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WillyT
WillyT's Journal
WillyT's Journal
November 23, 2013
With... Without... And Who'll Deny... That's What The Fighting's All About...
Link:
November 22, 2013
Kennedy's Legacy - MSNBC Photos...
Link: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/35763018/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1
November 22, 2013
By Hannah Hess
Roll Call Staff
Nov. 18, 2013, 5:10 p.m.
Link: http://www.rollcall.com/news/gpo_posts_full_warren_commission_report_online-229153-1.html
GPO Posts Full Warren Commission Report Online (Links at the Link)- Roll Call
GPO Posts Full Warren Commission Report OnlineBy Hannah Hess
Roll Call Staff
Nov. 18, 2013, 5:10 p.m.
The Warren Commission Report on John F. Kennedy’s assassination hit President Lyndon B. Johnson’s desk on Sept. 24, 1964, hot off the presses of the Government Printing Office.
Now, nearly 50 years after the shooting in Dallas, Americans can revisit the often-contested facts presented in the nearly 900-page document via the agency’s Federal Digital System at gpo.gov/fdsys.
With a click of the mouse, curious souls can download a PDF of the copy held by Georgetown University’s Lauinger Library and devour it from cover to cover. The pages provide an up-close look at Lee Harvey Oswald’s visa application, medical reports from the doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and two grisly illustrations of the president’s head wounds.
“The publication and dissemination of the Warren Commission Report is an example of how GPO has adapted to technological changes during the last half century,” said Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks. “GPO’s presses first printed the report in 1964. Through partnerships with the Library of Congress and the Lauinger Library, GPO is now able to make the report available digitally on the anniversary of this tragic event.”
The report is backed up by 26 volumes of hearings conducted under the leadership of commission chairman and Chief Justice Earl Warren, which the GPO also printed. Some of those volumes remained classified until the mid-1990s, others are still withheld. Accessing Kennedy’s autopsy records, for instance, requires membership in a presidential or congressional commission or permission from the family. Altogether, the GPO’s work for the commission produced nearly 235,000 copies of the report and nearly 5,600 sets of the hearings.
In an effort to shed more light on the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination, the GPO is also highlighting recordings of conversations that day between officials in Washington, Air Force One pilots, and people on board the flight from Dallas to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Visitors, for instance, can hear Johnson being connected to JFK’s mother, Rose Kennedy, to offer his condolences.
Now, nearly 50 years after the shooting in Dallas, Americans can revisit the often-contested facts presented in the nearly 900-page document via the agency’s Federal Digital System at gpo.gov/fdsys.
With a click of the mouse, curious souls can download a PDF of the copy held by Georgetown University’s Lauinger Library and devour it from cover to cover. The pages provide an up-close look at Lee Harvey Oswald’s visa application, medical reports from the doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas and two grisly illustrations of the president’s head wounds.
“The publication and dissemination of the Warren Commission Report is an example of how GPO has adapted to technological changes during the last half century,” said Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks. “GPO’s presses first printed the report in 1964. Through partnerships with the Library of Congress and the Lauinger Library, GPO is now able to make the report available digitally on the anniversary of this tragic event.”
The report is backed up by 26 volumes of hearings conducted under the leadership of commission chairman and Chief Justice Earl Warren, which the GPO also printed. Some of those volumes remained classified until the mid-1990s, others are still withheld. Accessing Kennedy’s autopsy records, for instance, requires membership in a presidential or congressional commission or permission from the family. Altogether, the GPO’s work for the commission produced nearly 235,000 copies of the report and nearly 5,600 sets of the hearings.
In an effort to shed more light on the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination, the GPO is also highlighting recordings of conversations that day between officials in Washington, Air Force One pilots, and people on board the flight from Dallas to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Visitors, for instance, can hear Johnson being connected to JFK’s mother, Rose Kennedy, to offer his condolences.
Link: http://www.rollcall.com/news/gpo_posts_full_warren_commission_report_online-229153-1.html
November 22, 2013
:( :::::::::::::::::::::::::: Conductor Erich Leinsdorf breaks the news of Kennedy's assassination
Just on Rachel Maddow...
November 22, 2013
Did You Watch Oswald Get Shot By Jack Ruby On Live TV ???
We were home, and glued to the TV from news of the assassination, to the end of the funeral.
You?
November 22, 2013
Re: JFK... Whether You Believe It Was A Lone Gunman, Or More... There Were MANY Who Wanted Him Dead
Remember THIS ??? - Posted all over Dallas that day...
(Pay particular attention to the last three.)
Sound familiar ??? - They are among us still.
November 22, 2013
Something To Think About On Nuking The Filibuster...
Think about that legislative Speaker in Wisconsin who broke his gavel while yelling at Democrats to "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP" while ignoring the "normal" rules of that house.
Think about Ken Cuchinelli who refused to resign his position of Attorney General who oversees election conflicts, WHILE RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR HIMSELF.
Think about Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and a dozen other states that are pushing women, LGBT, minorities, voters, and anybody else they don't like around.
Think about Ted Cruz... and Rand Paul... and the direction the Republican Party is headed trying to appease, while not wetting themselves, the tea-baggers and other folks to the right of Attila The Hun...
And think about Scott Walker... think again about Scott Walker and what his ilk are willing to do when in power...
And then ask yourself if you have any doubt the Republicans would nuke the filibuster, in toto, if they were to gain back the majority in their current configuration.
You know they would...
The numbers are working against them... and they are desperate... they are crazy... and they are dangerous...
I for one am glad Harry Reid did this... I'm glad he went before they got the chance... because playing nice has not been working.
So I say... Bravo Harry... and if need be... nuke 'em again.
November 21, 2013
Conservative ploy to slash public employee benefits runs into trouble when its own poll shows an unexpected reality
DAVID SIROTA - Salon
TUESDAY, NOV 19, 2013 08:06 AM PST
<snip>
Late last month, the Pew Center on the States began ratcheting up its now-infamous campaign to slash public employee retirement benefits. As damaging stories about its partnership with former Enron trader John Arnold swirled through the media, the organization convened a two-day conference for politicians, lobbyists and activists at the swanky Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C.
With pension-slashing politicians like San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed (D) rallying the troops, the event’s goal seemed obvious: to reinvigorate the Plot Against Pensions and gear up for yet another push for big retirement benefit cuts in the upcoming state legislative sessions. Yet, there was one big embarrassing problem: When the organization released its new poll at the conference in support of its pension-cutting agenda, the survey data showed that the American public is powerfully rejecting the right’s anti-public-worker crusade.
Salon has obtained a copy of the results of the Pew-commissioned poll, which was jointly conducted by the Democratic-aligned Mellman Group and the GOP-aligned Public Opinion Strategies. You can review the full results of the survey here (.pdf file): http://media.salon.com/2013/11/Pew-PollingMemo.pdf
The key findings include:
<snip>
More: http://www.salon.com/2013/11/19/right_wing_pension_cutters_get_humiliated_by_their_own_survey_data/
Right-Wing Pension-Cutters Get Humiliated By Their Own Survey Data - Salon
Right-wing pension-cutters get humiliated by their own survey dataConservative ploy to slash public employee benefits runs into trouble when its own poll shows an unexpected reality
DAVID SIROTA - Salon
TUESDAY, NOV 19, 2013 08:06 AM PST
<snip>
Late last month, the Pew Center on the States began ratcheting up its now-infamous campaign to slash public employee retirement benefits. As damaging stories about its partnership with former Enron trader John Arnold swirled through the media, the organization convened a two-day conference for politicians, lobbyists and activists at the swanky Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C.
With pension-slashing politicians like San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed (D) rallying the troops, the event’s goal seemed obvious: to reinvigorate the Plot Against Pensions and gear up for yet another push for big retirement benefit cuts in the upcoming state legislative sessions. Yet, there was one big embarrassing problem: When the organization released its new poll at the conference in support of its pension-cutting agenda, the survey data showed that the American public is powerfully rejecting the right’s anti-public-worker crusade.
Salon has obtained a copy of the results of the Pew-commissioned poll, which was jointly conducted by the Democratic-aligned Mellman Group and the GOP-aligned Public Opinion Strategies. You can review the full results of the survey here (.pdf file): http://media.salon.com/2013/11/Pew-PollingMemo.pdf
The key findings include:
Though the anti-pension coalition has spent millions of dollars on ads and public campaigns to portray public employees as greedy parasites, the pollsters found that “voters have generally favorable views of public employees” and that those favorable views are found among voters of both political parties. Poll respondents gave teachers, police officers and state public employees net favorability ratings of 88, 86 and 60 percent, respectively.
Anti-pension activists have cited places like Detroit and California as proof that retirement benefits are too generous and unsustainable, even though average public employees in those locales make an annual $19,000 and $26,000 in retirement benefit, respectively. Pew’s poll shows that Americans are seeing through the anti-pension propaganda and appreciating the reality of those numbers. In all, 55 percent of poll respondents believe public pension benefits are currently about the right amount, or too small.
Anti-pension activists have cited places like Detroit and California as proof that retirement benefits are too generous and unsustainable, even though average public employees in those locales make an annual $19,000 and $26,000 in retirement benefit, respectively. Pew’s poll shows that Americans are seeing through the anti-pension propaganda and appreciating the reality of those numbers. In all, 55 percent of poll respondents believe public pension benefits are currently about the right amount, or too small.
<snip>
More: http://www.salon.com/2013/11/19/right_wing_pension_cutters_get_humiliated_by_their_own_survey_data/
November 20, 2013
WaPo Editorial Board
11/17/13
<snip>
PRESIDENT OBAMA and the Republicans never have struck a “grand bargain” on spending and taxes. Nor does it appear likely that the current budget bargaining between Democratic and GOP negotiators in Congress, who met inconclusively again on Wednesday, will produce one. They may fail to achieve even a small bargain. Even so, Mr. Obama faces rising pressure from the left flank of his party to defend entitlement programs tooth and nail. That pressure comes although such programs represent the lion’s share of federal expenditure growth in the coming decades. ?
In recent days, those styling themselves “bold progressives” have been rallying support for a bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (Calif.), both Democrats, that would increase Social Security benefits. Supporters tout it as courageous pushback against austerity; in fact, it’s a case study in how not to redefine liberalism for the 21st century.
The Harkin-Sanchez proposal would change Social Security benefit formulas to produce an average increase of $60 per month, plus a more generous annual inflation adjustment, than the program uses now. It also would extend the life of the notional trust fund from which benefits are drawn by 16 years. To pay for this, the bill would subject all wage and salary income to the 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax, as opposed to only drawing from income up to $113,700 as is presently done. For someone earning $200,000 per year, this would mean a tax increase of more than $4,000 per year. For someone earning $1?million, the tax increase would be $58,700.
It’s a massive transfer of income from upper-income Americans to the retired. A tax increase is not, in itself, objectionable. Revenue is necessary to pay the costs of an aging society, and it should be raised progressively. With respect to Social Security specifically, the percentage of wage and salary earnings subject to the tax has shrunk in recent years, and there’s an argument for correcting that.
Yet even the rich have finite resources...
<snip>
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/social-security-proposals-are-wrongheaded/2013/11/17/38ebb486-4bde-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html
The Very 1st Response:
BOO!!! - And Fucking BRAVO !!! - A Shit Of A WaPo Editorial, And One HELL Of A Response...
Social Security proposals are wrongheadedWaPo Editorial Board
11/17/13
<snip>
PRESIDENT OBAMA and the Republicans never have struck a “grand bargain” on spending and taxes. Nor does it appear likely that the current budget bargaining between Democratic and GOP negotiators in Congress, who met inconclusively again on Wednesday, will produce one. They may fail to achieve even a small bargain. Even so, Mr. Obama faces rising pressure from the left flank of his party to defend entitlement programs tooth and nail. That pressure comes although such programs represent the lion’s share of federal expenditure growth in the coming decades. ?
In recent days, those styling themselves “bold progressives” have been rallying support for a bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (Calif.), both Democrats, that would increase Social Security benefits. Supporters tout it as courageous pushback against austerity; in fact, it’s a case study in how not to redefine liberalism for the 21st century.
The Harkin-Sanchez proposal would change Social Security benefit formulas to produce an average increase of $60 per month, plus a more generous annual inflation adjustment, than the program uses now. It also would extend the life of the notional trust fund from which benefits are drawn by 16 years. To pay for this, the bill would subject all wage and salary income to the 12.4 percent Social Security payroll tax, as opposed to only drawing from income up to $113,700 as is presently done. For someone earning $200,000 per year, this would mean a tax increase of more than $4,000 per year. For someone earning $1?million, the tax increase would be $58,700.
It’s a massive transfer of income from upper-income Americans to the retired. A tax increase is not, in itself, objectionable. Revenue is necessary to pay the costs of an aging society, and it should be raised progressively. With respect to Social Security specifically, the percentage of wage and salary earnings subject to the tax has shrunk in recent years, and there’s an argument for correcting that.
Yet even the rich have finite resources...
<snip>
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/social-security-proposals-are-wrongheaded/2013/11/17/38ebb486-4bde-11e3-ac54-aa84301ced81_story.html
The Very 1st Response:
Dryly 41
11/18/2013 8:04 AM PST
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese Empire attacked U.S. naval and air bases at Pearl Harbor. Thereafter sixteen million young men wore the uniform, and, after 3 years and 8 months secured the unconditional surrender of Italy, Germany, and, Japan, Then, except for 405,399, they came home, went to school of the G.I. Bill or got jobs and entered into delayed marriages. The delayed marriages created the "demographic bubble" known as the Baby Boom generation and the children of WW II vets began to turn 65 in 2011.
In 1946 the Gross Federal Debt amounted to 121.7% of GDP. the Truman administration reduced it to 71.4% of GDP; Eisenhower to 55.2%; Kennedy/Johnson to 38.6%; Nixon/Ford to 35.8%; and, Carter to 32.5%.
Then came Ronald Reagan with massive "supply side" tax cuts primarily for the wealthy and budget deficits in each of eight years increasing the Gross Federal Debt from 32.5% to 53.1% of GDP. Bush I had four more years of budget deficits increasing the debt to 66.1%.
Clinton raised taxes, had 4% unemployment, balanced budgets and reduced the debt to 56.4%.
Bush II instituted two rounds of "supply side" tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, had eight more years of deficits and increased the Gross Federal Debt from 56.4% of GDP to 85.1% with a crippled economy.
In 1983 Reagan signed a regressive FICA payroll increase so as to create a surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund which has a $2.6 trillion dollar reserve as of December 2012.
Social Security did not contribute one thin dime to the massive Federal Debt.
This massive Federal Debt was caused by borrowing all these trillions to fund "supply side" tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens most able to pay taxes.
The massive Federal Debt was not for any great national purpose such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WW I, or, WW II. It was for "supply side" tax cuts for the wealthy.
Start with eliminating "supply side" economics and return to traditional Republican tax and fiscal policy.
Do this first.
11/18/2013 8:04 AM PST
On December 7, 1941 the Japanese Empire attacked U.S. naval and air bases at Pearl Harbor. Thereafter sixteen million young men wore the uniform, and, after 3 years and 8 months secured the unconditional surrender of Italy, Germany, and, Japan, Then, except for 405,399, they came home, went to school of the G.I. Bill or got jobs and entered into delayed marriages. The delayed marriages created the "demographic bubble" known as the Baby Boom generation and the children of WW II vets began to turn 65 in 2011.
In 1946 the Gross Federal Debt amounted to 121.7% of GDP. the Truman administration reduced it to 71.4% of GDP; Eisenhower to 55.2%; Kennedy/Johnson to 38.6%; Nixon/Ford to 35.8%; and, Carter to 32.5%.
Then came Ronald Reagan with massive "supply side" tax cuts primarily for the wealthy and budget deficits in each of eight years increasing the Gross Federal Debt from 32.5% to 53.1% of GDP. Bush I had four more years of budget deficits increasing the debt to 66.1%.
Clinton raised taxes, had 4% unemployment, balanced budgets and reduced the debt to 56.4%.
Bush II instituted two rounds of "supply side" tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, had eight more years of deficits and increased the Gross Federal Debt from 56.4% of GDP to 85.1% with a crippled economy.
In 1983 Reagan signed a regressive FICA payroll increase so as to create a surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund which has a $2.6 trillion dollar reserve as of December 2012.
Social Security did not contribute one thin dime to the massive Federal Debt.
This massive Federal Debt was caused by borrowing all these trillions to fund "supply side" tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens most able to pay taxes.
The massive Federal Debt was not for any great national purpose such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WW I, or, WW II. It was for "supply side" tax cuts for the wealthy.
Start with eliminating "supply side" economics and return to traditional Republican tax and fiscal policy.
Do this first.
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