Hispanics to vote for Democrats this fall. But simply knowing that Republicans are
blocking its passage may be enough to motivate them.
By a two-to-one margin Hispanics are more
strongly opposed than Americans overall to the recent immigration measure
signed in to law in Arizona that would make it a state crime to reside there
illegally. Seven in 10, 70%, of Hispanic
respondents said they are somewhat or strongly opposed to the law, compared
with 34% of all respondents in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC
News poll set for release later today. Among
Hispanics, 27% are somewhat or strongly supportive of Arizona’s law; that
compares with 64%of respondents overall.
That sounds bad, but it’s long term
problem for the right. I sure hope they keep this up. After California Republican Governor Pete
Wilson ran an ad in 1994 to strongly sanction undocumented immigrants, the
The Republicans also have to be worrying
just a little bit about the fact that this issue falls way down the list of the
country’s biggest concerns. So, while a majority of Americans may think it’s appropriate
to racially profile and even treat legal immigrants (or people who just look
like them) like second class citizens, most
of them are unlikely to vote on that issue. On the other hand, young Hispanic Americans are unlikely to ever forget it. For
more. For
more.
Protecting from Oil
Drilling Spills
President
Obama announced yesterday that he will NOT allow Shell to drill for oil off the
coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- and elsewhere in the Arctic
Ocean -- this summer.
Just this week, National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Trustee Robert
Redford asked you to make your voice heard in opposition to Shell’s dangerous
plans. Tens of thousands of you wrote President Obama, urging him to learn the
lessons of the BP spill and to put Shell’s plans on hold. Our voices have been heard! The
President’s change of policy is an important acknowledgment that the oil
industry cannot be trusted to drill in one of the world’s most sensitive
ecosystems: the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas which are home to one-fifth of the
world’s polar bears, as well as seals, endangered whales, walrus and other
threatened marine life. President Obama
also canceled planned lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of
Virginia, and he imposed new safeguards to protect our fragile coastal
environments.
Over the
past month, oil company claims about drilling being environmentally safe have
been revealed for what they really are: corporate propaganda. If the oil industry can’t
clean up a spill in the temperate Gulf of Mexico -- the world’s most developed
offshore drilling region -- how on earth will it clean up a spill in a remote
corner of the Arctic Ocean in frigid waters and 20-foot seas?
Fortunately,
the Obama Administration is no longer willing to risk the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge and threatened polar bear populations on the say-so of Big Oil.
You deserve credit for helping persuade the Administration to do the right
thing. But make no mistake: this is only a reprieve for Arctic wildlife, not
the end of our fight. The policy
President Obama announced yesterday will only put the Arctic Ocean off-limits
for six months before his Administration once again considers whether to allow
drilling to proceed.
That six-month delay gets us past the all-important summer drilling season, but
it’s hardly a long-term answer for protecting the Arctic Refuge and other
natural treasures. As long as oil companies lack the know-how to drill safely
in the daunting conditions of the Arctic, such drilling should be suspended
indefinitely.
In the
weeks ahead, NRDC will be ramping up the pressure for that kind of long-term
moratorium on Arctic drilling. And I’ll be calling on you to
make your voice heard again. As we
witness the mounting toll in the Gulf of Mexico, we must redouble our efforts
to ensure that such a catastrophe never happens again -- not in the Gulf, not
in the Arctic, not anywhere. Frances
Beinecke, President of NRDC
Teabag Conservatives
Are Beating NRSC Choices
The 2010 election is starting to have
the bad omens of a well-made horror film if you are sitting in Senator John
Cornyn's spot as head of the NRSC. He has had a spectacularly bad run, with no
apparent ability to control the teabaggers. Big John was looking like
a guy with a pretty good poker hand last year. Let’s take a look at how he's
played his cards:
· Florida: Cornyn and the NRSC endorse
Governor Charlie Crist only to see the preferred candidate overtaken in the
polls by teabagger Marco Rubio. Worse, Crist leaves the party and runs against
Rubio, taking a ton of money Cornyn helped raise with him.
· Utah:
Cornyn and the NRSC endorse
Senator Bob Bennett only to see a group of angry teabaggers throw
him off the ballot.
· Kentucky: Cornyn and the NRSC endorse
Trey Grayson over teabagger Rand Paul. Paul then proceeds to win the nomination
by a landslide.
· Connecticut: Despite the well-positioned
Congressman Rob Simmons, the party machinery in the state pushes him aside and
nominates a teabagging,
self-funding version of PT Barnum.
· New York: Facing an incumbent, appointed, somewhat unknown Democratic
Senator who is below 50 percent in approval, Cornyn still couldn't persuade
former Gov. George Pataki--or anyone else of significance for that
matter--to take her on.
· Washington: Failing to attract a fresh face, Cornyn and the NSRC have
thrown themselves all over damaged
goods Dino Rossi. He is still facing the Palin-endorsed teabagger favorite,
Clint Didier.
· Nevada:
Cornyn threw
his support behind Sue "Chicken Barter" Lowden only to see her
turn her campaign into a national laughing stock. She's now tanking in the
polls as teabagger Sharon Angle gains momentum.
Rating and Ranking
I have been interested in
rating and ranking U.S. Presidents.
Rating some presidents is fairly easy and their various actions are
consistently desirable or undesirable.
But others are inconsistent with a high rating for some actions and a
low rating for others. In those cases,
two ratings must be applied to the president.
RATINGS
Roosevelt –
A, in spite of incarceration of Japanese Americans and failure to assist Jews
to escape holocaust
Truman –
B-D, liberal domestic policies, but purposefully bombed civilians and initiated
Cold War
Eisenhower -
C
Kennedy – C,
inspirational, little domestic legislation, Bay of Pigs, avoided war over Cuban
Missles
Johnson –
B-F, great society and civil rights laws, Vietnam War
Nixon – B-F,
environmental legislation, Vietnam War
Ford - C
Carter – C,
Promoted peace, but ineffectual
Reagan – D
H.W. Bush -
D
Clinton - C
H. Bush - F
Obama – B
RANKINGS
A: Roosevelt
B: Obama
C: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Ford,
Carter, Clinton
B-D: Truman
B-F: Johnson, Nixon
D: Reagan, H.W. Bush
F: H. Bush
I don’t find it possible to
rank presidents with the same ratings.
Dave Thomas
What
President
Obama Must Do to Be Rated ‘A’
To be rated ‘A’ like
President Roosevelt, President Obama must act more like President
Roosevelt. He must not include Wall
Street speculators among his cabinet and close advisors. Consulting with those who early identified
the housing-credit bubble and predicted its collapse, he must recognize that
the future economy must not include extensive Borrowing, Consuming and
Speculating. Instead it must return to
the Earning, Conserving and Investing economy which followed Roosevelt’s
reforms.
President Obama must increase
taxes on Wall Street speculators and high income earners to inhibit their
speculation and provide fiscal responsibility, which allows more money to be
spent on job creation, including stimulation of private jobs and creation WPA
type public jobs for young less encumbered job seekers.
Here’s the Beef
Robert Kuttner comments that President
Obama is not using the BP oil spill teachable moment that our energy future
cannot be left to oil companies.
Just as he did not use the housing-credit bubble collapse teachable
moment that our economic future cannot be left to mega-banks.
State and
Local
Put Middle Class Relief on the Ballot, Yes on I-1098
Dear
Dave, We had a great weekend despite the lousy weather. We gathered 3,127 signatures at the Folklife
festival in Seattle and at the Ski to Sea race in Bellingham. We have a
total of 6,379 signatures on hand today. Our goal was to have 7,500 turned
in after our first full week of signature gathering.
Based on the enthusiasm, dedication and tenacity of the volunteers who turned
out this weekend, I have no doubt that we will qualify Initiative 1098 for the
ballot. And based on the polling we shared with you last week1 we
know we will win in November.
Volunteers have also been using our powerful new tools to set up events all
over the state. From farmers markets in Pullman to house parties in Tacoma, it
has never been easier to organize your friends into a powerful force for
change. Click here
to join your fellow activists or set up your own event.
Stay tuned for our next big events including two sounders games in the next few
days. You can sign up directly to join us at the sounders game here. To obtain
petitions, please contact the campaign. Thank
you for all you do. Kelly Evans, I-1098
MoveOn Comments on Maria Cantwell’s Support for
Wall Street
On
many issues, Sen. Cantwell has been a solid progressive. But not on Friday. The Senate was set to vote Saturday on
a bill closing the outrageous tax
loophole that lets billionaire hedge fund managers pay much lower taxes (18%) than
regular folks (24%) . It's a change that's long past due. But Sen. Cantwell and a few other senators are fighting on behalf of wealthy
investment managers to keep the loophole in place. In part due to Sen. Cantwell's stance, the
bill will be delayed by weeks, which means unemployment benefits for workers
who were laid off because of the financial crisis will expire.
She needs
to hear from people in Washington that protecting super-rich investment fund managers at the expense of
struggling families is unacceptable, and it's wrong. Can you
call Sen. Cantwell right now to let her know you want her to close
the "investment fund managers' loophole," not fight to protect it?
Senator
Maria Cantwell Phone: 202-224-3441 Then report
your call
Sen. Cantwell has received
more than $500,000 in contributions from investment firms since just last year.
She's doing exactly what they
want—trying to perpetuate a system that helps the super-rich, but is grossly
unfair to working Americans. Why is
someone like Sen. Cantwell opposing this? It's hard to say, and her
explanation doesn't make a ton of sense.4 But the sad truth is, the
financial industry, including the investment fund managers affected by this
bill, has become a major source of support for Democrats like Sen.
Cantwell. And right now, these rich donors are freaking out because they have a
lot to lose if this loophole is closed. And that seems to have spooked a bunch
of Democrats who should know better.
Larry Kalb Press Release
LARRY KALB BLASTS RICK LARSEN ON WASTEFUL
MILITARY SPENDING
CALLS SECOND ENGINE FOR F-35 PURE PORK
BELLINGHAM--Speaking to supporters in
Bellingham over the Memorial Day weekend, Second District Congressional
candidate Larry Kalb (D) called out the incumbent, Rick Larsen, for another
corporate giveaway to the military industrial complex. Last week, over the
objections of the President and the Secretary of Defense, Larsen voted to
authorize funding to build a second and redundant engine for the F-35 Joint
Strike Fighter.
"This is pure pork," said Kalb.
"It is a sad commentary on the control that military contractors have over
Congress when the House votes for an engine the Pentagon clearly doesn't want. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates considers the second engine program so wasteful that he
is urging President Obama to veto the entire 2011 defense appropriation of $760
billion, if the second engine survives the House-Senate reconciliation
committee."
Larsen sits on the House Armed Services
Committee, a coveted assignment because the defense industry contributes
heavily to the election campaigns of those who sit on it. All members of the
Armed Services Committee voted for the second engine, whereas fewer than half
of House members not on the committee voted for it.
Kalb stated: "This clearly shows that
Larsen and other members of the Armed Services Committee are in bed with the
war machine. Indeed, they are part of it. People in our district and across the
country continue to suffer from the huge economic deficit caused by the
unnecessary and unproductive wars we're mired in. Funding this 'bridge to
nowhere' only makes that situation worse."
Kalb strongly concurred with Secretary
Gates' statement immediately following the vote: "One of the members of
Congress, I'm told, said, 'Well, why is $3 billion for the alternative engine
such a big deal when we've got a trillion-dollar deficit?' I would submit that
one of the reasons we have a trillion-dollar deficit, is that kind of
thinking."
Kalb noted that American-based Pratt & Whitney builds the primary engine, while a
consortium of British-based Rolls-Royce and General Electric builds the second
and unnecessary one. "I am the Buy America candidate," said Kalb. “While
GE is an American company, it has off-shored so much of its operations that it
did not pay a single penny of federal income tax for 2009.”
Kalb predicted that Larsen will vote for
the "emergency" Defense Supplemental, which plows another $33 billion
beyond that which was budgeted into, as Kalb described it, the “unwanted and
unwise" build-up in Afghanistan.
“Defense supplementals are like weapons
systems for Larsen,” Kalb said. “He has voted for all of them in the past. He
has also consistently opposed asking the Defense Department to draft even a
flexible exit plan and withdrawal timetable from Afghanistan."
In contrast, Larry Kalb is one of over 60
Congressional candidates nationally that recently signed onto a statement
reading: "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost
Americans over $1 trillion in direct costs, and over $3 trillion all together.
At a time when our national debt exceeds $13 trillion, we can no longer afford
these wars. It's time for Congress to reject any funding except to bring all
our troops safely home and to help rebuild what we have destroyed in Iraq and
Afghanistan."
"It's time to stop the bleeding," said Kalb.
"I have yet to see a reason for staying in Afghanistan that is not absurd.
It can't be to stop Al-Qaeda, because even the CIA admits there are fewer
Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan than in several other countries. With our constant
accidental killing of civilians, we are creating far more terrorists than we
are killing. Our basic war model is deeply flawed. Terrorism must be treated as
an international criminal matter, not as war. Homeland Security knows full well
that the next terrorist attack on our soil is more apt to be hatched in the
U.S. than in Afghanistan. The wars continue because corrupt corporations profit
from the support of corrupt politicians who sacrifice American lives to prop up
corrupt leaders abroad. Nothing will change until we change Congress. That's
why I am running." Larry Kalb
Here’s the Beef
Nation
and World
Why
Senate Quorum Calls?
The house conducts its work
without quorum calls. Can anyone tell me
why the Senate has perhaps 10 quorum calls per day (called by both Democrats
and Republicans), each consuming 15 minutes for a total 2 ½ hours during which
the senate conducts no work? Dave Thomas
We shouldn’t Teach Erroneous Financial Information
People should be financially
informed. Unfortunately, most financial
information being proposed doesn’t distinguish between investment and
speculation, treating the latter as investment.
The stock market exists so that people who make investments can obtain
any returns that result from their success.
The stock market needs only a few stock purchasers to be able to perform
this function as is evident from its success during the several decades
following World War II when very few people owned stocks.
Most people who own stocks
are simply speculating that they can make money, with their stock purchases
doing nothing to increase investment in new products, markets or management
techniques.
Truthful financial
information would make this clear, and note that Wall Street makes money from
speculators, and contributes to speculative bubbles and their collapse, such
that speculators often lose many of their speculative gains.
Our government should make it
possible for people to use their retirement savings to buy supplements to
social security. Truthful financial
information would then advise people to do this instead of putting it into Wall
Street stocks.
BP Oil Spill Responses
Like many amateurs with
limited information, I have been tempted to decide what response to the BP oil
spill will most limit the damage from oil escaping into Caribbean waters. Given the great pressure of the escaping oil,
I believe it is likely impossible to limit the flow (as was attempted
unsuccessfully). It is better to try to
channel the oil to the surface, much as would occur if the oil was
controlled.
My thought is to place a
large tube over the failed values and down some feet from the break. Then clamp truncated triangles from the tube
to the pipe leading from the well for 3, 6 or 12 feet to keep the pipe from
breaking there. At the top of the large
tube, a smaller tube would take the oil (perhaps mixed with some water) to
ships on the surface. The oil would thus
be treated much as it would if there had been no break, except the oil will be
flowing faster without control.
I understand that the next ‘Cut
and Cap’ response to the oil spill is similar to the one I suggest, except it
would either attach a surface tube to the failed values, or the failed values
would be removed and the surface tube attached to the broken pipe. This has the advantage of using a smaller tube
to connect to the broken tube, but the disadvantage that it may cause a larger
flow of oil or even lead to another break.
Israeli Murder of Humanitarians
As with other foreign leaders
dependent upon the U.S. (such as Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai), It is once again
evident that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s highest priority is
staying in power. He is more concerned
with the responses of his Jewish fundamentalist supporters than with
international or U.S. opinion. As a
result, he sent ships to attack unarmed people in international waters who were
bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. He
even lied that killing 9 humanitarians was necessary to protect the Israeli
attackers, who should never have been there.
The Israeli attackers could have used Nonlethal crowd dispersal tactics instead
of guns. For more.
As it should be, virtually
all of world opinion is outraged at the Israeli murders. More humanitarian ships are expected, to which
Netanyahu may respond the same way. This
could finally stimulate world and even U.S. opinion to oppose Israeli
oppression of Palestinians. For
more. For
more.
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Here’s the Beef
Our
Liberal Spirit
No News is
Good News?
With congress in recess,
there is little news. This may be good
news, since much recent news has been bad, including especially a gutted
financial reform bill, and the failure to adequately regulate deep see oil
drilling. Whereas President Obama used
to present inspirational commentaries, his recent commentaries seem more like
attempts to respond to criticisms.
However his speech at
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Wednesday clearly distinguished
between the Republican approach (tax cuts for the rich and deregulation) which
failed and his approach (careful regulation and job stimulation) which is
succeeding. He blamed and criticized the
Republicans instead of being conciliatory, a change from his previous
commentaries. For more.
They say that when the going
gets tough, the tough get going. Many of
Obama’s failures are due to his own actions of commission or omission, but as
his failures have become more obvious, he may finally be ready to respond more
aggressively.
When freedoms and
opportunities are limited, we can learn to respond in ways that extend our
freedoms and opportunities.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
During the past 18 months, I
have commented on over 30 books that comment on our housing-credit bubble, its
collapse and what should be done to prevent its reoccurrence. Some of these primarily describe the speculative
bubble and its collapse, sometimes in great detail. Others explain the occurrence of the
speculative bubble and its collapse.
Still others make recommendations for preventing the reoccurrence of
speculative bubbles and their collapse.
Others comment that speculation has benefits and only suggest how to
limit the bubbles and their collapse. To
understand speculative bubbles and their collapse, I recommend the following
several books:
·
Richard Bookstaber, 2007, A Demon of Our Own Design.
Markets, Hedge Funds and the Perils of Financial Innovation
· Kevin Phillips, 2008, Bad Money,
Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism
· Paul Muolo and Mathew Padilla, 2008, Chain of Blame, How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis
·
Charles R. Morris, 2008, The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, Easy Money,
High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash
These books described the
formation of the housing-credit bubble and predicted crash. But they were published before the crash and didn’t
address what should have been done. The
following books address what should have been done and still should be done:
· Joseph E. Stiglitz, 2010, Freefall.
America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy
·
Dean Baker, 2010, False
Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy
·
James Galbraith, 2009, The
Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals
Should Too
I don’t intend to comment on
any more books concerning our housing-credit bubble and collapse, how it
occurred and what the government responses should have been.