Subtitle this blog “Bexar County Public Policy: of “democracy” and for the more lucid, the Koch Brothers,among the most secretive mean-spirited, hypocritical oligarchs who bring us their twisted, tortured, tormented version of reality leading to Texas Red (and well you know the rest….)”
Are there no good people in politics? Some did start out that waya. Some naively thought they might be able to make a difference, for the good. In the end survival, pride, ego and the ludicrous notion that the system just can’t survive without them take over.
The founders of this republic, troubled as they were, did have some valid ideas. Among those was a distaste for political parties.
Today political parties are “gangs by another means.” Life is that way. Just as the various components within our society form gangs (e.g. law enforcement, DEA, FBI, NSA) with those with whom they most closely ally so it is with those who seek to hold public office. In the end however, the allegiance of the office holder is misplaced. Instead of supporting those who voted for them they support the special interest---the most special being money.
That is a root cause of our “political” dysfunction.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
The Brothers Koch: Rich, Political And Playing To Win
Chances are you've never heard of Charles and David Koch. The brothers own Koch Industries, a Kansas-based conglomerate that operates oil refineries in several states and is the company behind brands including Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups, Georgia-Pacific lumber, Lycra fibers and Stainmaster carpet. Forbes ranks Koch Industries as the second-largest privately held company in the U.S. — and the Koch brothers themselves? They're worth billions.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129425186
Covert Operations
The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
Filmmaker Says Katrina No Natural Disaster
Hurricane Katrina, and the destruction it wrought, are often referred to as a natural disaster. Think again, says actor Harry Shearer. In his documentary, The Big Uneasy, Shearer says much of the destruction in New Orleans was man-made and preventable -- and largely the fault of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129451954
Carter secures release of U.S. prisoner….
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_nkorea_carter_prisoner
in my grandparent’s day “los rinches”(texas rangers) were just an institutionalized lynchmob (terrorists) some things just don’t change I guess….
State obscures elite Texas Rangers' border work
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100826/ap_on_re_us/us_ranger_recon
America the Beautiful? Texas Red; fatal and spreading
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m6d5-America-the-Beautiful-Texas-Red-fatal-and-spreading
Runaway Drone Violated Capital Airspace
DENVER (Aug. 26) -- A military drone that was supposed to be remotely controlled broke off contact with its operators and wandered into restricted airspace around the nation's capital, the military has revealed.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/miltary-says-runaway-drone-violated-capital-airspace/19610001
Corruption Tie in Afghanistan Has Echoes of CIA's Past
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/corruption-ties-in-afghanistan-echo-cias-dirty-past/19609570
CIA making secret payments to members of Karzai administration
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082606776.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Walker Report
http://walkerreport.blogspot.com/
San Antonio Politics (or not)
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics
Visit www.DontGetRolled.org to learn more!
Stewart RIPS Glenn Beck's Civil Rights Rally: 'I Have A Scheme'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/27/stewart-beck-rally-civil-rights_n_696758.html
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Bexar County Public Policy: lost jobs and maybe our way
Since September 2008 it’s estimated that as many as 18 million Americans have lost their jobs.
Since September 2008 it’s estimated that somewhere between 18 and 25 million Americans became unemployed or under-employed.
Since September 2008 it’s estimated that of the many jobs lost at least 8 million are never coming back.
Since September 2008 it’s estimated more than 1.4 million Americans have been without work for 99 months.
When people lose their jobs they also lose what little chance at influence on their elected representatives they might have had.
Even combined the collective can't keep up with the top 1%. the top 1% are worth more than the bottom 95%.
The less disposable income the less influence. Capitalists have made it so money is the mother's milk of governance. Governance is not politics. Politics is evil, misanthropic and mean-spirited on the main--- on its best terms.
This is besides the fact that the folk's watch dog, the press, is greatly curtailed in part due to the economy but mostly because of the transitioning media platforms.
It is said that the history of the American worker is a short one; farmer, laborer and now information manager.
The history of media may be even shorter. Less than six years ago every major radio station, television station and newspaper in America was in the hands of six transnational corporations. Today that is four transnational corporations. We hear what those oligarchs want us to hear, see and read. There are ways around the fact that more than 90% of all information is controlled by a few.
There are sources. You just have to know where to look. You just have to turn off the loud, bass-blasting noise.
Many of these sources are cited in this blog.
If you do look you might find a book written thirty years ago by economist Robert Reich entitled, “The Next American Frontier.” In it Reich suggested it was time for America to transition to the 21st Century. He susggested we do so by letting go old industries and embracing new ones.
New industries Reich profferred were photovoltaics, robotics and technology (computers). We didn’t listen. Others were listening and are doing quite well.
“We're never "prophet in our own land” I suppose.
Ours is a most unmendable misfortune.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
The Washington Independent's Annie Lowrey on unemployment and the web - 'The 99ers'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ElbJ5AkO_I
Katrina: Five Years Later, poor, African-American, disenfranchised and up the sh-t creek without a paddle….
Law and Disorder
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/law-disorder/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist
After Katrina, New Orleans Cops Were Told They Could Shoot Looters
http://www.propublica.org/nola
Hitler Jewish? DNA Tests Show Dictator May Have 'Had Jewish And African Roots'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/25/hitler-jewish-dna-tests-s_n_693568.html
Finding a Bridge Over the Void
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/jobs/15search.html
The Next American Frontier
http://www.amazon.com/Next-American-Frontier-Robert-Reich/dp/0812910672
Spike Lee's If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise Review
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-alexander/spike-lees-if-god-is-will_b_690865.html
Spike Lee's 'If God Is Willing:' New Orleans After Katrina -- and After BP
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/05/spike-lees-if-god-is-willing-new-orleans-after-katrina-an/
The Next American Frontier
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/37532/william-diebold-jr/the-next-american-frontier
Bexar County: Public Policy; of drones, big brother and the ever growing police state America
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/08/public-policy-of-drones-big-brother-and.html
Where’s “w?” the best at being worst
How 'Worst President' Ended Up on Coin
http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/new-1-james-buchanan-coin-a-lightning-rod-for-program-critics/19600985?icid=mainhtmlws-main-wdl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fsurge-desk%2Farticle%2Fnew-1-james-buchanan-coin-a-lightning-rod-for-program-critics%2F19600985
As GOP civil war rages, Democrats look to benefit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_republican_fight
Wal-Mart Stores appeals sex discrimination case
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_walmart_appeal
Since September 2008 it’s estimated that somewhere between 18 and 25 million Americans became unemployed or under-employed.
Since September 2008 it’s estimated that of the many jobs lost at least 8 million are never coming back.
Since September 2008 it’s estimated more than 1.4 million Americans have been without work for 99 months.
When people lose their jobs they also lose what little chance at influence on their elected representatives they might have had.
Even combined the collective can't keep up with the top 1%. the top 1% are worth more than the bottom 95%.
The less disposable income the less influence. Capitalists have made it so money is the mother's milk of governance. Governance is not politics. Politics is evil, misanthropic and mean-spirited on the main--- on its best terms.
This is besides the fact that the folk's watch dog, the press, is greatly curtailed in part due to the economy but mostly because of the transitioning media platforms.
It is said that the history of the American worker is a short one; farmer, laborer and now information manager.
The history of media may be even shorter. Less than six years ago every major radio station, television station and newspaper in America was in the hands of six transnational corporations. Today that is four transnational corporations. We hear what those oligarchs want us to hear, see and read. There are ways around the fact that more than 90% of all information is controlled by a few.
There are sources. You just have to know where to look. You just have to turn off the loud, bass-blasting noise.
Many of these sources are cited in this blog.
If you do look you might find a book written thirty years ago by economist Robert Reich entitled, “The Next American Frontier.” In it Reich suggested it was time for America to transition to the 21st Century. He susggested we do so by letting go old industries and embracing new ones.
New industries Reich profferred were photovoltaics, robotics and technology (computers). We didn’t listen. Others were listening and are doing quite well.
“We're never "prophet in our own land” I suppose.
Ours is a most unmendable misfortune.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
The Washington Independent's Annie Lowrey on unemployment and the web - 'The 99ers'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ElbJ5AkO_I
Katrina: Five Years Later, poor, African-American, disenfranchised and up the sh-t creek without a paddle….
Law and Disorder
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/law-disorder/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist
After Katrina, New Orleans Cops Were Told They Could Shoot Looters
http://www.propublica.org/nola
Hitler Jewish? DNA Tests Show Dictator May Have 'Had Jewish And African Roots'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/25/hitler-jewish-dna-tests-s_n_693568.html
Finding a Bridge Over the Void
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/jobs/15search.html
The Next American Frontier
http://www.amazon.com/Next-American-Frontier-Robert-Reich/dp/0812910672
Spike Lee's If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise Review
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-alexander/spike-lees-if-god-is-will_b_690865.html
Spike Lee's 'If God Is Willing:' New Orleans After Katrina -- and After BP
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/05/spike-lees-if-god-is-willing-new-orleans-after-katrina-an/
The Next American Frontier
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/37532/william-diebold-jr/the-next-american-frontier
Bexar County: Public Policy; of drones, big brother and the ever growing police state America
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/08/public-policy-of-drones-big-brother-and.html
Where’s “w?” the best at being worst
How 'Worst President' Ended Up on Coin
http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/new-1-james-buchanan-coin-a-lightning-rod-for-program-critics/19600985?icid=mainhtmlws-main-wdl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fsurge-desk%2Farticle%2Fnew-1-james-buchanan-coin-a-lightning-rod-for-program-critics%2F19600985
As GOP civil war rages, Democrats look to benefit
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_republican_fight
Wal-Mart Stores appeals sex discrimination case
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/us_walmart_appeal
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Elections 2010 “Mid-Term Madness*”
“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” It was true when Bob Dylan penned the words and in our election process it is always true---and yes, you may quote me on that.
If you ever wondered but just couldn’t quite figure out why it was the founders, even being the revolutionary-insurgent, counter-culture, non-conformist, malcontents that they were didn’t stand up a democracy the following should make it abundantly obvious.
Conditioning the folk Pavlov-style is much too easy. The wholly trinity is evidence of that. The kicker is that the bootlickers who “win” election---more accurately “buy” election to office are put there to make certain the myth of “democracy” and more importantly the status quo favoring the wholly trinity are kept firmly in place.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Mid-Term Madness
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/24/2010-primary-results-ariz_n_692146.html
8 to battle for 3 BexarMet board seats
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/8_to_battle_for_3_bexarmet_board_seats_101448079.html
the first amendment be damned, I suppose….
"Ground Zero Mosque" Foes Bankrolled By Feds
The leaders of a religious freedom commission solely financed by the US government say moderate Muslims are not free to build an Islamic center in New York.
— By Nick Baumann and David Corn
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/commission-international-religious-freedom-ground-zero-mosque
Current Texas 2010 November Election Candidates List Bexar County
http://mysapolitics.com/election.php/2010/06/08/current-election-candidates-list-2010
America the Beautiful? Texas Red; fatal and spreading
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m6d5-America-the-Beautiful-Texas-Red-fatal-and-spreading
The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/rubio-wins-fl-gop-senate-primary/midterm-madness/?cid=hp:mainpromo1
Bexar County: Elections 2010 Another election, Tea Party notwithstanding, just more bootlickers
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-elections-2010-another-election-tea-party-notwithstanding-just-more-bootlickers
aren’t there bigger problems? really. why are my tax dollars funding the moraity police? really.
San Antonio's Southside continues to battle prostitution
http://www.kens5.com/news/local/San-Antonios-South-Side--101443739.html
AP: Billionaire Rick Scott Beats Bill McCollum In Florida GOP Gov Primary
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/billionaire-rick-scott-beats-bill-mccollum-in-florida.php?ref=fpa
NOPD Cops Got Orders Authorizing Shooting of Looters
http://www.propublica.org/nola
aren’t there bigger prolems? really. should my tax dollars be funding the morality police?
Police Monitoring Sale, Use Of Synthetic Marijuana
http://www.ksat.com/news/24748768/detail.html
hey why not? he survived the 80’s savings & loan scandal didn’t he?
McCain wins GOP nomination for Senate in Arizona
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sectionfronts/politics/index.html?hpid=topnews
with money and name recognition all things are possible. who needs to know anything?
Political News Alert: Ben Quayle gets GOP nod for Arizona’s 3rd District
http://www.washingtonpost.com/?wpisrc=nl_polalert
Alaska GOP Sen. Murkowski in jeopardy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100825/ap_on_el_ge/us_primary_rdp
back-doors are good
Illegal Immigration Foes Say Memo Hints at Back-Door Amnesty Plan
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/24/illegal-immigration-foes-say-memo-hints-at-back-door-amnesty-pla/
Walker Report
http://walkerreport.blogspot.com/2010/08/walker-report-shy-4000-hits-from-34.html
Bob Dylan
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=bob+dylan+%2B+the+more+things+change&ih=20_7_4_3_0_0_1_0_0_1.12_126&fsc=-1
If you ever wondered but just couldn’t quite figure out why it was the founders, even being the revolutionary-insurgent, counter-culture, non-conformist, malcontents that they were didn’t stand up a democracy the following should make it abundantly obvious.
Conditioning the folk Pavlov-style is much too easy. The wholly trinity is evidence of that. The kicker is that the bootlickers who “win” election---more accurately “buy” election to office are put there to make certain the myth of “democracy” and more importantly the status quo favoring the wholly trinity are kept firmly in place.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Mid-Term Madness
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/24/2010-primary-results-ariz_n_692146.html
8 to battle for 3 BexarMet board seats
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/8_to_battle_for_3_bexarmet_board_seats_101448079.html
the first amendment be damned, I suppose….
"Ground Zero Mosque" Foes Bankrolled By Feds
The leaders of a religious freedom commission solely financed by the US government say moderate Muslims are not free to build an Islamic center in New York.
— By Nick Baumann and David Corn
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/08/commission-international-religious-freedom-ground-zero-mosque
Current Texas 2010 November Election Candidates List Bexar County
http://mysapolitics.com/election.php/2010/06/08/current-election-candidates-list-2010
America the Beautiful? Texas Red; fatal and spreading
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m6d5-America-the-Beautiful-Texas-Red-fatal-and-spreading
The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/rubio-wins-fl-gop-senate-primary/midterm-madness/?cid=hp:mainpromo1
Bexar County: Elections 2010 Another election, Tea Party notwithstanding, just more bootlickers
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-elections-2010-another-election-tea-party-notwithstanding-just-more-bootlickers
aren’t there bigger problems? really. why are my tax dollars funding the moraity police? really.
San Antonio's Southside continues to battle prostitution
http://www.kens5.com/news/local/San-Antonios-South-Side--101443739.html
AP: Billionaire Rick Scott Beats Bill McCollum In Florida GOP Gov Primary
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/08/billionaire-rick-scott-beats-bill-mccollum-in-florida.php?ref=fpa
NOPD Cops Got Orders Authorizing Shooting of Looters
http://www.propublica.org/nola
aren’t there bigger prolems? really. should my tax dollars be funding the morality police?
Police Monitoring Sale, Use Of Synthetic Marijuana
http://www.ksat.com/news/24748768/detail.html
hey why not? he survived the 80’s savings & loan scandal didn’t he?
McCain wins GOP nomination for Senate in Arizona
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sectionfronts/politics/index.html?hpid=topnews
with money and name recognition all things are possible. who needs to know anything?
Political News Alert: Ben Quayle gets GOP nod for Arizona’s 3rd District
http://www.washingtonpost.com/?wpisrc=nl_polalert
Alaska GOP Sen. Murkowski in jeopardy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100825/ap_on_el_ge/us_primary_rdp
back-doors are good
Illegal Immigration Foes Say Memo Hints at Back-Door Amnesty Plan
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/24/illegal-immigration-foes-say-memo-hints-at-back-door-amnesty-pla/
Walker Report
http://walkerreport.blogspot.com/2010/08/walker-report-shy-4000-hits-from-34.html
Bob Dylan
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=bob+dylan+%2B+the+more+things+change&ih=20_7_4_3_0_0_1_0_0_1.12_126&fsc=-1
Monday, August 23, 2010
Public Policy; of drones, big brother and the ever growing police state America
Years ago as a young commissioned officer I stated to my boss that as a student of history I had become aware of America as a Euro Anglo nation not just as policeman for the world but as policeman for the oligarchy regardless of national boundaries, political philosophy or international alliance.
Needless to say my boss was alarmed---to say the least. He lectured me about serving the “greater good.”
The “greater good” I summized is Euro Anglo-speak for “the lord’s work.” The “lord” being either a person’s ideal creator or the boss or depending on personal views maybe both. No? That brings us back to my original assessment doesn’t it?
Many, many years later I am more convinced than ever of the correctness of my assessment. Even a glance at the headlines shouts it with a vengeance.
The wealthy have ever used those it oppresses to guard its back. The concept is integral to the very existence of the members of the wholly trinity; government, big business and organized religion.
The story of the Scarlet Pimpernel is the perfect example of my belief. I long ago knocked off that creep as but a snitch for the oligarchs.
Speaking of snitch lapdogs and there are many…
No doubt you’ve noticed our public policy of taxing the poor into greater poverty at all levels while awarding more and greater tax breaks and credits to corporations.
No doubt you’ve noticed that hard-earned pensions have mostly disappeared even as the CEO’s of those companies we subsidized two years ago earn millions in bonuses.
You’ve seen the vindictive and anachronistic policy of punishing Cuba while bestowing “favored nation” status on China for the same sin?
No doubt you’ve noticed that with the exception of the border shared with Mexico port cities, international entrance points and the three-thousand mile border with Canada are not lined with Border Patrol agents, drones or other law enforcement. Racist! The dickens you say?
None of this is new. In a Playboy interview in July 1978 William Colby, then head of the CIA, was asked what the greatest threat facing America was (at that time). Colby’s response may surprise many since in 1979 we were locked in the Cold War with the Soviet Union and wary of China---Colby’s response, “Latin America and in particular Mexico.” Adding, “We don’t have enough bullets to stop them all.”
The greater good indeed.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
no not the longest border …….shades of Terminator, 1984 and Brave New World…
House approves more agents, drones on border
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/10/house-approves-more-agents-drones-border/
Drones, agents to increase
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/dronesagents_toincrease_101276819.html
What Is the FBI Doing with Racial and Ethnic Data?
The FBI has been collecting race and ethnicity data in Texas. For what purpose? That's what the ACLU of Texas aims to find out, but already there is cause for alarm.
According to a 2008 FBI operations guide, FBI agents have the authority to collect information about and map so-called "ethnic-oriented" businesses, behaviors, lifestyle characteristics and cultural traditions in communities with concentrated ethnic populations. The FBI’s attempt to collect and map demographic data using race-based criteria for targeting purposes invites unconstitutional racial profiling by law enforcement.
The ACLU of Texas has joined ACLU affiliates in other states to submit Freedom of Information Act requests to the FBI, asking the agency to turn over records related to its collection and use of race and ethnicity data in Texas communities
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Rafcv9gTU
Limited spiritual support in Virginia prisons as number of Muslim inmates grows
“He made his way to the prison's chapel, where murals of the "Last Supper" and the Crucifixion were concealed by light-blue bedsheets. He'd come here, as he does twice a month, to lead Friday prayer services for more than 40 Muslim inmates, many of them converts, and try to moderate their embrace of a new and unfamiliar faith…
The role the Muslim chaplains play is crucial, because prisons can be a breeding ground for Islamic extremism, said Asghar Goraya, executive director of Muslim Chaplain Services of Virginia.
But the relationship between the Virginia Department of Corrections and minority faith leaders has long been mired in one of the state's most glaring anachronisms.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/21/AR2010082101325.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Bexar County Public Policy: Americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/08/bexar-county-public-policy-americans-so.html
Bexar County: Public Policy: term limits; auto-pilot governance
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/08/bexar-county-public-policy-term-limits.html
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-public-policy-term-limits-auto-pilot-governance
armed combat drones to target terrorists and insurgents (and americans, too) because we say so.....shades of Dark Ages Europe and England and the folk support it---terminator redux
Will Video Games Help Air Force Recruit Drone Pilots?
The U.S. military is increasingly using armed combat drones to target terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan. remotely piloted aircraft, or RPA -- known as drones in popular parlance -- are unmanned, but the Air Force still needs pilots to direct them from a remote base.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/air-force-working-on-video-game-to-recruit-drone-pilots/19600804
Politics: Afternoon Edition: Election losses file down Palin's 'mama grizzly'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/palin_tracker/?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
France begins Roma expulsions
France has begun deporting hundreds of Roma travellers to Romania and Bulgaria, in a move that critics fear could spark racism and further discrimination against a vulnerable community.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/201081984627757575.html
Stephen Colbert vs Ayn Rand?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-tIY99QFFk&p=FCB52A4E087F52C1&playnext=1&index=52
Bexar County Elections 2010: transparency in the political arena?
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/public-policy-transparency-the-political-arena-is-an-oxymoron-at-best
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Accused of Rape
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-charged-with-rape-in-sweden/19602911?icid=main
htmlws-main-
wdl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fwikileaks-founder-julian-assange-charged-with-rape-in-sweden%2F19602911
Sweden withdraws warrant for WikiLeaks founder
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100821/ap_on_hi_te/eu_sweden_wikileaks
WikiLeaks founder says rape claim is 'dirty tricks'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100821/ts_afp/swedencrimeintelligenceinternetwikileaks
What Is the FBI Doing with Racial and Ethnic Data?
ACLU Seeks FBI Records
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Rafcv9gTU
How Kids Really Learn
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/08/testing-kids-testing-teachers
William Colby
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Colby
Needless to say my boss was alarmed---to say the least. He lectured me about serving the “greater good.”
The “greater good” I summized is Euro Anglo-speak for “the lord’s work.” The “lord” being either a person’s ideal creator or the boss or depending on personal views maybe both. No? That brings us back to my original assessment doesn’t it?
Many, many years later I am more convinced than ever of the correctness of my assessment. Even a glance at the headlines shouts it with a vengeance.
The wealthy have ever used those it oppresses to guard its back. The concept is integral to the very existence of the members of the wholly trinity; government, big business and organized religion.
The story of the Scarlet Pimpernel is the perfect example of my belief. I long ago knocked off that creep as but a snitch for the oligarchs.
Speaking of snitch lapdogs and there are many…
No doubt you’ve noticed our public policy of taxing the poor into greater poverty at all levels while awarding more and greater tax breaks and credits to corporations.
No doubt you’ve noticed that hard-earned pensions have mostly disappeared even as the CEO’s of those companies we subsidized two years ago earn millions in bonuses.
You’ve seen the vindictive and anachronistic policy of punishing Cuba while bestowing “favored nation” status on China for the same sin?
No doubt you’ve noticed that with the exception of the border shared with Mexico port cities, international entrance points and the three-thousand mile border with Canada are not lined with Border Patrol agents, drones or other law enforcement. Racist! The dickens you say?
None of this is new. In a Playboy interview in July 1978 William Colby, then head of the CIA, was asked what the greatest threat facing America was (at that time). Colby’s response may surprise many since in 1979 we were locked in the Cold War with the Soviet Union and wary of China---Colby’s response, “Latin America and in particular Mexico.” Adding, “We don’t have enough bullets to stop them all.”
The greater good indeed.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
no not the longest border …….shades of Terminator, 1984 and Brave New World…
House approves more agents, drones on border
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/10/house-approves-more-agents-drones-border/
Drones, agents to increase
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/dronesagents_toincrease_101276819.html
What Is the FBI Doing with Racial and Ethnic Data?
The FBI has been collecting race and ethnicity data in Texas. For what purpose? That's what the ACLU of Texas aims to find out, but already there is cause for alarm.
According to a 2008 FBI operations guide, FBI agents have the authority to collect information about and map so-called "ethnic-oriented" businesses, behaviors, lifestyle characteristics and cultural traditions in communities with concentrated ethnic populations. The FBI’s attempt to collect and map demographic data using race-based criteria for targeting purposes invites unconstitutional racial profiling by law enforcement.
The ACLU of Texas has joined ACLU affiliates in other states to submit Freedom of Information Act requests to the FBI, asking the agency to turn over records related to its collection and use of race and ethnicity data in Texas communities
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Rafcv9gTU
Limited spiritual support in Virginia prisons as number of Muslim inmates grows
“He made his way to the prison's chapel, where murals of the "Last Supper" and the Crucifixion were concealed by light-blue bedsheets. He'd come here, as he does twice a month, to lead Friday prayer services for more than 40 Muslim inmates, many of them converts, and try to moderate their embrace of a new and unfamiliar faith…
The role the Muslim chaplains play is crucial, because prisons can be a breeding ground for Islamic extremism, said Asghar Goraya, executive director of Muslim Chaplain Services of Virginia.
But the relationship between the Virginia Department of Corrections and minority faith leaders has long been mired in one of the state's most glaring anachronisms.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/21/AR2010082101325.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Bexar County Public Policy: Americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/08/bexar-county-public-policy-americans-so.html
Bexar County: Public Policy: term limits; auto-pilot governance
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/08/bexar-county-public-policy-term-limits.html
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-public-policy-term-limits-auto-pilot-governance
armed combat drones to target terrorists and insurgents (and americans, too) because we say so.....shades of Dark Ages Europe and England and the folk support it---terminator redux
Will Video Games Help Air Force Recruit Drone Pilots?
The U.S. military is increasingly using armed combat drones to target terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan. remotely piloted aircraft, or RPA -- known as drones in popular parlance -- are unmanned, but the Air Force still needs pilots to direct them from a remote base.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/air-force-working-on-video-game-to-recruit-drone-pilots/19600804
Politics: Afternoon Edition: Election losses file down Palin's 'mama grizzly'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/palin_tracker/?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
France begins Roma expulsions
France has begun deporting hundreds of Roma travellers to Romania and Bulgaria, in a move that critics fear could spark racism and further discrimination against a vulnerable community.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/201081984627757575.html
Stephen Colbert vs Ayn Rand?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-tIY99QFFk&p=FCB52A4E087F52C1&playnext=1&index=52
Bexar County Elections 2010: transparency in the political arena?
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/public-policy-transparency-the-political-arena-is-an-oxymoron-at-best
WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Accused of Rape
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-charged-with-rape-in-sweden/19602911?icid=main
htmlws-main-
wdl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fwikileaks-founder-julian-assange-charged-with-rape-in-sweden%2F19602911
Sweden withdraws warrant for WikiLeaks founder
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100821/ap_on_hi_te/eu_sweden_wikileaks
WikiLeaks founder says rape claim is 'dirty tricks'
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100821/ts_afp/swedencrimeintelligenceinternetwikileaks
What Is the FBI Doing with Racial and Ethnic Data?
ACLU Seeks FBI Records
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4Rafcv9gTU
How Kids Really Learn
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/08/testing-kids-testing-teachers
William Colby
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Colby
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Bexar County: Public Policy: term limits; auto-pilot governance
Recently I was asked by a close family member it is that the notion, the concept of “term limits” seems to be rejected repeatedly.
Just the notion of “term limits” rankles me. Notwithstanding, the folk seem to really take to the non-sensical concept.
There is no need for term limits.
Every election provides a real opportunity to limit any office-holder's term of office. Every election provides a real opportunity to limit any office-holder's term of office. Every election is and should be a form of participatory "term limits."
If voters keep re-electing an officer holder then they have only themselves to blame.
If you limit the number of times an office holder can hold office (term limits) then the real office holder becomes the civilian staff that works in that office.
Every senator, congressman, city coucilman, mayor, governor and etc has a civilian (civil service-type) staff. Those people don't go anywhere. They are there unless they quit, retire or get fired. They are the denizens of “government.”
These denizens should be a good thing---corporate knowledge, institutional memory---but not necessarily so. Often they are just ticks who know the dog that feeds them. No more, no less.
The elected "officicals" known as officer holders depend on them to show them where things are---like the bathroom and etc.
When voters (armed with little more than bias, emotion and anger) vote for term limits the voters are putting those civilians in charge basically oh and those civilians don't run for office---they are beyond the reach of the voter. There’s scant little, if anything, you can do about them.
The longer those non-elected civilians have been in place the more they know. No, not to help you---to survive. Think of them as vampires who have lived across the centuries and about as impossible to get rid of.
It is impossible to have a viable republic, democracy or democratic republic when the constituency (the voters) are completely unschooled, unaware, and almost completely ignorant of their own sytem.
The oligarchs count on this. That's why the rich want the states to own the education system. The elite, the movers and shakers control public education. Your children and you only learn what the system allows.
Our public education system is an "apartheid" public education system. That's the reason why in Texas more youing people go to prison than go to college. Less competition for the rich guys and more money for the owners of the state's prison-industrial complex.
In Texas guilt is not a requirement for being sent to prison---. the system usually fabricates that. While it is not a requirement that you be African-American, Mexican or Mexican-American or poor white (European Anglo) it is an indicator of being on the one-way, fast track to the prison-industrial complex.
So the mix that is left over, the residual population as it were, is who votes and those voters seem always put upon by the fact that it’s necessary to vote.
Instead what these residual voters would prefer is “term limits.” That cancels out the old “politician” without the voter having to do anything. It’s kind of like auto-pilot for our governance.
The problem with that is that when we don’t pay attention because the office holder is term limited the same person in a different body is in charge---usually put there by the special interests.
Auto-pilot like term limits doesn’t work for what was designed as a participatory form of governance. Hence we have Benjamin Franklin’s admonition on being asked what the Constitutional Convention had mid-wived: “A republic; if you can keep it.”
Hasta Siempre,
More:
because in the Lone Star State---face it--- guilt is just not a requirement—we just have to feed the monster.....
A Bloody Injustice
Warren Horinek was a vicious drunk with a history of threatening his wife. But his conviction for murdering her was based on junk science--like thousands of others
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/a-bloody-injustice
Republican Inception
Congressman Louie Gohmert and State Rep. Debbie Riddle:
Extreme Texans, Mainstream Republicans
http://www.lonestarproject.net/Permalink/2010-08-19.html
call this one reason the European Anglo is so Hispanic---mostly Mexican threatened, frightened….
Palomarez: Hispanic consumers drive U.S. economy
The purchasing power of Hispanic consumers now is expected to grow 38 percent between 2006 and 2012. Forty-seven percent of the purchasing power is concentrated in Texas and California, Palomarez said.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/local/palomarez_hispanic_consumers_drive_us_economy_101026909.html?showFullArticle=y
Jon Stewart Slams Fox News For Giving $1 Million to the Republican Party (VIDEO)
http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/08/19/jon-stewart-attacks-fox-news-for-giving-1-million-to-the-re/?icid=mainhtmlws-main-wdl7link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tvsquad.com%2F2010%2F08%2F19%2Fjon-stewart-attacks-fox-news-for-giving-1-million-to-the-re%2F
Kennedy favors civilian courts in terrorism cases
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_on_re_us/us_judicial_conference_kennedy
Ummm, About That Disappearing Oil? eh---not so much.....
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/08/govt-spill-report-under-fire
AFL-CIO: Stronger Financial Reform Would Have Saved Jobs
http://baselinescenario.com/2010/08/19/afl-cio-stronger-financial-reform-would-have-saved-jobs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BaselineScenario+%28The+Baseline+Scenario%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail
when those we are told by the authorities (oligarchs) are the bad guys are just individuals
Global police state: U.S. policeman for the oligarchs
Afghan insurgent leader captured; US troop killed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan
Authorities: Ariz. escapee caught at campground
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_on_re_us/us_inmate_escape
Judge Walker Is Gay. Are You Sure? Does It Matter?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129092082&sc=fb&cc=fp
armed combat drones to target terrorists and insurgents (and americans, too) because we say so.....shades of Dark Ages Europe and England and the folk support it---terminator redux
Will Video Games Help Air Force Recruit Drone Pilots?
The U.S. military is increasingly using armed combat drones to target terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan. remotely piloted aircraft, or RPA -- known as drones in popular parlance -- are unmanned, but the Air Force still needs pilots to direct them from a remote base.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/air-force-working-on-video-game-to-recruit-drone-pilots/19600804
Politics: Afternoon Edition: Election losses file down Palin's 'mama grizzly'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/palin_tracker/?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
France begins Roma expulsions
France has begun deporting hundreds of Roma travellers to Romania and Bulgaria, in a move that critics fear could spark racism and further discrimination against a vulnerable community.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/201081984627757575.html
Stephen Colbert vs Ayn Rand?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-tIY99QFFk&p=FCB52A4E087F52C1&playnext=1&index=52
Just the notion of “term limits” rankles me. Notwithstanding, the folk seem to really take to the non-sensical concept.
There is no need for term limits.
Every election provides a real opportunity to limit any office-holder's term of office. Every election provides a real opportunity to limit any office-holder's term of office. Every election is and should be a form of participatory "term limits."
If voters keep re-electing an officer holder then they have only themselves to blame.
If you limit the number of times an office holder can hold office (term limits) then the real office holder becomes the civilian staff that works in that office.
Every senator, congressman, city coucilman, mayor, governor and etc has a civilian (civil service-type) staff. Those people don't go anywhere. They are there unless they quit, retire or get fired. They are the denizens of “government.”
These denizens should be a good thing---corporate knowledge, institutional memory---but not necessarily so. Often they are just ticks who know the dog that feeds them. No more, no less.
The elected "officicals" known as officer holders depend on them to show them where things are---like the bathroom and etc.
When voters (armed with little more than bias, emotion and anger) vote for term limits the voters are putting those civilians in charge basically oh and those civilians don't run for office---they are beyond the reach of the voter. There’s scant little, if anything, you can do about them.
The longer those non-elected civilians have been in place the more they know. No, not to help you---to survive. Think of them as vampires who have lived across the centuries and about as impossible to get rid of.
It is impossible to have a viable republic, democracy or democratic republic when the constituency (the voters) are completely unschooled, unaware, and almost completely ignorant of their own sytem.
The oligarchs count on this. That's why the rich want the states to own the education system. The elite, the movers and shakers control public education. Your children and you only learn what the system allows.
Our public education system is an "apartheid" public education system. That's the reason why in Texas more youing people go to prison than go to college. Less competition for the rich guys and more money for the owners of the state's prison-industrial complex.
In Texas guilt is not a requirement for being sent to prison---. the system usually fabricates that. While it is not a requirement that you be African-American, Mexican or Mexican-American or poor white (European Anglo) it is an indicator of being on the one-way, fast track to the prison-industrial complex.
So the mix that is left over, the residual population as it were, is who votes and those voters seem always put upon by the fact that it’s necessary to vote.
Instead what these residual voters would prefer is “term limits.” That cancels out the old “politician” without the voter having to do anything. It’s kind of like auto-pilot for our governance.
The problem with that is that when we don’t pay attention because the office holder is term limited the same person in a different body is in charge---usually put there by the special interests.
Auto-pilot like term limits doesn’t work for what was designed as a participatory form of governance. Hence we have Benjamin Franklin’s admonition on being asked what the Constitutional Convention had mid-wived: “A republic; if you can keep it.”
Hasta Siempre,
More:
because in the Lone Star State---face it--- guilt is just not a requirement—we just have to feed the monster.....
A Bloody Injustice
Warren Horinek was a vicious drunk with a history of threatening his wife. But his conviction for murdering her was based on junk science--like thousands of others
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/a-bloody-injustice
Republican Inception
Congressman Louie Gohmert and State Rep. Debbie Riddle:
Extreme Texans, Mainstream Republicans
http://www.lonestarproject.net/Permalink/2010-08-19.html
call this one reason the European Anglo is so Hispanic---mostly Mexican threatened, frightened….
Palomarez: Hispanic consumers drive U.S. economy
The purchasing power of Hispanic consumers now is expected to grow 38 percent between 2006 and 2012. Forty-seven percent of the purchasing power is concentrated in Texas and California, Palomarez said.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/local/palomarez_hispanic_consumers_drive_us_economy_101026909.html?showFullArticle=y
Jon Stewart Slams Fox News For Giving $1 Million to the Republican Party (VIDEO)
http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/08/19/jon-stewart-attacks-fox-news-for-giving-1-million-to-the-re/?icid=mainhtmlws-main-wdl7link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tvsquad.com%2F2010%2F08%2F19%2Fjon-stewart-attacks-fox-news-for-giving-1-million-to-the-re%2F
Kennedy favors civilian courts in terrorism cases
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_on_re_us/us_judicial_conference_kennedy
Ummm, About That Disappearing Oil? eh---not so much.....
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/08/govt-spill-report-under-fire
AFL-CIO: Stronger Financial Reform Would Have Saved Jobs
http://baselinescenario.com/2010/08/19/afl-cio-stronger-financial-reform-would-have-saved-jobs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BaselineScenario+%28The+Baseline+Scenario%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail
when those we are told by the authorities (oligarchs) are the bad guys are just individuals
Global police state: U.S. policeman for the oligarchs
Afghan insurgent leader captured; US troop killed
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan
Authorities: Ariz. escapee caught at campground
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_on_re_us/us_inmate_escape
Judge Walker Is Gay. Are You Sure? Does It Matter?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129092082&sc=fb&cc=fp
armed combat drones to target terrorists and insurgents (and americans, too) because we say so.....shades of Dark Ages Europe and England and the folk support it---terminator redux
Will Video Games Help Air Force Recruit Drone Pilots?
The U.S. military is increasingly using armed combat drones to target terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan. remotely piloted aircraft, or RPA -- known as drones in popular parlance -- are unmanned, but the Air Force still needs pilots to direct them from a remote base.
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/air-force-working-on-video-game-to-recruit-drone-pilots/19600804
Politics: Afternoon Edition: Election losses file down Palin's 'mama grizzly'
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/palin_tracker/?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics
France begins Roma expulsions
France has begun deporting hundreds of Roma travellers to Romania and Bulgaria, in a move that critics fear could spark racism and further discrimination against a vulnerable community.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/201081984627757575.html
Stephen Colbert vs Ayn Rand?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-tIY99QFFk&p=FCB52A4E087F52C1&playnext=1&index=52
Bexar County Elections 2010: transparency in the political arena?
There are few “truths” in life---and maybe that’s for the best. Most people can’t handle the truth. Others probably wouldn’t recognize it.
The folk clamor for “transparency” from its office holders. In truth if there was any “transparency” the folk would “throw the bum out!” That is as American as cherry pie.
The foregoing notwithstanding, the drama, the theater of the absurd we call politics and public policy---a euphemism for “majority rule” feared and loathed by the founders fast approaches. The process keeps people busy, distracted and lulled into thinking that anything they do, think, blog or say is going to make one good goddam bit of difference. It won’t.
Elections merely change out one set of narcissistic set of opportunists for another.
DA Facing a Serious Election Foe
http://www.nicoforda.com/blog/2010/07/11/da-facing-a-serious-election-foe/
Political/Social Calendar:
• August 20th-22nd- Texas Annual Sales Tax-Free Holiday Weekend-Texas shoppers get a break from state and local sales tax on items of clothing, footwear, and backpacks priced less than $100. This year school supplies are included. Contact Comptroller Susan Combs at 800-252-5555 or www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/
• August 22nd- 8-9:30 a.m. @ Crossroads Baptist morning worship services, 8300 Tezel Road. Come hear Gold Medalist Josh Davis' testimony and see his medals. We will be recognizing all school teachers with a special gift as well! Invite your friends!
• August 26th-Birthday Party & fundraiser for Judge JoAnn DeHoyos, from 5:30-10 p.m. @ Pueblo Hall, 3315 Northwestern. (behind Ingram Park Mall)
http://walkerreport.blogspot.com/2010/07/l-r-judicial-nominee-dinorah-diaz-meet.html
Top cover big time---who is this Teflon exterminator’s sponsor? I’ve seen this over and over both in the military and in civil sector…
Justice DeLayed, Again (And Again)
Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), responds to the news:
It’s a sad day for America when one of the most corrupt members to ever walk the halls of Congress gets a free pass. As we continue the work of building a Washington that is worthy of the American people, the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Mr. DeLay for his actions sends exactly the wrong message to current and future members. The fact that Jack Abramoff and Bob Ney (R-OH) are the only two people who went to prison for one of the worst corruption scandals in congressional history is shocking. The Hammer belongs in the slammer. Mr. DeLay still has crimes to answer for in Texas—generally not considered the best place to be a criminal defendant.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/justice-delayed-again-and-again
Politics is to the philosophy of governance what religion is to the philosophy of spirituality.
Politics (from Greek πολιτικος, [politikós]: «citizen», «civilian»), is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in other group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power"[1] and refers to the regulation of a political unit,[2] and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics
Viewed in its most favorable condition politics is “’majority” rule. Today the word has taken on a connotation of “the games people play.” And of course, it is.
“Many of America's Founding Fathers hated the thought of political parties, quarreling "factions" they were sure would be more interested in contending with each other than in working for the common good. They wanted individual citizens to vote for individual candidates, without the interference of organized groups — but this was not to be.”
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/outusgov/parties.htm
So it is with little more than a wry sense of humor that I listen to demagogues posturing, pandering and postulating on the notion of “transparency.” The idea that someone who has made a career out of working the majority up into a frenzy with the single intent of having them vote from a reactive emotional state of being that benefits the careerist office holder and promotes a particular point of view---usually having a very agenda-laden intent---(this is known as demagoguery)---rather than from the well thought choice from among possible objective, responsible responses is silly at best.
This is one more reason why it is that in a plurality, i.e. majority rule world those who are different from the average suffer at the hands of the tyrant majority average and are almost always rendered voiceless. It is an unmendable misfortune---one that those coming to the voting process but only once in awhile to vote will never comprehend---much to the chagrin and well being of the nation.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Elections 2010 Mid-term elections, the predicament and the folk
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-34693-Bexar-County-Elections-2010-Examiner~y2010m7d28-Bexar-County-Elections-2010-Midterm-elections-the-predicament-and-the-folk
The first Tuesday in November of even numbered years brings us general elections, scandals and scoundrels.
Joe Driver one of many GOP officials caught in scandal
http://www.lonestarproject.net/
Bexar County Dems open Headquarters on Broadway
http://prop-w-a-mtc02.evip.aol.com/story/2010/08/10/bexar-county-dems-open-headquarters-on-broadway/
Bexar County inmates may lack mental health assessments
http://news.yahoo.com/video/sanantoniokens5tv-15749667/bexar-county-inmates-may-lack-mental-health-assessments-21173918
Protesters rallied at the Alamo against election corruption
http://www.kens5.com/news/local/Protestors-rallied-at-the-Alamo-against-election-corruption--100434459.html
Poll: Language a barrier for Latinos in schools
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100805/ap_on_go_ot/us_ap_univision_poll_hispanics_language_barriers
U.S. steps up fingerprint program along border, in other areas
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/10/AR2010081006218.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Data Show Stimulus Isn't Reaching the Nation's Neediest Counties and States
Stimulus Spending Fails to Follow Unemployment, Poverty
http://www.propublica.org/article/stimulus-spending-fails-to-follow-unemployment-poverty-805
The Bush Tax Cuts and Fiscal Responsibility
What do matter are taxes and entitlements. Therefore, the coming battle over the Bush tax cuts is of real importance. According to the Congressional Budget Office, extending the Bush tax cuts would add $2.3 trillion to the total 2018 debt. The single biggest step our government could take this year to address the structural deficit would be to let the tax cuts expire. And a credible commitment to long-term fiscal sustainability should reduce interest rates today, helping to stimulate the economy.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/the-bush-tax-cuts-and-fiscal-responsibility/
Judge: Mo. funeral protest ban unconstitutional
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_re_us/us_funeral_protest
Leo Hindery, Jr.: Treasury Secretary Geithner -- 'Spinning' Out of Control
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-hindery-jr/treasury-secretary-geithn_b_684565.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=081710&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureTitle
Blagojevich claims federal gov't. persecution
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/17/VI2010081705330.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Latino USA
http://latinousa.kut.org/
Texas Matters
http://www.tpr.org/programs/texasmatters.html
Fact Check
http://www.factcheck.org/
JFK SPEECH ON SECRET SOCIETIES AND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlghYpDx0f4&feature=search
The folk clamor for “transparency” from its office holders. In truth if there was any “transparency” the folk would “throw the bum out!” That is as American as cherry pie.
The foregoing notwithstanding, the drama, the theater of the absurd we call politics and public policy---a euphemism for “majority rule” feared and loathed by the founders fast approaches. The process keeps people busy, distracted and lulled into thinking that anything they do, think, blog or say is going to make one good goddam bit of difference. It won’t.
Elections merely change out one set of narcissistic set of opportunists for another.
DA Facing a Serious Election Foe
http://www.nicoforda.com/blog/2010/07/11/da-facing-a-serious-election-foe/
Political/Social Calendar:
• August 20th-22nd- Texas Annual Sales Tax-Free Holiday Weekend-Texas shoppers get a break from state and local sales tax on items of clothing, footwear, and backpacks priced less than $100. This year school supplies are included. Contact Comptroller Susan Combs at 800-252-5555 or www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/
• August 22nd- 8-9:30 a.m. @ Crossroads Baptist morning worship services, 8300 Tezel Road. Come hear Gold Medalist Josh Davis' testimony and see his medals. We will be recognizing all school teachers with a special gift as well! Invite your friends!
• August 26th-Birthday Party & fundraiser for Judge JoAnn DeHoyos, from 5:30-10 p.m. @ Pueblo Hall, 3315 Northwestern. (behind Ingram Park Mall)
http://walkerreport.blogspot.com/2010/07/l-r-judicial-nominee-dinorah-diaz-meet.html
Top cover big time---who is this Teflon exterminator’s sponsor? I’ve seen this over and over both in the military and in civil sector…
Justice DeLayed, Again (And Again)
Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), responds to the news:
It’s a sad day for America when one of the most corrupt members to ever walk the halls of Congress gets a free pass. As we continue the work of building a Washington that is worthy of the American people, the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Mr. DeLay for his actions sends exactly the wrong message to current and future members. The fact that Jack Abramoff and Bob Ney (R-OH) are the only two people who went to prison for one of the worst corruption scandals in congressional history is shocking. The Hammer belongs in the slammer. Mr. DeLay still has crimes to answer for in Texas—generally not considered the best place to be a criminal defendant.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/justice-delayed-again-and-again
Politics is to the philosophy of governance what religion is to the philosophy of spirituality.
Politics (from Greek πολιτικος, [politikós]: «citizen», «civilian»), is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in other group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power"[1] and refers to the regulation of a political unit,[2] and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics
Viewed in its most favorable condition politics is “’majority” rule. Today the word has taken on a connotation of “the games people play.” And of course, it is.
“Many of America's Founding Fathers hated the thought of political parties, quarreling "factions" they were sure would be more interested in contending with each other than in working for the common good. They wanted individual citizens to vote for individual candidates, without the interference of organized groups — but this was not to be.”
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/outusgov/parties.htm
So it is with little more than a wry sense of humor that I listen to demagogues posturing, pandering and postulating on the notion of “transparency.” The idea that someone who has made a career out of working the majority up into a frenzy with the single intent of having them vote from a reactive emotional state of being that benefits the careerist office holder and promotes a particular point of view---usually having a very agenda-laden intent---(this is known as demagoguery)---rather than from the well thought choice from among possible objective, responsible responses is silly at best.
This is one more reason why it is that in a plurality, i.e. majority rule world those who are different from the average suffer at the hands of the tyrant majority average and are almost always rendered voiceless. It is an unmendable misfortune---one that those coming to the voting process but only once in awhile to vote will never comprehend---much to the chagrin and well being of the nation.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Elections 2010 Mid-term elections, the predicament and the folk
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-34693-Bexar-County-Elections-2010-Examiner~y2010m7d28-Bexar-County-Elections-2010-Midterm-elections-the-predicament-and-the-folk
The first Tuesday in November of even numbered years brings us general elections, scandals and scoundrels.
Joe Driver one of many GOP officials caught in scandal
http://www.lonestarproject.net/
Bexar County Dems open Headquarters on Broadway
http://prop-w-a-mtc02.evip.aol.com/story/2010/08/10/bexar-county-dems-open-headquarters-on-broadway/
Bexar County inmates may lack mental health assessments
http://news.yahoo.com/video/sanantoniokens5tv-15749667/bexar-county-inmates-may-lack-mental-health-assessments-21173918
Protesters rallied at the Alamo against election corruption
http://www.kens5.com/news/local/Protestors-rallied-at-the-Alamo-against-election-corruption--100434459.html
Poll: Language a barrier for Latinos in schools
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100805/ap_on_go_ot/us_ap_univision_poll_hispanics_language_barriers
U.S. steps up fingerprint program along border, in other areas
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/10/AR2010081006218.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Data Show Stimulus Isn't Reaching the Nation's Neediest Counties and States
Stimulus Spending Fails to Follow Unemployment, Poverty
http://www.propublica.org/article/stimulus-spending-fails-to-follow-unemployment-poverty-805
The Bush Tax Cuts and Fiscal Responsibility
What do matter are taxes and entitlements. Therefore, the coming battle over the Bush tax cuts is of real importance. According to the Congressional Budget Office, extending the Bush tax cuts would add $2.3 trillion to the total 2018 debt. The single biggest step our government could take this year to address the structural deficit would be to let the tax cuts expire. And a credible commitment to long-term fiscal sustainability should reduce interest rates today, helping to stimulate the economy.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/12/the-bush-tax-cuts-and-fiscal-responsibility/
Judge: Mo. funeral protest ban unconstitutional
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100817/ap_on_re_us/us_funeral_protest
Leo Hindery, Jr.: Treasury Secretary Geithner -- 'Spinning' Out of Control
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-hindery-jr/treasury-secretary-geithn_b_684565.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=081710&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureTitle
Blagojevich claims federal gov't. persecution
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/17/VI2010081705330.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Latino USA
http://latinousa.kut.org/
Texas Matters
http://www.tpr.org/programs/texasmatters.html
Fact Check
http://www.factcheck.org/
JFK SPEECH ON SECRET SOCIETIES AND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlghYpDx0f4&feature=search
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Bexar County Public Policy: Americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
It’s not easy being an over the top sovereign nation, preemptive (they might be thinking of invading us, or thinking about conspiring to do so sometime in the future, or about doing lunch) invading empire. Really.
Ever wonder what the compassionate conservative religiosity does in his or her spare time? See the following:
Top cover big time---who is this Teflon exterminator’s sponsor? I’ve seen this type of condition over and over both in the military and in civil sector…the fair-haired dirtbag
Justice DeLayed, Again (And Again)
Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), responds to the news:
It’s a sad day for America when one of the most corrupt members to ever walk the halls of Congress gets a free pass. As we continue the work of building a Washington that is worthy of the American people, the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Mr. DeLay for his actions sends exactly the wrong message to current and future members. The fact that Jack Abramoff and Bob Ney (R-OH) are the only two people who went to prison for one of the worst corruption scandals in congressional history is shocking. The Hammer belongs in the slammer. Mr. DeLay still has crimes to answer for in Texas—generally not considered the best place to be a criminal defendant.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/justice-delayed-again-and-again
too many clowns representing Texas Red ….A complaint from the circus.....
http://www.texasobserver.org/loonstarstate/item/16838-a-complaint-from-the-circus
Cradle to grave social engineering….
Aging inmates straining U.S. prison system
CONNELL, Wash. – Curtis Ballard rides a motorized wheelchair around his prison ward, which happens to be the new assisted living unit — a place of many windows and no visible steel bars — at Washington's Coyote Ridge Corrections Center.
A stroke left Ballard unable to walk. He's also had a heart attack and he underwent a procedure to remove skin cancer from his neck. At 77, he's been in prison since 1993 for murder. He has 14 years left on his sentence.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100816/ap_on_re_us/us_aging_inmates
gopers reaching out to hispanics? with what a club, a noose, the chair, the needle...? this is a joke---right?
The Texas Republican Party Reaches Out to Hispanics
http://www.texasobserver.org/loonstarstate/item/16695-the-texas-republican-party-reaches-out-to-hispanics
Silver, lead, violence and marketing---the American way…..
Plata por Plomo
Dispatches from the Border Wall: McAllen
McAllen -- This McAllen gun store isn't subtle in its marketing. A few months ago these red and black billboards popped up all over the Rio Grande Valley. The gun shop called Resilient Defense Systems sells fully automatic assault rifles and machine guns.
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/plata-por-plomo
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Bexar County Elections 2010: transparency in the political arena?
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-elections-2010-transparency-the-political-arena
Illusions of Justice
http://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Justice-Rights-Violations-United/dp/0934936005/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282216290&sr=1-1
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Rope%2C+the+Chair%2C+and+the+Needle%3A+Capital+Punishment+in+Texas%2C+1923-1990&ih=1_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0.2973_1&fsc=-1&x=19&y=17
Political Junkie: NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/
Postal Service sets up shop at Office Depot stores
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/16/AR2010081605075.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
"Anchor Babies" and the 14th Amendment
http://www.npr.org/blogs/talk/2010/08/18/129275449/august-18th-show?sc=nl&cc=totn-20100818
Bexar tentatively approves higher taxes for health system
http://www.mysanantonio.com/health/increase_of_38_percent_in_county_hospital_tax_rate_gets_preliminary_approval_100927989.html
Chicken Rick Perry Blames his Border Failures on President Obama
http://www.texaskaos.com/diary/6667/chicken-rick-perry-blames-his-border-failures-on-president-obama
Food stamps agency requests staffing boost
http://topics.npr.org/article/00OgbYVeNT3vg
AUSTIN – Texas' system for handling requests for food stamps and other aid will require more than 1,900 additional state workers over the next few years to keep up with heavy demand, a top official has told state leaders. However, Health and Human
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-hhscworkers_17tex.ART.State.Edition1.357c37a.html
america’s education system---worth every nickel? you must be high…..
Higher Education
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-08-17/higher-education
americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
Fla. city denies permit for 9/11 Quran burning
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100819/ap_on_re_us/us_church_sept11_quran_burning
americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
ACLU sues over detention in United Arab Emirates
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100819/ap_on_re_us/us_hamdan_imprisonment
and after only 7 years?
Operation Iraqi Freedom ends as last combat soldiers leave Baghdad
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081805644.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
Poll shows more Americans think Obama is a Muslim
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081806913.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Ever wonder what the compassionate conservative religiosity does in his or her spare time? See the following:
Top cover big time---who is this Teflon exterminator’s sponsor? I’ve seen this type of condition over and over both in the military and in civil sector…the fair-haired dirtbag
Justice DeLayed, Again (And Again)
Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), responds to the news:
It’s a sad day for America when one of the most corrupt members to ever walk the halls of Congress gets a free pass. As we continue the work of building a Washington that is worthy of the American people, the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Mr. DeLay for his actions sends exactly the wrong message to current and future members. The fact that Jack Abramoff and Bob Ney (R-OH) are the only two people who went to prison for one of the worst corruption scandals in congressional history is shocking. The Hammer belongs in the slammer. Mr. DeLay still has crimes to answer for in Texas—generally not considered the best place to be a criminal defendant.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/justice-delayed-again-and-again
too many clowns representing Texas Red ….A complaint from the circus.....
http://www.texasobserver.org/loonstarstate/item/16838-a-complaint-from-the-circus
Cradle to grave social engineering….
Aging inmates straining U.S. prison system
CONNELL, Wash. – Curtis Ballard rides a motorized wheelchair around his prison ward, which happens to be the new assisted living unit — a place of many windows and no visible steel bars — at Washington's Coyote Ridge Corrections Center.
A stroke left Ballard unable to walk. He's also had a heart attack and he underwent a procedure to remove skin cancer from his neck. At 77, he's been in prison since 1993 for murder. He has 14 years left on his sentence.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100816/ap_on_re_us/us_aging_inmates
gopers reaching out to hispanics? with what a club, a noose, the chair, the needle...? this is a joke---right?
The Texas Republican Party Reaches Out to Hispanics
http://www.texasobserver.org/loonstarstate/item/16695-the-texas-republican-party-reaches-out-to-hispanics
Silver, lead, violence and marketing---the American way…..
Plata por Plomo
Dispatches from the Border Wall: McAllen
McAllen -- This McAllen gun store isn't subtle in its marketing. A few months ago these red and black billboards popped up all over the Rio Grande Valley. The gun shop called Resilient Defense Systems sells fully automatic assault rifles and machine guns.
http://www.texasobserver.org/lalinea/plata-por-plomo
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Bexar County Elections 2010: transparency in the political arena?
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-elections-2010-transparency-the-political-arena
Illusions of Justice
http://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Justice-Rights-Violations-United/dp/0934936005/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282216290&sr=1-1
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Rope%2C+the+Chair%2C+and+the+Needle%3A+Capital+Punishment+in+Texas%2C+1923-1990&ih=1_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0.2973_1&fsc=-1&x=19&y=17
Political Junkie: NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/
Postal Service sets up shop at Office Depot stores
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/16/AR2010081605075.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
"Anchor Babies" and the 14th Amendment
http://www.npr.org/blogs/talk/2010/08/18/129275449/august-18th-show?sc=nl&cc=totn-20100818
Bexar tentatively approves higher taxes for health system
http://www.mysanantonio.com/health/increase_of_38_percent_in_county_hospital_tax_rate_gets_preliminary_approval_100927989.html
Chicken Rick Perry Blames his Border Failures on President Obama
http://www.texaskaos.com/diary/6667/chicken-rick-perry-blames-his-border-failures-on-president-obama
Food stamps agency requests staffing boost
http://topics.npr.org/article/00OgbYVeNT3vg
AUSTIN – Texas' system for handling requests for food stamps and other aid will require more than 1,900 additional state workers over the next few years to keep up with heavy demand, a top official has told state leaders. However, Health and Human
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-hhscworkers_17tex.ART.State.Edition1.357c37a.html
america’s education system---worth every nickel? you must be high…..
Higher Education
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-08-17/higher-education
americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
Fla. city denies permit for 9/11 Quran burning
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100819/ap_on_re_us/us_church_sept11_quran_burning
americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
ACLU sues over detention in United Arab Emirates
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100819/ap_on_re_us/us_hamdan_imprisonment
and after only 7 years?
Operation Iraqi Freedom ends as last combat soldiers leave Baghdad
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081805644.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
americans; so ugly---why do “they” hate us? (whine, whine) Gee, I wonder….
Poll shows more Americans think Obama is a Muslim
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081806913.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Monday, August 16, 2010
Elections 2010 Gays, Undocumenteds and Muslims the Texas Red & other Right’s Piñatas!
It was a busy political week just passed and pushes headlong into the Fall general election or beit Elections 2010.
No real surprises gays, immigrants (“illegals” how can anyone be illegal?) and Muslims are still the compassionate conservative religiosity’s piñatas of choice. Viewed from 10,000 feet it’s difficult to discern a difference between the compassionate conservative religiosities and 1930’s Nationalist Germany.
Still it is interesting that given conditions on the ground Texas Red will elect a Democrat to its governor’s office in 2010.
There are likely to be few other surprises in November 2010.
I’ve captured a few headlines and their respective links to provide a one-stop shop for your perusing pleasure.
As is my wont I’ve provided some running narrative with most, if not all, the headlines.
By the way, if the display of the blog is less than optimum it is a result of the Examiner.com’s transition process to the new and improved site.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way (part one)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m10d4-Texas-Red-a-cratered-landscape-of-prisons-deplorable-public-education-lack-of-healthcare-and-poli
Hear, hear!! Finally an elected representative who has read the Constitution and isn’t pandering to the folk with demagoguery
Bloomberg: A 'Sad Day' If Mosque Opponents Win
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/new-york-mayor-michael-bloomberg-speaks-out-again-in-favor-of-mosque-near-ground-zero/19595630
Shame on you Harry Reid! Read the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Harry really doesn’t want to have to get a real job.
Sen. Harry Reid Says Mosque Should Not Be Built Near Ground Zero
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/16/sen-harry-reid-says-mosque-should-not-be-built-near-ground-zero/
Robert Reich: Forget a Double-Dip, We're Still in One Long Big Dipper
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/forget-a-double-dip-were_b_682334.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=081610&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureTitle
Is “w” still in office? No? you wouldn’t know it.
The Washington Independent
Oil and Gas Industry Writes Its Own Pipeline Standards
http://washingtonindependent.com/
should it really be all about the party?
Democrats uncertain about approach to midterms
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/15/AR2010081503232.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
President's full remarks at White House Ramadan dinner
» Video
President forcefully joins debate, saying opposing project near Ground Zero is at odds with American values. Some Republicans have urged a halt.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/13/VI2010081306447.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
intolerance is as American as cherry pie
Old Irish bones may yield murderous secrets in Pa.
The other immigrants, they surmise, were killed by vigilantes because of anti-Irish prejudice, tension between affluent residents and poor transient workers, or intense fear of cholera — or a combination of all three.
Now, their theory is supported by the four recovered skulls, which indicate the men probably suffered blows to the head. At least one may have been shot, said Janet Monge, an anthropologist working on the project.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100816/ap_on_re_us/us_irish_immigrants_grave_5
yale is going “w” it seems
Stanley McChrystal to Yale
Given the basis of McChrystal’s fall from glory it is amazing he’s been chosen to teach “leadership” ---at Yale. Of course he’ll be in equally questionable company including John Negroponte and Emilio Zedillo.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20100816/pl_politico/41101
AP IMPACT: Border Patrol sees spike in suicides
FORT HANCOCK, Texas – After a bad day on the job as a Border Patrol agent, Eddie DeLaCruz went home and began discussing with his wife how to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Then he casually pressed his government-issued handgun under his chin and pulled the trigger.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100816/ap_on_re_us/us_border_patrol_suicides_7
So when is Crump leaving? What a bigot!
There Is No Room For Illegal Immigration with Sam Crump
https://secure.piryx.com/donate/eM9jDycV/crumpforcongress/
Judges Reject Interrogation Evidence in Gitmo Cases
The government has lost eight of 15 cases [3] in which Guantánamo inmates have said they or witnesses against them were forcibly interrogated, according to ProPublica's review of 31 published decisions that resolve lawsuits filed by 52 captives who said they've been wrongfully detained [4]. Because some of the judges' opinions are heavily redacted, it's impossible to be sure there aren't more cases in which the government offered interrogation evidence collected under questionable circumstances. More than 50 such lawsuits are still pending, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court gave Guantánamo inmates the green light to challenge their detention in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
http://www.propublica.org/article/judges-reject-interrogation-evidence-in-gitmo-cases
NPR BREAKING NEWS:
guess the plaintiffs are afraid that they’ll be seduced into a homosexual relationship or marriage if homosexuals are allowed to marry pending the supremes ruling. Heaven forbid!
Appeals Court Issues Ruling On Same-Sex Weddings
Supporters argued the ban was necessary to safeguard the traditional understanding of marriage and to encourage responsible childbearing.
The federal court's decision affects whether such unions may continue in California while it considers the constitutionality of the state's gay marriage ban.
http://n.npr.org/NPRI/jN125087846_561273_561272_Z.htm
Public Citizen
Issue #25 • August 13, 2010
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183
Bexar County Elections 2010: so much politicking, so much money…they’ve got us by the ’nads!
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/08/bexar-county-elections-2010-so-much.html
GOP senator suggests mosque will be election issue
http://www.woai.com/news/political/story/GOP-senator-suggests-mosque-will-be-election-issue/Ihae8Oz7U0aTEk54rzeZIw.cspx
William Kunstler’s Children save money while shooting PBS film about him
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/06/18/william-kunstlers-children-save-money-while-shooting-pbs-film-a/
Teen sex not always bad for school performance
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_he_me/us_med_teen_sex_academics
AP-GfK polls show Obama losing independents
WASHINGTON – Independents who embraced President Barack Obama's call for change in 2008 are ready for a shift again, and that's worrisome news for Democrats.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_el_ge/us_ap_poll_defecting_independents
Republicans attack Obama over Muslim center comments
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100815/ts_nm/us_usa_politics_muslims
GOP picks retired general to challenge Adkisson
On July 21, former Bexar County Judge Cyndi Taylor Krier called Susan Pamerleau with a request.
Krier informed Pamerleau, a retired Air Force major general, that Republican county commissioner nominee Larry Click had unexpectedly died and asked if Pamerleau would consider taking his place
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/gop_picks_former_general_to_challenge_adkisson_100699679.html
Tea party activists rally on Arizona-Mexico border
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_re_us/us_border_tea_party
Subtitle this troglodyte learns the craft of deception: frightening for its influence with other troglodytes and ability to fool the folk
Secret Recording Shows New Side of Sharron Angle
LAS VEGAS (Aug. 15) -- After weeks of bumbling from one did-she-really-say-that moment to the next, Republican Senate hopeful Sharron Angle last week showed some signs -- in answers to questions on evolution, prostitution and gay marriage -- that she may be learning the fine art of politically shrewd phrasing, and becoming a more deft and potentially formidable candidate in the bargain.
http://www.aolnews.com/politics/article/is-sharron-angle-learning-to-temper-style-in-senate-campaign-against-harry-reid/19590480
Hazing Arizona
Long before the state passed its anti-immigrant law, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was taking border enforcement into his own hands.
— By Aura Bogado
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/sheriff-joe-arpaio-maricopa-county-sb-1070
Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/20108161532562124.html
(From the annals of, “Do as I say, not as I do”….)
Stunning Statistics of the Week:
• Percentage of voters polled by SurveyUSA who say it is important for a candidate to commit to reducing the lobbyist influence over laws: 89 percent
• Percentage of Republicans who say it is important: 87 percent
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183
Part 3 - High Noon Geithner v The American Oligarchs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSlZHYMNWDA
Mayor_Bloomberg- on the separation of chuch and state- and the Mosque in New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQsHc1EHgQY
No real surprises gays, immigrants (“illegals” how can anyone be illegal?) and Muslims are still the compassionate conservative religiosity’s piñatas of choice. Viewed from 10,000 feet it’s difficult to discern a difference between the compassionate conservative religiosities and 1930’s Nationalist Germany.
Still it is interesting that given conditions on the ground Texas Red will elect a Democrat to its governor’s office in 2010.
There are likely to be few other surprises in November 2010.
I’ve captured a few headlines and their respective links to provide a one-stop shop for your perusing pleasure.
As is my wont I’ve provided some running narrative with most, if not all, the headlines.
By the way, if the display of the blog is less than optimum it is a result of the Examiner.com’s transition process to the new and improved site.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way (part one)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m10d4-Texas-Red-a-cratered-landscape-of-prisons-deplorable-public-education-lack-of-healthcare-and-poli
Hear, hear!! Finally an elected representative who has read the Constitution and isn’t pandering to the folk with demagoguery
Bloomberg: A 'Sad Day' If Mosque Opponents Win
http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/new-york-mayor-michael-bloomberg-speaks-out-again-in-favor-of-mosque-near-ground-zero/19595630
Shame on you Harry Reid! Read the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Harry really doesn’t want to have to get a real job.
Sen. Harry Reid Says Mosque Should Not Be Built Near Ground Zero
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/16/sen-harry-reid-says-mosque-should-not-be-built-near-ground-zero/
Robert Reich: Forget a Double-Dip, We're Still in One Long Big Dipper
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/forget-a-double-dip-were_b_682334.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=081610&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureTitle
Is “w” still in office? No? you wouldn’t know it.
The Washington Independent
Oil and Gas Industry Writes Its Own Pipeline Standards
http://washingtonindependent.com/
should it really be all about the party?
Democrats uncertain about approach to midterms
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/15/AR2010081503232.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
President's full remarks at White House Ramadan dinner
» Video
President forcefully joins debate, saying opposing project near Ground Zero is at odds with American values. Some Republicans have urged a halt.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/13/VI2010081306447.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
intolerance is as American as cherry pie
Old Irish bones may yield murderous secrets in Pa.
The other immigrants, they surmise, were killed by vigilantes because of anti-Irish prejudice, tension between affluent residents and poor transient workers, or intense fear of cholera — or a combination of all three.
Now, their theory is supported by the four recovered skulls, which indicate the men probably suffered blows to the head. At least one may have been shot, said Janet Monge, an anthropologist working on the project.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100816/ap_on_re_us/us_irish_immigrants_grave_5
yale is going “w” it seems
Stanley McChrystal to Yale
Given the basis of McChrystal’s fall from glory it is amazing he’s been chosen to teach “leadership” ---at Yale. Of course he’ll be in equally questionable company including John Negroponte and Emilio Zedillo.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20100816/pl_politico/41101
AP IMPACT: Border Patrol sees spike in suicides
FORT HANCOCK, Texas – After a bad day on the job as a Border Patrol agent, Eddie DeLaCruz went home and began discussing with his wife how to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Then he casually pressed his government-issued handgun under his chin and pulled the trigger.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100816/ap_on_re_us/us_border_patrol_suicides_7
So when is Crump leaving? What a bigot!
There Is No Room For Illegal Immigration with Sam Crump
https://secure.piryx.com/donate/eM9jDycV/crumpforcongress/
Judges Reject Interrogation Evidence in Gitmo Cases
The government has lost eight of 15 cases [3] in which Guantánamo inmates have said they or witnesses against them were forcibly interrogated, according to ProPublica's review of 31 published decisions that resolve lawsuits filed by 52 captives who said they've been wrongfully detained [4]. Because some of the judges' opinions are heavily redacted, it's impossible to be sure there aren't more cases in which the government offered interrogation evidence collected under questionable circumstances. More than 50 such lawsuits are still pending, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court gave Guantánamo inmates the green light to challenge their detention in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
http://www.propublica.org/article/judges-reject-interrogation-evidence-in-gitmo-cases
NPR BREAKING NEWS:
guess the plaintiffs are afraid that they’ll be seduced into a homosexual relationship or marriage if homosexuals are allowed to marry pending the supremes ruling. Heaven forbid!
Appeals Court Issues Ruling On Same-Sex Weddings
Supporters argued the ban was necessary to safeguard the traditional understanding of marriage and to encourage responsible childbearing.
The federal court's decision affects whether such unions may continue in California while it considers the constitutionality of the state's gay marriage ban.
http://n.npr.org/NPRI/jN125087846_561273_561272_Z.htm
Public Citizen
Issue #25 • August 13, 2010
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183
Bexar County Elections 2010: so much politicking, so much money…they’ve got us by the ’nads!
http://robertruiz-respublica.blogspot.com/2010/08/bexar-county-elections-2010-so-much.html
GOP senator suggests mosque will be election issue
http://www.woai.com/news/political/story/GOP-senator-suggests-mosque-will-be-election-issue/Ihae8Oz7U0aTEk54rzeZIw.cspx
William Kunstler’s Children save money while shooting PBS film about him
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/06/18/william-kunstlers-children-save-money-while-shooting-pbs-film-a/
Teen sex not always bad for school performance
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_he_me/us_med_teen_sex_academics
AP-GfK polls show Obama losing independents
WASHINGTON – Independents who embraced President Barack Obama's call for change in 2008 are ready for a shift again, and that's worrisome news for Democrats.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_el_ge/us_ap_poll_defecting_independents
Republicans attack Obama over Muslim center comments
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100815/ts_nm/us_usa_politics_muslims
GOP picks retired general to challenge Adkisson
On July 21, former Bexar County Judge Cyndi Taylor Krier called Susan Pamerleau with a request.
Krier informed Pamerleau, a retired Air Force major general, that Republican county commissioner nominee Larry Click had unexpectedly died and asked if Pamerleau would consider taking his place
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/gop_picks_former_general_to_challenge_adkisson_100699679.html
Tea party activists rally on Arizona-Mexico border
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_re_us/us_border_tea_party
Subtitle this troglodyte learns the craft of deception: frightening for its influence with other troglodytes and ability to fool the folk
Secret Recording Shows New Side of Sharron Angle
LAS VEGAS (Aug. 15) -- After weeks of bumbling from one did-she-really-say-that moment to the next, Republican Senate hopeful Sharron Angle last week showed some signs -- in answers to questions on evolution, prostitution and gay marriage -- that she may be learning the fine art of politically shrewd phrasing, and becoming a more deft and potentially formidable candidate in the bargain.
http://www.aolnews.com/politics/article/is-sharron-angle-learning-to-temper-style-in-senate-campaign-against-harry-reid/19590480
Hazing Arizona
Long before the state passed its anti-immigrant law, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was taking border enforcement into his own hands.
— By Aura Bogado
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/sheriff-joe-arpaio-maricopa-county-sb-1070
Troop deaths top 2000 in Afghan war
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/20108161532562124.html
(From the annals of, “Do as I say, not as I do”….)
Stunning Statistics of the Week:
• Percentage of voters polled by SurveyUSA who say it is important for a candidate to commit to reducing the lobbyist influence over laws: 89 percent
• Percentage of Republicans who say it is important: 87 percent
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183
Part 3 - High Noon Geithner v The American Oligarchs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSlZHYMNWDA
Mayor_Bloomberg- on the separation of chuch and state- and the Mosque in New York
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQsHc1EHgQY
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Bexar County Elections 2010: so much politicking, so much money…they’ve got us by the ’nads!
Which do you suppose came first? The undermining of the republic’s principles by those elected? Or the election of those most willing to undermine the republic’s principles? If the end game is keeping the status quo---how does it make a rat’s a-s bit of difference?
When all the Obama hoopla was in its zenith I explained to many new to the political process that it was all--- well--- just hoopla. No one who is---no kidding---determined to change anything about the status quo is going to be allowed to win any election. If by some outrageous quirk of fate that change agent should win---they won’t serve out their term of office. That is a promise.
People with too little knowledge of the issues, others with a great deal of knowledge and thereby a vested interest direct the process. Alexander Hamilton referred to the folk as The Beast. He feared them (the wisdom of the collective---notwithstanding). Of course the oligarchs (the Unseen Hand) whose vested interest is and has been for at least the last thousand or so years to hold on to power are the man behind the curtain pulling the levers, turning the knobs and toggling the switches---much to my chagrin.
You know who really has the power when newspapers print stories about it, PBS and NPR do endless stories on the subject of special interests (the money---aka the oligarchs), a couple of senators write laws against it, would-be elected representatives pontificate on it and swear off it---but the supremes okay it and in the end those elected take the money with both hands and sometimes a wheelbarrow.
Government brought to you by the letter K Street and the number $X billion?
Bill Moyers has spent years digging into the complex and controversial relationship between money and politics in America. As JOURNAL guest Robert Kaiser, author of SO DAMN MUCH MONEY, THE TRIUMPH OF LOBBYING AND THE CORROSION OF AMERICAN GOVERMMENT, noted: "There's a wonderful quote about it from Bob Dole, from 1983 or '2. Where he says, 'you know, poor people don't contribute to campaigns.' And there it was. You know, 30 years ago, the whole story is right in that phrase."
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/lobbying/index.html
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Bexar County: Elections 2010 Another election, Tea Party Notwithstanding, just more bootlickers
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-elections-2010-another-election-tea-party-notwithstanding-just-more-bootlickers
Unseen Hand (political science)
The Unseen Hand or the Hidden Hand are metaphors describing the secret and veiled power group(s) that control a government or manipulate public opinion in order to achieve a specific agenda. These terms connotate conspiracies in that these groups attempt through subterfuge to affect designs not overtly popular or known. Moreover, another connotation of these phrases also refer to what may be called "shadow government", "invisible government" or a government within a government. Many observers have noted that historical events hardly ever happen by chance but more often than not occur by deliberate planning.2
http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Unseen_Hand_(political_science)
Bill Moyers on Plutonomy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSoglDcRbAg
George Carlin describing facts about this plutocracy/Oligarchy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1iXXKmq58g&feature=related
Which set of liars to believe? What’s a voter to do?
With Obama address, Democrats revive specter of GOP threat to Social Security
Reviving a political tactic that Democrats have used before, President Obama said in his radio address Saturday that "some Republican leaders in Congress" want to privatize Social Security -- even though few GOP lawmakers today support the idea.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/14/AR2010081400858.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
The Republican war on Grandma
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/?akid=114.1585955.HFrKJ5&t=2
Anti-Incumbent? Yes, But Maybe Not So Much
Ninety-eight percent of all incumbents who decided to run again for office have been renominated so far this campaign season, Sabato notes. Only Specter and Bennett and four incumbent members of the House have seen their re-election bids die in party primaries or state conventions.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129156089&sc=nl&cc=ph-20100815
and your taxdollars are paying for it most likely….
Israel to buy world's most advanced warplane
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100815/wl_mideast_afp/israelusdefenceweaponslockheed
APNewsBreak: Arabs lobby US on anti-Israel vote
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nuclear_agency_israel
Is Portugal's Liberal Drug Policy a Model for US?
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/is-portugals-liberal-drug-policy-a-model-for-us/19591395
U.S. steps up fingerprint program along border, in other areas
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/10/AR2010081006218.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Smile! Aerial images being used to enforce laws
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. – On New York's Long Island, it's used to prevent drownings. In Greece, it's a tool to help solve a financial crisis. Municipalities update property assessment rolls and other government data with it. Some in law enforcement use it to supplement reconnaissance of crime suspects.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100814/ap_on_hi_te/us_eyes_in_the_sky
....a war every 20 years or so, one for each generation…just not the Jeffersonian revolution….
Daniel Elsberg: the pentagon papers
http://www.hereandnow.org/#5
Toxic legacy of the Vietnam war
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia-pacific/2010/07/201072251513743646.html
witnessed this on the USAF Physical Evaluation Boards, too…..
Hundreds of PTSD soldiers likely misdiagnosed
WASHINGTON – At the height of the Iraq war, the Army routinely fired hundreds of soldiers for having a personality disorder when they were more likely suffering from the traumatic stresses of war, discharge data suggests.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_soldiers_wrongly_discharged
WikiLeaks says it won't be threatened by Pentagon
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/afghanistan_wikileaks
Public Policy: why is it so popular to demonize liberals? Part 2
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/public-policy-why-is-it-so-popular-to-demonize-liberals-part-2
And don’t forget w wanted for you to put your social security money in the funds that just melted away…you hadn’t forgotten that had you?
Obama claims GOP trying to destroy Social Security
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100814/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_social_security_1
At Ramadan dinner, Obama defends plans for Ground Zero mosque
President Obama on Friday forcefully joined the national debate over construction of an Islamic complex near New York's Ground Zero, telling guests at a White House dinner marking the holy month of Ramadan that opposing the project is at odds with American values.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/13/AR2010081304357.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Money and Democracy:
It's All About The Money: Bennet-Romanoff Race Waged Over Corporate Cash
Colorado primary race had corporate influence theme
Which candidate is least beholden to corporations? That was the theme in the Colorado Democratic primary race for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. Bennet's challenger, former statehouse Speaker Andrew Romanoff, refused to take political action committee money for this race and criticized Bennet for taking corporate money. Bennet countered that Romanoff took PAC money for much of his career and even ran his own PAC. In the end, Bennet won the primary.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/its-all-about-the-money-b_n_676497.html
Public Citizen
Issue #25 • August 13, 2010
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183
William Kunstler’s Children save money while shooting PBS film about him
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/06/18/william-kunstlers-children-save-money-while-shooting-pbs-film-a/
When all the Obama hoopla was in its zenith I explained to many new to the political process that it was all--- well--- just hoopla. No one who is---no kidding---determined to change anything about the status quo is going to be allowed to win any election. If by some outrageous quirk of fate that change agent should win---they won’t serve out their term of office. That is a promise.
People with too little knowledge of the issues, others with a great deal of knowledge and thereby a vested interest direct the process. Alexander Hamilton referred to the folk as The Beast. He feared them (the wisdom of the collective---notwithstanding). Of course the oligarchs (the Unseen Hand) whose vested interest is and has been for at least the last thousand or so years to hold on to power are the man behind the curtain pulling the levers, turning the knobs and toggling the switches---much to my chagrin.
You know who really has the power when newspapers print stories about it, PBS and NPR do endless stories on the subject of special interests (the money---aka the oligarchs), a couple of senators write laws against it, would-be elected representatives pontificate on it and swear off it---but the supremes okay it and in the end those elected take the money with both hands and sometimes a wheelbarrow.
Government brought to you by the letter K Street and the number $X billion?
Bill Moyers has spent years digging into the complex and controversial relationship between money and politics in America. As JOURNAL guest Robert Kaiser, author of SO DAMN MUCH MONEY, THE TRIUMPH OF LOBBYING AND THE CORROSION OF AMERICAN GOVERMMENT, noted: "There's a wonderful quote about it from Bob Dole, from 1983 or '2. Where he says, 'you know, poor people don't contribute to campaigns.' And there it was. You know, 30 years ago, the whole story is right in that phrase."
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/lobbying/index.html
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Bexar County: Elections 2010 Another election, Tea Party Notwithstanding, just more bootlickers
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-elections-2010-another-election-tea-party-notwithstanding-just-more-bootlickers
Unseen Hand (political science)
The Unseen Hand or the Hidden Hand are metaphors describing the secret and veiled power group(s) that control a government or manipulate public opinion in order to achieve a specific agenda. These terms connotate conspiracies in that these groups attempt through subterfuge to affect designs not overtly popular or known. Moreover, another connotation of these phrases also refer to what may be called "shadow government", "invisible government" or a government within a government. Many observers have noted that historical events hardly ever happen by chance but more often than not occur by deliberate planning.2
http://www.wikinfo.org/index.php/Unseen_Hand_(political_science)
Bill Moyers on Plutonomy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSoglDcRbAg
George Carlin describing facts about this plutocracy/Oligarchy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1iXXKmq58g&feature=related
Which set of liars to believe? What’s a voter to do?
With Obama address, Democrats revive specter of GOP threat to Social Security
Reviving a political tactic that Democrats have used before, President Obama said in his radio address Saturday that "some Republican leaders in Congress" want to privatize Social Security -- even though few GOP lawmakers today support the idea.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/14/AR2010081400858.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
The Republican war on Grandma
http://www.democracyforamerica.com/?akid=114.1585955.HFrKJ5&t=2
Anti-Incumbent? Yes, But Maybe Not So Much
Ninety-eight percent of all incumbents who decided to run again for office have been renominated so far this campaign season, Sabato notes. Only Specter and Bennett and four incumbent members of the House have seen their re-election bids die in party primaries or state conventions.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129156089&sc=nl&cc=ph-20100815
and your taxdollars are paying for it most likely….
Israel to buy world's most advanced warplane
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100815/wl_mideast_afp/israelusdefenceweaponslockheed
APNewsBreak: Arabs lobby US on anti-Israel vote
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nuclear_agency_israel
Is Portugal's Liberal Drug Policy a Model for US?
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/is-portugals-liberal-drug-policy-a-model-for-us/19591395
U.S. steps up fingerprint program along border, in other areas
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/10/AR2010081006218.html?wpisrc=nl_fed
Smile! Aerial images being used to enforce laws
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. – On New York's Long Island, it's used to prevent drownings. In Greece, it's a tool to help solve a financial crisis. Municipalities update property assessment rolls and other government data with it. Some in law enforcement use it to supplement reconnaissance of crime suspects.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100814/ap_on_hi_te/us_eyes_in_the_sky
....a war every 20 years or so, one for each generation…just not the Jeffersonian revolution….
Daniel Elsberg: the pentagon papers
http://www.hereandnow.org/#5
Toxic legacy of the Vietnam war
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia-pacific/2010/07/201072251513743646.html
witnessed this on the USAF Physical Evaluation Boards, too…..
Hundreds of PTSD soldiers likely misdiagnosed
WASHINGTON – At the height of the Iraq war, the Army routinely fired hundreds of soldiers for having a personality disorder when they were more likely suffering from the traumatic stresses of war, discharge data suggests.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100815/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_soldiers_wrongly_discharged
WikiLeaks says it won't be threatened by Pentagon
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/afghanistan_wikileaks
Public Policy: why is it so popular to demonize liberals? Part 2
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-san-antonio/public-policy-why-is-it-so-popular-to-demonize-liberals-part-2
And don’t forget w wanted for you to put your social security money in the funds that just melted away…you hadn’t forgotten that had you?
Obama claims GOP trying to destroy Social Security
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100814/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_social_security_1
At Ramadan dinner, Obama defends plans for Ground Zero mosque
President Obama on Friday forcefully joined the national debate over construction of an Islamic complex near New York's Ground Zero, telling guests at a White House dinner marking the holy month of Ramadan that opposing the project is at odds with American values.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/13/AR2010081304357.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Money and Democracy:
It's All About The Money: Bennet-Romanoff Race Waged Over Corporate Cash
Colorado primary race had corporate influence theme
Which candidate is least beholden to corporations? That was the theme in the Colorado Democratic primary race for the seat held by U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. Bennet's challenger, former statehouse Speaker Andrew Romanoff, refused to take political action committee money for this race and criticized Bennet for taking corporate money. Bennet countered that Romanoff took PAC money for much of his career and even ran his own PAC. In the end, Bennet won the primary.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/09/its-all-about-the-money-b_n_676497.html
Public Citizen
Issue #25 • August 13, 2010
http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183
William Kunstler’s Children save money while shooting PBS film about him
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/06/18/william-kunstlers-children-save-money-while-shooting-pbs-film-a/
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Public Policy: why is it so popular to demonize liberals? Part 2
How many times have you heard someone say they just love---(you fill in the blank) pizza, a certain movie, a color for example?
Used in the classic sense love is defined as the willingness to lay down your life for someone. Contrasted with today’s common use the word seems way out of place and there’s nothing of equal value to replace it.
The word as used today the word has become synonomous with “ really like.” In that sense I suppose it is possible to love popcorn---but it would have to be really good popcorn! But I wouldn’t be willing to die for it no matter how good. This begs the question---How are you defining “love?”
Liberal is equally mis-cast in today’s vernacular.
When our founders fought to stand-up our republic the decision to do so wasn’t just liberal---it was counter-culture, non-conformist and malcontented radical ---not to mention revolutionary.
In the mid to late 18th Century (1776) Western Civilization was less than two centuries emerged from the Dark Ages and embracing the Renaisannce or the Age of Enlightenment. Notwithstanding this progressive movement at that time “monarchs” were still all the rage as were religious clerics.
People I suppose just need someone to tell them what to do. It worked for Jim Jones and David Koresh didn’t it?
It’s difficult to comprehend that less than two-hundred years ago let alone today anyone would buy the notion that monarchs came by their right to rule by virtue of their relation to gods. Royalty? Really? Royalty by relation to Zeus, Jupiter? God? This is the mentality that gave rise to brutal, psychotic megalomaniacs---the people the founders loathed. You really don’t need a degree in psychology or psychiatry to figure out we’ve had at least one at the helm in recent memory.
Many of today’s elected representatives act as if they, too, believe they are godly. They are not. With rare exception our elected representatives are where they are by virtue of their willingness to be the lapdogs of the oligarchs---obligingly carrying out their master’s will. It’s either that or go find a real job.
Kings were tyrants. Religious clerics were every bit as disingenuous and tyrannical. Both offered little, if any, tolerance, mercy or fairness. The coin of the realm was intolerance. There was no freedom of the press, religion, speech or freedom of anything else for that matter. There has been little of that over the course of the millions of years or humanity’s existence. Even Rome’s republic lacked the tolerance the founders of this republic sought to put in place.
Of course, this too, was equally twisted, tortured and tormented when you consider that even as the founders sought to put these wonderful freedoms in place they were commiting genocidal atrocities against the indigenous peoples of this hemisphere while pressing into service those brought unwillingly from the dark continent wearing the chains of slavery. (Let’s put that thought on hold for the time being)
Leading was more ruling. Rulers offered little in the way of freedom. Because monarchs ruled with iron fists and rules they made up so there was little to fear from the masses. If a king declared that someone was an enemy of the state---it was so. No witnesses to the act that caused one to be accused of being an enemy of the state were necessary.
If the monarch accused someone---then by decree they were simply guilty. This is similar to what “w” and President Obama after him have done with the men at Guantanamo.
Nay you say! Those men at Guantanamo are “terrists” “enemy combatants!” How do we know? Says who?
One of the interesting facts of this “war on terror” is that we as a people by way of our elected representative’s, misinformation and at best questionable “facts” were led into launching a preemptive military assault on a sovereign nation by way of an ideology. Military assault was launched as if on a nation-state that had dared assault us. That was clearly not the case.
Those putting up resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan are not “terrists” they are natives of those nations resisting outside intervention and what they perceive as invaders and occupiers.
“Terrists” aren’t confined to one nation-state, religion, political party or region of the world. Those labelled “terrists” by us often view themselves as freedom fighters. Terrists don’t wear uniforms. Terrists aren’t easily identifiable. They are fighting what they perceive as occupiers. What would we do? What did we do 234 years ago?
These “terrists” freedom fighters by another name wage unconventional war because it is all they have available. Their efforts are driven by ideology and not a nation-state nationalism. That means their military resistance will be per force “unconventional” or guerrilla-style. They don’t have airframes, tanks or a large standing army.
Even in the case of “state-sponsored” terrorism” the accusation is at best hypocritical. Nations, large and small, powerful and not work throught unconventional means or beit “terrists” every day, all day long to accomplish by other means what those nations could never do above board and out in the open. There isn’t a nation on the planet that doesn’t do that. No? What do you think the CIA does all day long? Who do you think is out to kill an American who is somewhere in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region?
Consider this---how do we know US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki is a “terrist?” Isn’t that what due process is all about? If it’s okay to hunt this man down on the word of a president or an agency how is that different from allowing a monarch, king, megalomaniac to make an both an indictment and death sentence based on that monarchs’s king’s megalomaniac’s accusation alone?
It’s what we’ve done to 100’s of men over the past decade. Most, if not all, have never had a writ of habeas corpus hearing to determine just what evidence there is for holding them. So how do we know what they did?
Are we so frightened that demanding the most basic of human rights is out of the question?
These are “terrists” you say! How do you know?
Additionally hypocritical is the notion that these fighters are “terrists” because they use what they have at hand to fight off empirial forces, IED (improvised electronic devices) and suicide bombers even as we kill scores of civilians we term collateral damage inside nations with whom we are not at war by means of joystick enabled pilots closeted half a world away in Nevada.
What made the founders liberal was their belief that those who govern do so by the consent of those governed---not because those governing are related to gods.
“We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Treaty of Tripoli
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/treaty_tripoli.html
Wouldn’t it be cool to have leaders such as that today? That is strength. That is liberal---not being afraid to share. Not being ever at the ready to deny freedom, rights and opportunity.
More to follow.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Bexar County: Elections 2010 Another election, Tea Party notwithstanding, just more bootlickers
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-elections-2010-another-election-tea-party-notwithstanding-just-more-bootlickers
ONE PERSON'S TERRORIST IS ANOTHER PERSON'S FREEDOM FIGHTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oqZ6o0-xI4
Illusions of Justice, Lennox S. Hinds
http://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Justice-Rights-Violations-United/dp/0934936005
Age of Enlightenment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
http://quotations.about.com/cs/inspirationquotes/a/Respect1.htm
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx0-e4HgsU0&has_verified=1
Tony Judt: An intellectual hero
And so Judt became an astute and critical observer of why the era and its politics not only failed to bring about revolutionary change in Europe and the US, but produced a conservative backlash that is largely responsible for the slow destruction of the welfare states that had enabled unprecedented prosperity in the West in the decades after the second world war.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/08/201081084238516548.html
Why? (See next Bexar County Public Policy blog)
Liberal groups push to exploit Target backlash
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Protesters have been rallying outside Target Corp. or its stores almost daily since the retailer angered gay rights supporters and progressives by giving money to help a conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota. Liberal groups are pushing to make an example of the company, hoping its woes will deter other businesses from putting their corporate funds into elections.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Liberal-groups-push-to-apf-2321043209.html?x=0
Lady Gaga Is Sen. Frank Lautenberg's Kind of Entertainer
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/13/lady-gaga-is-sen-frank-lautenbergs-kind-of-entertainer/?icid=main
htmlws-main-ndl1link6http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F08%2F13%2Flady-gaga-is-sen-frank-lautenbergs-kind-of-entertainer%2F
Rep. Dennis Kucinich Seeks to Ban Assassinations of US Citizens
Lawyers for US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who has reportedly been targeted for assassination by the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command, had to fight the US government to have the right to represent him. On Wednesday, following a lawsuit by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Treasury Department issued a license to the pro-bono lawyers. Now the battle for due process begins. In a statement, al-Awlaki's new lawyers said the license would "allow us to pursue our litigation relating to the government’s asserted authority to engage in targeted killings of American civilians without due process."
http://www.thenation.com/blog/153899/rep-dennis-kucinich-seeks-ban-assassinations-us-citizens
Prop 8: Gay-Marriage Opponents May Be Unable to Appeal
If same-sex weddings resume in California next Thursday, the happy couples may have more names to add to their thank-you lists than that of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, the San Francisco jurist who last week struck down the 2008 voter-approved constitutional amendment that made gay marriage illegal. They may have to address new cards to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California attorney general Jerry Brown.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100813/us_time/08599201037700
Jim Jones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones
David Koresh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh
Scientific Revolutions - Stephen Gould 1941 - 2002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orkkwJue8B8
Gould on Evolution part 2. Who was the Naturalist on Board The Beagle? (1/2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt9YO07Jy6E
Leonard Cohen - Democracy [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OETwbVBPI1U
No Escape
For Mexicans fleeing violence, the United States offers no refuge
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/no-escape
Abortion agony in the PhilippinesAccording to the US-based Centre for Reproductive Rights, more than half a million women risk their lives annually by undergoing backstreet abortions.
Out of them, about 1,000 die each year.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/08/20108342154727162.html
Lessons of our exported “democracy”
Iraqis don't expect political impasse to be resolved by fall
BAGHDAD -- Nearly five months after disputed parliamentary elections, leading Iraqi politicians say they have all but abandoned hope of resolving an impasse over forming a new government before fall.
The protracted stalemate is a scenario U.S. officials have long dreaded. By the end of August, the United States will declare the end of its combat mission in Iraq -- and reduce troop strength to 50,000 -- amid a deepening political crisis.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/31/AR2010073103057.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Dutch become 1st NATO member to quit Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100801/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan
George Washington
"As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality." - George Washingon
http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/1274
Making Gaza a 'European ghetto'
While most Israeli leaders are resistant to fully lifting the blockade of Gaza, Avigdor Lieberman, the right-wing foreign minister, is advocating that Israel abandon the Strip to international monitoring and economic rehabilitation.
The proposal, recently leaked to the Israeli press, does not amount to freeing Gaza but rather to placing it under European sea and land inspections and a reconstruction plan.
If implemented, it will permanently sever the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, transforming the Strip into an internationally supervised ghetto - with the dual purpose of ensuring Israeli security and reigning in the Palestinian population.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010728133548536702.html
Taliban Spins Time's Cover Photo The Taliban vs. Time
Responding to a recent cover story, the Taliban lectures America on journalistic ethics and its women's rights problem.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/taliban-press-release-spin-time-cover-photo-aisha-women-rights
Used in the classic sense love is defined as the willingness to lay down your life for someone. Contrasted with today’s common use the word seems way out of place and there’s nothing of equal value to replace it.
The word as used today the word has become synonomous with “ really like.” In that sense I suppose it is possible to love popcorn---but it would have to be really good popcorn! But I wouldn’t be willing to die for it no matter how good. This begs the question---How are you defining “love?”
Liberal is equally mis-cast in today’s vernacular.
When our founders fought to stand-up our republic the decision to do so wasn’t just liberal---it was counter-culture, non-conformist and malcontented radical ---not to mention revolutionary.
In the mid to late 18th Century (1776) Western Civilization was less than two centuries emerged from the Dark Ages and embracing the Renaisannce or the Age of Enlightenment. Notwithstanding this progressive movement at that time “monarchs” were still all the rage as were religious clerics.
People I suppose just need someone to tell them what to do. It worked for Jim Jones and David Koresh didn’t it?
It’s difficult to comprehend that less than two-hundred years ago let alone today anyone would buy the notion that monarchs came by their right to rule by virtue of their relation to gods. Royalty? Really? Royalty by relation to Zeus, Jupiter? God? This is the mentality that gave rise to brutal, psychotic megalomaniacs---the people the founders loathed. You really don’t need a degree in psychology or psychiatry to figure out we’ve had at least one at the helm in recent memory.
Many of today’s elected representatives act as if they, too, believe they are godly. They are not. With rare exception our elected representatives are where they are by virtue of their willingness to be the lapdogs of the oligarchs---obligingly carrying out their master’s will. It’s either that or go find a real job.
Kings were tyrants. Religious clerics were every bit as disingenuous and tyrannical. Both offered little, if any, tolerance, mercy or fairness. The coin of the realm was intolerance. There was no freedom of the press, religion, speech or freedom of anything else for that matter. There has been little of that over the course of the millions of years or humanity’s existence. Even Rome’s republic lacked the tolerance the founders of this republic sought to put in place.
Of course, this too, was equally twisted, tortured and tormented when you consider that even as the founders sought to put these wonderful freedoms in place they were commiting genocidal atrocities against the indigenous peoples of this hemisphere while pressing into service those brought unwillingly from the dark continent wearing the chains of slavery. (Let’s put that thought on hold for the time being)
Leading was more ruling. Rulers offered little in the way of freedom. Because monarchs ruled with iron fists and rules they made up so there was little to fear from the masses. If a king declared that someone was an enemy of the state---it was so. No witnesses to the act that caused one to be accused of being an enemy of the state were necessary.
If the monarch accused someone---then by decree they were simply guilty. This is similar to what “w” and President Obama after him have done with the men at Guantanamo.
Nay you say! Those men at Guantanamo are “terrists” “enemy combatants!” How do we know? Says who?
One of the interesting facts of this “war on terror” is that we as a people by way of our elected representative’s, misinformation and at best questionable “facts” were led into launching a preemptive military assault on a sovereign nation by way of an ideology. Military assault was launched as if on a nation-state that had dared assault us. That was clearly not the case.
Those putting up resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan are not “terrists” they are natives of those nations resisting outside intervention and what they perceive as invaders and occupiers.
“Terrists” aren’t confined to one nation-state, religion, political party or region of the world. Those labelled “terrists” by us often view themselves as freedom fighters. Terrists don’t wear uniforms. Terrists aren’t easily identifiable. They are fighting what they perceive as occupiers. What would we do? What did we do 234 years ago?
These “terrists” freedom fighters by another name wage unconventional war because it is all they have available. Their efforts are driven by ideology and not a nation-state nationalism. That means their military resistance will be per force “unconventional” or guerrilla-style. They don’t have airframes, tanks or a large standing army.
Even in the case of “state-sponsored” terrorism” the accusation is at best hypocritical. Nations, large and small, powerful and not work throught unconventional means or beit “terrists” every day, all day long to accomplish by other means what those nations could never do above board and out in the open. There isn’t a nation on the planet that doesn’t do that. No? What do you think the CIA does all day long? Who do you think is out to kill an American who is somewhere in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region?
Consider this---how do we know US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki is a “terrist?” Isn’t that what due process is all about? If it’s okay to hunt this man down on the word of a president or an agency how is that different from allowing a monarch, king, megalomaniac to make an both an indictment and death sentence based on that monarchs’s king’s megalomaniac’s accusation alone?
It’s what we’ve done to 100’s of men over the past decade. Most, if not all, have never had a writ of habeas corpus hearing to determine just what evidence there is for holding them. So how do we know what they did?
Are we so frightened that demanding the most basic of human rights is out of the question?
These are “terrists” you say! How do you know?
Additionally hypocritical is the notion that these fighters are “terrists” because they use what they have at hand to fight off empirial forces, IED (improvised electronic devices) and suicide bombers even as we kill scores of civilians we term collateral damage inside nations with whom we are not at war by means of joystick enabled pilots closeted half a world away in Nevada.
What made the founders liberal was their belief that those who govern do so by the consent of those governed---not because those governing are related to gods.
“We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Treaty of Tripoli
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/treaty_tripoli.html
Wouldn’t it be cool to have leaders such as that today? That is strength. That is liberal---not being afraid to share. Not being ever at the ready to deny freedom, rights and opportunity.
More to follow.
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Bexar County: Elections 2010 Another election, Tea Party notwithstanding, just more bootlickers
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/bexar-county-elections-2010-another-election-tea-party-notwithstanding-just-more-bootlickers
ONE PERSON'S TERRORIST IS ANOTHER PERSON'S FREEDOM FIGHTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oqZ6o0-xI4
Illusions of Justice, Lennox S. Hinds
http://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Justice-Rights-Violations-United/dp/0934936005
Age of Enlightenment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment
Thomas Jefferson Quotes
http://quotations.about.com/cs/inspirationquotes/a/Respect1.htm
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx0-e4HgsU0&has_verified=1
Tony Judt: An intellectual hero
And so Judt became an astute and critical observer of why the era and its politics not only failed to bring about revolutionary change in Europe and the US, but produced a conservative backlash that is largely responsible for the slow destruction of the welfare states that had enabled unprecedented prosperity in the West in the decades after the second world war.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/08/201081084238516548.html
Why? (See next Bexar County Public Policy blog)
Liberal groups push to exploit Target backlash
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Protesters have been rallying outside Target Corp. or its stores almost daily since the retailer angered gay rights supporters and progressives by giving money to help a conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota. Liberal groups are pushing to make an example of the company, hoping its woes will deter other businesses from putting their corporate funds into elections.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Liberal-groups-push-to-apf-2321043209.html?x=0
Lady Gaga Is Sen. Frank Lautenberg's Kind of Entertainer
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/08/13/lady-gaga-is-sen-frank-lautenbergs-kind-of-entertainer/?icid=main
htmlws-main-ndl1link6http%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicsdaily.com%2F2010%2F08%2F13%2Flady-gaga-is-sen-frank-lautenbergs-kind-of-entertainer%2F
Rep. Dennis Kucinich Seeks to Ban Assassinations of US Citizens
Lawyers for US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, who has reportedly been targeted for assassination by the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command, had to fight the US government to have the right to represent him. On Wednesday, following a lawsuit by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Treasury Department issued a license to the pro-bono lawyers. Now the battle for due process begins. In a statement, al-Awlaki's new lawyers said the license would "allow us to pursue our litigation relating to the government’s asserted authority to engage in targeted killings of American civilians without due process."
http://www.thenation.com/blog/153899/rep-dennis-kucinich-seeks-ban-assassinations-us-citizens
Prop 8: Gay-Marriage Opponents May Be Unable to Appeal
If same-sex weddings resume in California next Thursday, the happy couples may have more names to add to their thank-you lists than that of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, the San Francisco jurist who last week struck down the 2008 voter-approved constitutional amendment that made gay marriage illegal. They may have to address new cards to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California attorney general Jerry Brown.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100813/us_time/08599201037700
Jim Jones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones
David Koresh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Koresh
Scientific Revolutions - Stephen Gould 1941 - 2002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orkkwJue8B8
Gould on Evolution part 2. Who was the Naturalist on Board The Beagle? (1/2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt9YO07Jy6E
Leonard Cohen - Democracy [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OETwbVBPI1U
No Escape
For Mexicans fleeing violence, the United States offers no refuge
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/no-escape
Abortion agony in the PhilippinesAccording to the US-based Centre for Reproductive Rights, more than half a million women risk their lives annually by undergoing backstreet abortions.
Out of them, about 1,000 die each year.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/08/20108342154727162.html
Lessons of our exported “democracy”
Iraqis don't expect political impasse to be resolved by fall
BAGHDAD -- Nearly five months after disputed parliamentary elections, leading Iraqi politicians say they have all but abandoned hope of resolving an impasse over forming a new government before fall.
The protracted stalemate is a scenario U.S. officials have long dreaded. By the end of August, the United States will declare the end of its combat mission in Iraq -- and reduce troop strength to 50,000 -- amid a deepening political crisis.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/31/AR2010073103057.html?wpisrc=nl_headline
Dutch become 1st NATO member to quit Afghanistan
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100801/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan
George Washington
"As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality." - George Washingon
http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/1274
Making Gaza a 'European ghetto'
While most Israeli leaders are resistant to fully lifting the blockade of Gaza, Avigdor Lieberman, the right-wing foreign minister, is advocating that Israel abandon the Strip to international monitoring and economic rehabilitation.
The proposal, recently leaked to the Israeli press, does not amount to freeing Gaza but rather to placing it under European sea and land inspections and a reconstruction plan.
If implemented, it will permanently sever the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, transforming the Strip into an internationally supervised ghetto - with the dual purpose of ensuring Israeli security and reigning in the Palestinian population.
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/07/2010728133548536702.html
Taliban Spins Time's Cover Photo The Taliban vs. Time
Responding to a recent cover story, the Taliban lectures America on journalistic ethics and its women's rights problem.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/08/taliban-press-release-spin-time-cover-photo-aisha-women-rights
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