January 26, 2012

"Pushing President Obama from the Left...

...and defending President Obama from the Right."

I think we need to keep the above principle first and foremost.

Here is an article that woke me up (again) from the SOTU speech.
This, I consider, is a "pushing from the Left" albeit a somewhat bitter reality for some here I am sure:

Obama’s Faux Populism Sounds Like Bill Clinton
Posted on Jan 26, 2012
By Robert Scheer

~snip~

When Obama declared Tuesday evening “no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas,” wasn’t he aware that Jeffrey Immelt, the man he appointed to head his jobs council, is the most egregious offender? Immelt, the CEO of GE, heads a company with most of its workers employed in foreign countries, a corporation that makes 82 percent of its profit abroad and has paid no U.S. taxes in the past three years.

It was also a bit bizarre for Obama to celebrate Steve Jobs as a model entrepreneur when the manufacturing jobs that the late Apple CEO created are in the same China that elsewhere in his speech the president sought to scapegoat for America’s problems. Apple, in its latest report on the subject, takes pride in attempting to limit the company’s overseas suppliers to a maximum workweek of 60 hours for their horribly exploited employees. Isn’t it weird to be chauvinistically China baiting when that country carries much of our debt?

I’m also getting tired of the exhortations to improve the nation’s schools, certainly a worthy endeavor, but this economic crisis is the result not of high school dropouts as Obama suggested, but rather the corruption of the best and brightest graduates of our elite academies. As Obama well knows from his own trajectory in the meritocracy, which took him from one of the most privileged schools in otherwise educationally depressed Hawaii to Harvard Law, the folks who concocted the mathematical formulas and wrote the laws justifying fraudulent collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps were his overachieving professors and classmates.

If he doesn’t know that, he should check out the record of Lawrence Summers, the man he picked to guide his economic program and who had been rewarded with the presidency of Harvard after having engineered Clinton’s deregulatory deal with Wall Street.

FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/obamas_faux_populism_sounds_like_bill_clinton_20120126/

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January 13, 2012

In defense of Public Services

Streets, Stormwater/Flood Control, Water Utilities, Wastewater Utilities, etc...
These all provide non-profit driven and Democratically accountable services to the public at the local level.

Furthermore, Public Services provide a vital and necessary protective "buffer" for the public good against the ravages of a Capitalist system which is eager to see the privatization of the public sector in order to fatten corporate profit margins, increase the wealth of CEO's and upper management, and enrich the shareholders.

This buffer is dwindling yet at the same time is absolutely essential for the overall public good and well being of "we the people".


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January 8, 2012

Newt the Liar

Gingrich complains gays rights questions are ‘anti-Christian bigotry’
[url]http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/07/gingrich-complains-gays-rights-questions-are-anti-christian-bigotry/[/url]



From the comments section of the article.
I could not have said it better:

"Should the Catholic Church be forced to close its adoption services in Massachusetts because it won’t accept gay couples"

What a goddamn liar. The state is saying they won't pay for them to discriminate - they didn't force the church out of the adoption business (and it is a business, make no mistake about it, otherwise the church wouldn't do it).

The media is at fault because they are too stupid or lazy or incompetent to stop Newt and call him out on this statement. Or maybe they are complicit, but a person with even the most basic rhetorical skills could shut down Newt in 2 seconds.
-Jimcima


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January 8, 2012

Hemp and the Rule of Law

Great DVD.
[url]http://www.tinroofvideo.com/page/page/5566214.htm[/url]

Here is a segment:

Also:

REGULATE MARIJUANA LIKE WINE

A California Voter Initiative - 2012

In Short - This California Voter Initiative for 2012 intends to:

Repeal prohibition of marijuana for adults
Strictly regulates marijuana, just like the wine industry
Allows hemp agriculture and products

Does not change laws regarding:
medical marijuana
impairment
workplace
vehicle operation
use by minors under 21 years old

Provides specific personal possession exemptions
Requires dismissal of pending court cases
Defense against all related litigation
Prevents California from supporting federal enforcements that conflict with this law and requires the State to petition the Feds to remove marijuana from Schedule One
Prohibits commercial advertising of non-medical marijuana
Generates new revenue from sales taxes, while creating no new taxes

[url]http://regulatemarijuanalikewine.com/regulate-marijuana-like-wine-act-2012/[/url]

January 7, 2012

When any good economic news happens...

...notice in the "comments" section (of any article) how the RWnuts, CONs, Repubs, (whatever you want to call them)...notice how they all rush to denounce the news.

What's good for the country is bad for them.
Says a lot.

Here's an example...scroll down for comments:

Unemployment near three-year low
http://news.yahoo.com/unemployment-near-three-low-125927252.html


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January 4, 2012

One Toke Over The Line - Lawrence Welk