Puget Sound Liberals Weekly Newsletter #230
Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in
Through informing and networking Liberals and Liberal Organizations.
Our vision is hundreds of thousands of well-informed Puget Sound Liberals
working together.
Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of
Contents * Featured Articles Opportunities Petitions Communication to Our Members* Commentaries from Our Members Ray McBain: Another Example of Ruthless Oil Drilling Linda Clifton: Dave’s Israeli Commentary Is Wrong Ray McBain: A Different Israeli Point of View Amelia Kroeger: Senate Voted for EPA to Regulate Gas Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef* Like Republicans, Democrats Should Play Rough** Tea Party Candidates Win Republican Primaries* Reclaiming Wetlands and Beaches Liberals Must Act to Resist Corporate Power State and Local Links
to the Beef Help Gather I-1098 Signatures at UW Commencement** Nation and World Links to the Beef* Featured Advocacy Group: MoveToAmend.org 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 It was the best of
times. It was the worst of times. Charles
Dickens.
Calendar of Events
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
your congress members to protect strong derivatives regulation.
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
David Olson: Support I-1098
Published by Seattle Times
on 6/6/2010
“Put a lid on education stimulus” [Opinion, June 2] is
persuasive. Besides, more permanent
funding relief for Washington schools is promised now if solicitors are successful
getting the needed 300,000 signers on the petition to put Initiative 1098 on
the ballot in November, and it passes.
I-1098 would provide for dedicated school funding
along with significant tax breaks for the middle class and small businesses. It
would also help ease pressures on the state budget and create jobs.
Where will the money come from? A nominal and easily
affordable tax on the incomes of couples making more than $400,000 and
individuals making more than $200,000 per year. It is time to get this done. David
Olson
Ray McBain: Another Example of Ruthless Oil
Drilling
Ray McBain sent
me the following commentary:
BP’s calamitous
behavior in the Gulf of Mexico is the big oil story of the moment. But for many
years, indigenous people from a formerly pristine region of the Amazon
rainforest in Ecuador have been trying to get relief from an American company,
Texaco (which later merged with Chevron), for what has been described as the
largest oil-related environmental catastrophe ever. “As
horrible as the gulf spill has been, what happened in the Amazon was worse,”
said Jonathan Abady, a New York lawyer who is part of the legal team that is
suing Chevron on behalf of the rainforest inhabitants. It has been a long and ugly legal fight and
the outcome is uncertain. But what has happened in the rainforest is
heartbreaking, although it has not gotten nearly the coverage that the BP spill
has.
What’s not in
dispute is that Texaco operated more than 300 oil wells for the better part of
three decades in a vast swath of Ecuador’s northern Amazon region, just south
of the border with Colombia. Much of that area has been horribly polluted. The
lives and culture of the local inhabitants, who fished in the intricate
waterways and cultivated the land as their ancestors had done for generations,
have been upended in ways that have led to widespread misery. Texaco came barreling into this delicate
ancient landscape in the early 1960s with all the subtlety and grace of an
invading army. And when it left in 1992, it left behind, according to the
lawsuit, widespread toxic contamination that devastated the livelihoods and
traditions of the local people, and took a severe toll on their physical
well-being.
A brief filed by
the plaintiffs said: “It deliberately dumped many billions of gallons of waste
byproduct from oil drilling directly into the rivers and streams of the
rainforest covering an area the size of Rhode Island. It gouged more than 900
unlined waste pits out of the jungle floor — pits which to this day leach toxic
waste into soils and groundwater. It burned hundreds of millions of cubic feet
of gas and waste oil into the atmosphere, poisoning the air and creating ‘black
rain’ which inundated the area during tropical thunderstorms.”
The quest for oil
is, by its nature, colossally destructive. And the giant oil companies, when
left to their own devices, will treat even the most magnificent of nature’s
wonders like a sewer. But the riches to be made are so vastly corrupting that
governments refuse to impose the kinds of rigid oversight and safeguards that
would mitigate the damage to the environment and its human and animal
inhabitants.
Pick your venue.
The families whose lives and culture are dependent upon the intricate web of
waterways along the Gulf Coast of the United States are in a fix similar to
that of the indigenous people zapped by nonstop oil spills and the oil-related
pollution in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Each group is fearful about its future.
Both have been treated contemptuously.
The oil companies
don’t care. Shell can’t wait to begin drilling in the Arctic Ocean off the
northern coast of Alaska, an area that would pose monumental problems for
anyone trying to deal with a catastrophic spill. The companies pretend that the
spills won’t happen. They always say that their drilling operations are safe.
They said that before drilling off Santa Barbara, and in the rainforest in
Ecuador, and in the Gulf of Mexico, and everywhere else they drill. Their assurances mean nothing.
President Obama
has suspended Shell’s Arctic drilling permits and has temporarily halted the
so-called Arctic oil rush. What we’ve learned from the BP debacle in the gulf,
and from the rainforest, and so many other places, is just how reckless and
inept the oil companies can be when it comes to safeguarding life, limb and the
environment. They’re dangerous. They
need the most stringent kind of oversight, and swift and severe sanctions for
serious wrongdoing. At the same time, we need to be searching with a much, much
greater sense of urgency for viable energy alternatives. Treating the Amazon
and the gulf and the Arctic as if they were nothing more than toxic waste sites
is an affront to the planet and all life-forms that inhabit it.
Chevron doesn’t
believe it should be called to account for any of the sins Texaco may have
committed in the Amazon. A spokesman told me that the allegations of
environmental damage were wildly overstated and that even if Texaco had caused
some pollution, it had cleaned it up and reached an agreement with the
Ecuadorian government that precluded further liability. The indigenous residents may be suffering
(they’re in much worse shape than the people on the gulf coast) but the
Chevron-Texaco crowd feels real good about itself. The big money was made, and
the trash was left behind. Bob Herbert
Linda Clifton: Dave’s Israeli Commentary Is
Wrong
Your
editorial comments on Israel's defense of her people in the last issue of Puget
Sound Liberals Newsletter were so far from the facts that you should share the
following information with your readers so they can make their judgments
based on valid data.
·
Israel has the
same self-defense rights and needs as any other country around the world.
·
Such a blockade has
been deemed legal by independent experts, including Allen Weiner, a former
State Department lawyer and legal counsel at the U.S. Embassy at The Hague, now
teaching at Stanford Law School: "Israel claims to be in a state of armed
conflict with a non-state group, with Hamas in Gaza. Under the laws of war, a
blockage is legal. That includes operating on the high seas. You don't have to
wait until you are on territorial waters."
·
Leslie Gelb
noted in The Daily Beast,
"Israel had every right under international law to stop and board ships
bound for the Gaza war zone late Sunday."
·
Israeli
authorities repeatedly offered to accept all humanitarian aid at an Israeli
port and transfer it--under the observation of those in the flotilla--to
Gaza; those offers were rejected.
·
On a daily basis,
"some 100 trucks, laden with food and medicine, enter Gaza from Israel.
Israel has never banned such food and medicine from Gaza," as noted by
the Government of Israel.
·
As Israel's
Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes, "Well over a million tons of
humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Israel over the last 18 months equaling
nearly a ton of aid for every man, woman and child in Gaza. Millions of dollars
worth of international food aid continually flows through the Israeli
humanitarian apparatus, ensuring that there is no food shortage in Gaza. Food
and supplies are shipped from Israel to Gaza six days a week. These items were
channeled through aid organizations or via Gaza's private sector." Further statistics are viewable.
·
Weapons were
found aboard the Mavi Marmara ship that
was boarded by the Israel Defense Forces, and Israeli soldiers who boarded were
clearly shown in films being attacked by weapons and stun grenades. (See
also Item 10 below.)
·
The Israeli
soldiers arrived on the boat with paintball guns, which are intended to
surprise or stun, but definitely not to kill. They only resorted to their
pistols after they were being so violently assaulted that they feared for their
lives. Two of the IDF members jumped overboard at night into the sea to avoid
being killed
·
Though they were
asked by the family of Gilad Shalit to bring messages and a package to Shalit,
an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas from Israeli territory who has been held
four years without any access to the Red Cross or any contact with anyone other
than his Hamas captors, the peace activists refused to carry a message to
Shalit.
·
The images you
are being shown by major media have been cropped to change the story that they
tell. See
the evidence here.
·
The facts
show clearly that sending humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza, who do
need the world's compassion and help, was not the flotilla's aim. If it
had been, the organizers would have accepted the aid once it had been
checked--they refused. Video of organizers on Arab TV made clear their
intentions to be martyrs, and the Marmara's video on the ship before the action
began shows them arming themselves. Other video shows them beating the
commandos who, clinging to the rope, have not opened fire.
The facts show clearly that this was defense, not murder.
Your unfounded accusations do
not serve the cause of peace. Linda Clifton
Ray McBain: A Different Israeli Point of View
Ray McBain sent
me the following:
The Israeli propaganda machine has reached new highs its
hopeless frenzy. It has distributed menus from Gaza restaurants, along with
false information. It embarrassed itself by entering a futile public relations
battle, which it might have been better off never starting. They want to
maintain the ineffective, illegal and unethical siege on Gaza and not let the
"peace flotilla" dock off the Gaza coast? There is nothing to
explain, certainly not to a world that will never buy the web of explanations,
lies and tactics.
Only in Israel do people still accept these tainted goods.
Reminiscent of a pre-battle ritual from ancient times, the chorus cheered
without asking questions. White uniformed soldiers got ready in our name.
Spokesmen delivered their deceptive explanations in our name. The grotesque
scene is at our expense. And virtually none of us have disturbed the
performance. The chorus has been singing
songs of falsehood and lies. We are all in the chorus saying there is no
humanitarian crisis in Gaza. We are all part of the chorus claiming the
occupation of Gaza has ended, and that the flotilla is a violent attack on
Israeli sovereignty - the cement is for building bunkers and the convoy is
being funded by the Turkish Muslim Brotherhood. The Israeli siege of Gaza will
topple Hamas and free Gilad Shalit. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy, one
of the most ridiculous of the propagandists, outdid himself when he
unblinkingly proclaimed that the aid convoy headed toward Gaza was a violation
of international law. Right. Exactly.
It's not the siege that is illegal, but rather the flotilla. It
wasn't enough to distribute menus from Gaza restaurants through the Prime
Minister's Office, including the highly recommended beef Stroganoff and cream
of spinach soup and flaunt the quantities of fuel that the Israeli army
spokesman says Israel is shipping in. The propaganda operation has tried to
sell us and the world the idea that the occupation of Gaza is over, but in any
case, Israel has legal authority to bar humanitarian aid. All one pack of lies.
Only one voice spoiled the illusory celebration a little: an
Amnesty International report on the situation in Gaza. Four out of five Gaza
residents need humanitarian assistance. Hundreds are waiting to the point of
embarrassment to be allowed out for medical treatment, and 28 already have
died. This is despite all the Israeli army spokesman's briefings on the absence
of a siege and the presence of assistance, but who cares? And the preparations
for the operation are also reminiscent of a particularly amusing farce: the feverish
debate among the septet of ministers; the deployment of the Masada unit, the
prison service's commando unit that specializes in penetrating prison cells;
naval commando fighters with backup from the special police anti-terror unit
and the army's Oketz canine unit; a special detention facility set up at the
Ashdod port; and the electronic shield that was supposed to block broadcast of
the ship's capture and the detention of those on board.
And all of this in the face of what? A few hundred international
activists, mostly people of conscience whose reputation Israeli propaganda has
sought to besmirch. They are really mostly people who care, which is their
right and obligation, even if the siege doesn't concern us at all. Yes, this
flotilla is indeed a political provocation, and what is protest action if not
political provocation?
And facing them on the seas has been the Israeli ship of fools,
floating but not knowing where or why. Why detain people? That's how it is. Why
a siege? That's how it is. It's like the Noam Chomsky affair all over again,
but big time this time. Of course the peace flotilla will not bring peace, and
it won't even manage to reach the Gaza shore. The action plan has included
dragging the ships to Ashdod port, but it has again dragged us to the shores of
stupidity and wrongdoing. Again we will be portrayed not only as the ones that
have blocked assistance, but also as fools who do everything to even further
undermine our own standing. If that was one of the goals of the peace flotilla's
organizers, they won big yesterday. Five
years ago, the noted Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, who is a Jerusalem
Prize laureate, after concluding his visit to Israel, said the Israeli
occupation was approaching its grotesque phase. Over the weekend Vargas Llosa,
who considers himself a friend of Israel, was present to see that that phase
has since reached new heights of absurdity.
Amelia Kroeger: Senate Voted for EPA to Regulate
Green House Gas
I am happy to report that, just minutes
ago, the Senate voted down a proposal that would kneecap the most important
federal tool to reduce climate-destabilizing pollution, the Clean Air
Act. Amelia Kroeger
Liberals
and Democrats
Mixed Blessings
·
Health care
reform was passed. But it fails to
eliminate the waste that results from reliance upon private health insurance.
·
Financial
regulatory reform will soon pass. But it
appears that it will fail to prevent future bubbles and their collapse. It will only provide an earlier
identification of the bubble and collapse and a response which limits the
damage to Main Street Americans. See
below.
·
President Obama
continues to make efforts to assist Main Street. But he still is not sufficiently opposing
Wall Street Speculation.
·
President Obama’s
fiscal deficits are less than would occur if he hadn’t passed the
stimulus-recovery package. But they
could be much less if he had increased taxes on Wall Street speculators and
other high income earners and increased estate taxes on very large estates.
·
Some of the oil leaking
from the broken BP deep well pipe is being recovered. But large amounts of oil are still escaping
into the water and adding to the extensive damage to wetlands and beaches from
Louisiana to Florida and likely beyond.
·
Some fishermen
are being hired to assist with reducing the impact of oil on wetlands and
beaches. But the number and the amount
they are paid is far less than should occur to attempt to restore and enhance
these wetlands and beaches at BP’s expense.
·
More jobs are
being created. But contrary to my
expectations expressed last week, the number of jobs is insufficient to enable
Main Street Americans to find the jobs that they want.
·
More el-Qaeda and
Taliban leaders are being killed. But Osama
ben Laden and the top Taliban leader have not been killed. Killing Osama ben Laden would be a major
victory.
For
more. So, these are the best of
times and the worst of times. The glass
is both half full and half empty. We can
choose to be satisfied with what we have achieved or can make efforts to
achieve more.
Regulatory
Reform should include, but doesn’t include enough:
·
Derivatives
reform
·
Off-balance she
reform
·
Rating-agency
reform
·
Restructuring of
housing finance
·
Separation of
risky activities from the financial safety net
·
Separation of
activities that have inherent conflicts of interest within a firm
·
Legal resolution
powers for large failed institutions with consistent cross border standards
·
Significant
increase in resources and salaries for supervision, examination and regulation
·
Consumer
financial protection
The Campaign for America's Future's America's Future Now!
conference revealed a remarkable unity of vision, and a careful balance in
troubled times. Progressives credited President Obama and the Congressional
Democrats for their accomplishments so far, while expressing disappointment
that the reforms don't go far enough. Much work remains to be done, and attendees
did leave the conference with concrete plans for getting that work done.
Like Republicans, Democrats Should Play Rough
Conservatives
have always played rough, using reconciliation procedures when necessary to
pass measures such as tax cuts and military expenditures that they favor. And imposing sanctions upon Republican
congress members who deviate from their agenda.
As Colorado Democrats have shown, playing rough can also be to their
advantage. They changed Colorado from
having predominantly Republican state and national legislators to having
predominantly Democratic ones.
Instead
of making drastic compromises in an attempt to defeat filibusters, Democrats
should craft their reforms to use reconciliation procedures. In particular, they should use reconciliation
procedures to impose taxes and fees on Wall Street speculators and other high
income earners to both curb speculative bubbles and to provide lower fiscal
deficits. Democrats should refute and
not be deterred by false Republican claims that these tax increases would harm
job creation, just as President Clinton’s tax increases on the very wealthy did
not harm job creation or keep federal deficits from decreasing.
In
addition, the Obama Administration should reward those congress members who
support reconciliation measures to increase taxes on the wealthy but helping
them raise campaign funds and in other ways.
It should refuse to reward and even punish those congress members who do
not support such members. Even if a few
of these latter lose to Republicans, converting some of them to supporting the
reconciliation will be worthwhile. Like
the Republicans, Democrats should impose discipline upon their members.
Tea Party Candidates Win Republican Primaries
Contrary to conventional wisdom of
commercial media pundits, incumbents almost always won in the primaries of both
parties. But to win, Republican
candidates (whether incumbents or non-incumbents in races with no incumbents)
have acted as Tea Party Conservatives, emphasizing that they are outsiders
instead of insiders to Washington and that they favor fiscal responsibility and
Main Street over Wall Street. Tea party
candidates win Republican primaries, making it easier for Democrats to win in
the general election this fall. For more. For more. This
includes Harry Reid, Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer.
If the tea party candidates win this fall,
they will further alienate young voters, Hispanic voters and Independents. For more.
Even though Republicans may gain some congressional seats this fall,
they may lose them in the long run.
U.S. companies are
donating to incumbent Democrats,
giving them a financial advantage over their Republican challengers.
Reclaiming Wetlands and
Beaches
For all the negative effects, the oil spill offers an
opportunity to create many good jobs paid for by BP and thus not adding to the
federal deficit. Those people whose
fishing and other jobs have been ruined by the oil spill reaching the wetlands
and beaches should be employed in unionized jobs to restore and enhance the
wetlands and beaches. Although wetland
restoration in other areas has not included the oil infestation, some wetland
restoration and even enhancement may be possible. People who are employed in such restoration
and enhancement efforts would also be qualified to do the same in other parts
of the country.
This approach would mitigate at least some of the
damage to the wetlands and beaches, would provide good jobs to those negatively
affected, and would not add to the federal deficit.
Liberals Must Act to
Resist Corporate Power
Robert Kuttner says, “There has
been a lot of commentary lately contending that we have a tendency to
underestimate risk. Truly catastrophic events occur only rarely — they are
“black swans.’’ In the meantime, a lot of money can be made by betting that
disaster won’t occur, or that it will occur on somebody else’s watch.
But who, in this account, is
“we’’? In fact, plenty of voices in the wilderness were warning against the
risk of a catastrophic oil blowout, or a financial one. These critics did not
lack prescience or insight. What they
lacked was political power.
Citizens need to act more
vigorously to restore Galbraith’s countervailing power. Otherwise, private
business acting in its short run self interest will ruin us twice — once when
private markets pay no heed to the risks they are imposing, and a second time
when they corrupt our regulatory institutions.”
Here’s the Beef
President
Obama should choose President Truman’s strategy instead of President Clinton’s.
Consistent
Liberals must organize to pressure President Obama to create more far-reaching
reforms.
State and
Local
Help Gather I-1098 Signatures at UW
Commencement
Dear
Dave, I-1098 champion, Bill Gates Sr., is giving the University of Washington
commencement address to 40,000 students and their families on Saturday. Students,
their parents and thousands of other potential initiative signers will be
streaming into Husky Stadium all day. Can
you join us to gather signatures at tables like we did at the Sounders game on
Saturday?
Our public education system will be the primary beneficiary of the almost one
billion dollars of new revenue generated by Initiative 1098. What better time
to ask people to establish a more stable source of education funding? Bill Gates Senior has worked long and hard to
help bring 1098 to the voters. We need you to commit a few hours to help get
the 241,153 VALID signatures we will need to be on the November ballot
by June 25th. Since parking
will be VERY hard to come by at the graduation, we will be meeting at our field
office in Fremont (MAP)
and carpool over to the graduation with our tables and materials. Can you join us starting at 10am for the
morning shift or at 3:30 for the afternoon shift? Sign up below:
Can't make it on Saturday? How
about joining us at the Sounders game on Thursday?
We
know that with your support we will gather thousands of signatures and educate
the public on the many benefits of Initiative 1098. Thank you for your support. Kelly Evans of I=1098 Team
How
would I-1098 affect Washington’s regressive tax system?
How
would I-1098 affect the Business & Occupation tax for small businesses?
Here’s the Beef
Nation
and World
Featured Advocacy Group
---------------------------------- MoveToAmend.org ---------------------------------
MoveToAmend.org
is a project of the Campaign to Legalize Democracy. On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that
corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections
and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal
fictions. The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In
a democracy, the people rule.
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme
Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution
to:
·
Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human
beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
·
Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to
have our votes and participation count.
·
Protect local communities, their economies, and
democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global,
national, and state governments.
To learn
more about Corporate Personhood:
·
Corporate Personhood in a Nutshell
·
The Need for Constitutional Reform
·
Building a Democracy Movement
·
Reports and Commentary on
Citizens United
To
learn more about the amendments that MoveToAmend.org is promoting:
·
What is the actual
language of the amendments?
·
Are you serious
about this or is this just a petition?
·
Don't we already have the
right to vote?
·
How does corporate
rule threaten local democracy?
·
Is this a Tea Party/Communist
plot?"
·
Why
doesn't my name show up on the website after I sign the petition?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here’s the Beef
Detroit’s
TechTown is assisting new entrepreneurs to create jobs.
A five
point plan to maintain and create jobs.
Our
Liberal Spirit
The Best and Worst of Times
“It was the
best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of
hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing
before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the
other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some
of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for
evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” Charles Dickens
As indicated above,
many of our recent accomplishments - some of them historic - are far less than
what we envision. If President Obama and
many Democrats don’t understand the extent to which we must create more far
reaching reforms, we who do understand that they are needed must cooperate to
force our understanding and appropriate actions based on our understanding upon
President Obama and other Democrats. For
more.
When our freedoms and
opportunities are less than are needed, we need to cooperate to extend
them. Consistent Liberals are increasing
realizing this and organizing coalitions to act to force more reforms necessary
to providing freedoms and opportunities to Main Street Americans.
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Dave Black, 2008, Living
Off the Grid
This book is a comprehensive
guide to creating a self reliant supply of energy, water, shelter waste and
more. It provides lots of information
which is easy to read. Most efforts to
become self reliant require an initial investment. The various efforts yield varying reductions
in energy costs, such that they may or may not be a good investment. Aside from whether an effort is a good
investment, it also may varyingly reduce your carbon footprint to provide a
social benefit. I strongly recommend this
book for assisting you to understand what is involved in reducing your carbon
footprint.