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John Zoeller

Jesus Camp transcript - 18 views

  • Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman ever to serve...on the High Court has turned in her letter of resignation
  • So there is some new brand of religion out there…that somehow that things have changed… since Matthew…uh, wrote… uh…wrote about Jesus's sermon on the mount…where Jesus told us to be peacemakers. And right now they...everything they do…they say, they do it in name of God. That we need to go to war in name of God. They are being told George Bush, of all people…is a Holy man who has been anointed… with the job of… of…creating a Christian society… not just in America, but all over the world
  • President George W. Bush: Good morning...I directed my staff to compile information… and recommend from my review, potential nominees…who faithfully interpret the Constitution and laws of our country
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  • We are engaged today… in what they call culture war. We did not start it… but, we, by his grace, are going to end it. And we should say: "Yes… we want to reclaim America for Christ "
  • I want to see them as radically laying down their lives…… for the Gospel, as they are over in Pakistan…… in Israel and…and Palestine…… and all places, you know because we have…Excuse me! But we have the Truth!
  • Why are our kids thought that global warming doesn't exist?
  • ...they took prayer out of schools, and…… ah… the schools started to fall apart.
  • I am pleased to announce my nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
  • They are so usable in Christianity.If we look at the world's population…… one third of that 6,700 billion people……are children under the age of 15, one third.Where should we putting our efforts?Where should we putting our focus?I'll tell you where are our enemies are putting it……they are putting on the kids.
  • compassionate
    • John Zoeller
       
      George Bush called his political philosophy compassionate conservatism...
    • John Zoeller
       
      This is one way that religion and foreign policy connect...she's using the word "enemies"...
  • there is a friendly environment now…… in the United States towards Christianity…… that has been in my lifetime…… and a lot of it has to do just the last few years…… has to do with President Bush.He has really brought some real credibility…
    • John Zoeller
       
      George Bush was the most openly religious president since Jimmy Carter...
  • This moment right now today, is a fulfillment of a prophecy.We got to stand up and take back to the land.
    • John Zoeller
       
      This what is meant by culture war.
  • God, end abortion and send revival to America
  • This generation particularly…… is the sight and sound generation…… and so, it is very difficult for them…… to sit down with a book, a tablet and a pencil…… and try to learn the way we've learnt.They learn visually, they learn by demonstration…… they learn by uh…modeling and.
    • John Zoeller
       
      Remember, one of the reasons we are viewing this film is to reinforce the idea of gaining access to certain demographic groups. In this case, it is young people, children. But there are ways to access other groups as well. This is the essence of modern political campaigns: broadcast benign messages, narrowcast specific messages, build a coalition to 50% plus 1.
  • I got my big old ghost hammer tonight.We gonna break something in tonight.We gonna break the power of the enemy in government.They came to your schools and they took Jesus out of your schools but……one thing they couldn't do, is take Jesus out of your heart.We can't just sit back and accept corrupt government.I believe God wants to put godly righteous people in government.How many of you want to break this cup?The power of the enemy of government.Break this cup.You break that thing in the name of Jesus.
    • John Zoeller
       
      This is the scene where the children write the word "government" on coffee mugs and then smash them with a hammer. The implication is that the government is unjust because it has passed and enforces laws that do not match with their laws as written in the Bible. The scene ends with Becky Fisher declaring "this means war!!!"
  • Here is the deal.Before you were born… … God knew you. Extraordinary. He said this: "He said he formedyou in your mother's womb."
    • John Zoeller
       
      You now know the origin on the restriction on contraception that was the subject of Griswold v Connecticut (1965) http://teachers.dadeschools.net/jzoeller/APGovt/01_A_Landmark_Supreme_Court_Cases_Summaries_files/112d2ab5d08653418fa1f2879d508e79-82.html
  • Do you think you know America?
  • Well, I got to tell you: you don't.There is a religious political army of foot soldiers out here…… that are being directed by a political right
  • what ends up happening, is they start taking control…… in small slices, and so…th…This is the last stage. Let me tell you something. They've taken over...the White House, Congress…… the judiciary for a generation.
    • John Zoeller
       
      George Bush was elected on the power of the evangelical vote. The appointment of Samuel Alito, and many lower court justices are what the talk-show host is referring to.
  • Together, these people form a powerful…… I mean, powerful voting block.Look, George Bush and Karl Rove…… all these people: big, big time.
    • John Zoeller
       
      This is what the Faith Based Initiatives were intended to do. Fetal stem cell decision, too.
  • Churches like this…There is a new church like this…… every 2 days in America. It's got enough grow… … to essentially every election.If the evangelicals vote, they determine the election.It's a fabulous life!
  • Anyone who does any work with kids knows this…… it's because the reason you go for kids…… it is because whatever they learn…… by the age of 7, 8, 9 years old…… it's pretty long there for the rest of their lives…
    • John Zoeller
       
      In political beliefs, this is similar, but not absolutely true...
  • You know, I think democracy…… is the greatest political system on Earth…it's the only… the only… it's the on Earth, you know…… and it is designed to destroy itself …… because we have to give everyone the equal freedom…… and it will destroy us.
    • John Zoeller
       
      Remember my allusion to Plato's Allegory of the Cave: treat equals equally, treat unequals unequally...
  • On this vote, are 58, are 42.The president’s nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr…… of New Jersey to be associate justice…… of the Supreme Court of the United States…… is confirmed.
    • John Zoeller
       
      The vote, 58-43 in favor, was almost straight party line: only four Democratic Senators voted aye, and each was from a "Red" state. And even if they had voted no, Alito would still have been confirmed.
  • What's always set this country apart?… is because there is something that we called: …… a separation between Church and State.
    • John Zoeller
       
      Not quite always. The case histories on school prayer, and reproductive rights, and the right to die are good examples.
  • This is a crucial, crucial time.Judge Alito, what we worked on for a 30 years…… is coming to culmination, to consummation, right now.And let's... let's confirm this man, Judge Alito…… to the US Supreme Court and let's make one more step towards…… bringing America back to one nation under God.
    • John Zoeller
       
      The voice here is most likely the Reverend Jerry Fallwell, one of the most influential Christian leaders in US history.
    • John Zoeller
       
      The reference to 30 years is a reference to Roe v Wade and the larger culture war.
    • John Zoeller
       
      This is a difficult thing to present in a sticky note, but do you recall our class discussion concerning capital punishment? That when the government executes someone, it is denying its fundamental premise: the protection of life, liberty, and property. That when the government does so, it is all of us pressing the button to extinguish a life. And moreover, recall the three (or 4) reasons we punish; 1) to teach, 2) to force suffering to atone, 3) to extract vengeance, 4) to protect.
  • One popular thing to do in American politics… …it is to note that the summers in the United States… …over the past few years, have been very warm.As a result, global warming must be real.What's wrong with this reasoning?- It's only gone up 0.6 degrees.- Ah.
    • John Zoeller
       
      On NPR today, therewas a story about a protest in Alaska concerning the opening up of the "Northwest Passage"...something that we think has never existed during civilized history...and the environmental impact of oil drilling where previously ice sheets had made drilling impossible or dangerous.
  • Jesus Camp
John Zoeller

7.1_3B-McConnell v FEC (Scalia's Opinion) - 0 views

  • Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA)
    • John Zoeller
       
      Also known as "McCain-Feingold", after the two Senators, one a Republican, the other a Democrat, the Bi-Partisan Campaign Finance Reform Act amended and extended the Federal Elections Commission Act (FECA). The BCRA did several things: 1) banned unregulated contributions, known as "soft money",to national political parties by special interests or individuals including funds for "party building activities" 2) Changed several provisions regarding the size of permissible contributions 3) Banned unions, corporations, and non-profit corporations from funding broadcast advertisements, called "electioneering communications" within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary; examples include Right to Life or the Environmental Defense Fund, or even an unincorporated entity (a person, presumably) using any corporate or union general treasury funds
  • Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1 (1976)
  • Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 (FECA)
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  • This is a sad day for the freedom of speech
  • a law that cuts to the heart of what the First Amendment is meant to protect: the right to criticize the government
  • It forbids pre-election criticism of incumbents by corporations, even not-for-profit corporations, by use of their general funds; and forbids national-party use of “soft” money to fund “issue ads” that incumbents find so offensive
  • To be sure, the legislation is evenhanded: It similarly prohibits criticism of the candidates who oppose Members of Congress in their reelection bids. But as everyone knows, this is an area in which evenhandedness is not fairness. If all electioneering were evenhandedly prohibited, incumbents would have an enormous advantage
  • if incumbents and challengers are limited to the same quantity of electioneering, incumbents are favored
  • Beyond that, however, the present legislation targets for prohibition certain categories of campaign speech that are particularly harmful to incumbents. Is it accidental, do you think, that incumbents raise about three times as much “hard money”–the sort of funding generally not restricted by this legislation–as do their challengers?
  • I wish to address three fallacious propositions
  • (a)  Money is Not Speech
    • John Zoeller
       
      it is...
  • (b)  Pooling Money is Not Speech
    • John Zoeller
       
      it is...
  • (c) Speech by Corporations Can Be Abridged
    • John Zoeller
       
      it can't...
  • introduce a nonspeech element
  • introduce a nonspeech element
  • As we said in Buckley, 424 U.S., at 16, “this Court has never suggested that the dependence of a communication on the expenditure of money operates itself to introduce a nonspeech element or to reduce the exacting scrutiny required by the First Amendment.”
  • In any economy operated on even the most rudimentary principles of division of labor, effective public communication requires the speaker to make use of the services of others.
  • Division of labor requires a means of mediating exchange, and in a commercial society, that means is supplied by money.
  • This is not to say that any regulation of money is a regulation of speech
  • But where the government singles out money used to fund speech as its legislative object, it is acting against speech as such, no less than if it had targeted the paper on which a book was printed or the trucks that deliver it to the bookstore
  • The constitutional right of association explicated in NAACP v. Alabama, 357 U.S. 449, 460 (1958), stemmed from the Court’s recognition that ‘[e]ffective advocacy of both public and private points of view, particularly controversial ones, is undeniably enhanced by group association
  • Subsequent decisions have made clear that the First and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee ‘ “freedom to associate with others for the common advancement of political beliefs and ideas,” ’ … .” Buckley, supra, at 15.We have said that “implicit in the right to engage in activities protected by the First Amendment” is “a corresponding right to associate with others in pursuit of a wide variety of political, social, economic, educational, religious, and cultural ends
  • In NAACP v. Button, supra, at 428—429, 431, we held that the NAACP could assert First Amendment rights “on its own behalf, . . . though a corporation,”
  • The Court changed course in Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 494 U.S. 652 (1990), upholding a state prohibition of an independent corporate expenditure in support of a candidate for state office. I dissented in that case, see id., at 679, and remain of the view that it was error.
  • the organizational form in which those enterprises already exist, and in which they can most quickly and most effectively get their message across, is the corporate form. The First Amendment does not in my view permit the restriction of that political speech. And the same holds true for corporate electoral speech: A candidate should not be insulated from the most effective speech that the major participants in the economy and major incorporated interest groups can generate.
  • dissenting
  • concurring
John Zoeller

9.1_4-Notes: A Day in the Senate - 0 views

    • John Zoeller
       
      This page describes a number of Senate Rules, but also the specific procedures that the Senate follows (rules) after an election (every two years) where 1/3 of its members six-year terms have eneded.
  • Unlike the House, however, the Senate is a "continuing body"
  • majority party caucus
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  • president pro tempore
  • calls the Senate to order
  • chaplain leads the chamber in prayer
  • Call to order
  • Setting the Senate's daily meeting hour
  • Leader time
  • one of the first actions in the new session, and it is done by Resolution
    • John Zoeller
       
      Everthing Congress does will require some kind of vote...and a Resolution is what they vote on: HR=House Resolution, SR = Senate Resolution (also HB House Billl and SB Senate Bill)
  • tradition and practice
  • "unanimous consent"
    • John Zoeller
       
      This is a "ritualistic" handing over of the operation of the Senate to it majority party.
  • Making this request establishes acceptance by the Senate of the prerogative and responsibility of the Majority Leader
  • First, the Majority Leader rises (stands), is recognized, and speaks for up to 10 minutes Next, the Minority Leader rises, is recognized, and speaks for up to 10 minutes
    • John Zoeller
       
      "Agenda Setting"
  • A "Legislative Day"
  • The Senate Rules establish certain protocols at the start of each new Legislative Day
  • Legislative Day can extend for several days, or even several months
  • recess
  • adjournment
  • Rule VII establishes the first two hours of a Legislative Day as the Morning Hour
  • first of these two hours
  • morning business
  • presents to the Senate any presidential messages, executive communications, and messages from the House that the Senate has received
  • petitions and memorials
  • committee reports
  • introduce bills and joint resolutions, and submit concurrent and Senate resolutions.
  • "morning business", Rule VIII provides for a "call of the calendar"
  • The Senate maintains two calendars
  • The Legislative Calendar
  • The Executive Calendar
  • he reason for Morning Hour is to assure that the Senate sets aside some time for "Routine Business"
  • the Majority Leader may make a non-debatable motion that the Senate proceed to consider any bill on the legislative Calendar of Business
  • Senate often prefers to recess in order to avoid the new Legislative Day requirements
  • Majority Leader generally provides time during the day by unanimous consent to conduct routine busines
  • Resumption of Unfinished Business
  • Senate resumes consideration of the unfinished business
  • Unfinished business is the matter the Senate was considering at the time it adjourned
  • At any time, however, the Senate may turn to other legislative business, or go into executive session to consider a treaty or nomination either by motion or unanimous consent
  • Often at the end of a day’s session, the Majority Leader asks the minority leader if certain bills and resolutions have been “cleared” by the members of his party (that is, if all interested Senators have agreed that the measures should be passed and that no live debate is necessary) If a series of measures have been “cleared,” the Majority Leader calls them up in order, or en bloc by unanimous consent, and proposes any amendments on which the interested Senators may have agreed in advance. Each measure is called up and passed in a matter of minutes or less; there usually is no debate, although Senators may have statements inserted in the Congressional Record.
  • Finally, the Majority Leader typically makes certain arrangements, by unanimous consent, for the following day. For example, Proposes the time at which the Senate will meet Provides for a period for transacting routine morning business during which Senators may speak briefly Provide his own comment on the anticipated legislative program for the next day before he moves that the Senate recess or adjourn.
  • Unlike House members, Senators are given opportunities to use Senate Rules to gain direct access to the Legislative Calendar
  • procedure by which a Senator can introduce a bill, or submit a resolution, and then have it placed directly on the Senate’s legislative Calendar of Business, without first having been referred to one or more committees.
  • A Senator may rise, seek recognition, send the resolution to "the desk" (the clerks' desk), and ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration
  • The resolution is then read
  • “go over, under the Rule"
  • placed on the Calendar under the heading of “Resolutions and Motions over, under the Rule,” to be laid before the Senate on the next legislative day
  • Committee Referrals & Reports
  • A bill may be referred to more than one committee if each has jurisdiction over part or all of i
  • concurrently to two or more committees
  • may be divided among the committees
  • may be referred sequentially
  • After a Committee has conducted hearings and markup sessions, the bill may be reported to the Senate to be placed on the Legislative Calendar
  • includes a written "report"
  • discussion of the policy issue
  • Amendments
  • section-by- section analysis
  • discussion of the committee’s deliberations
  • Committee with unfavorable opinions of a bill usually refuse to take any action This is what is meant by a bill "dying in Committee"
John Zoeller

TED: Meet Global Corruption's Hidden Players - 8 views

  • former Soviet megalomaniacs
  • all-powerful leader of Turkmenistan, a Central Asian country rich in natural gas
  • spent millions of dollars creating a bizarre personality cult
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  • 40-foot-high gold-plated statue of himself
  • renamed the months of the year including after himself and his mother
  • cliché, the African dictator or minister or official
  • Equatorial Guinea, a West African nation that has exported billions of dollars of oil since the 1990s
  • vast majority of its people are living in really miserable poverty despite an income per capita that's on a par with that of Portugal
    • John Zoeller
       
      Both Equatorial Guinea and Portugal have per capita incomes of $23,000 per year...but most Guineans are very, very poor. Only the extremely high incomes of its tiny elite boost the average up!
    • John Zoeller
       
      When calculating income in Equatorial Guinea using a median income approach, the number is closer to $10,000 per capita.
  • buys himself a $30 million mansion in Malibu, California
  • bought an €18 million art collection
  • fabulous sports cars
  • Gulfstream jet
  • Dan Etete. Well, he was the former oil minister of Nigeria
  • Teodorín Obiang
  • daddy is president for life
  • a $1 billion — oil deal that he was involved with
  • So it's easy to think that corruption happens somewhere over there, carried out by a bunch of greedy despots and individuals up to no good in countries that we, personally, may know very little about and feel really unconnected to and unaffected by what might be going on. But does it just happen over there?
  • Well, at 22,
  • set up an organization called Global Witness
    • John Zoeller
       
      This is an example of a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO).
  • first campaign was investigating the role of illegal logging in funding the war in Cambodia
  • 1997, and I'm in Angola undercover investigating blood diamonds.
  • the Hollywood film "Blood Diamond," the one with Leonardo DiCaprio
  • I'd been speaking to lots of people there who, well, they talked about a different problem: that of a massive web of corruption on a global scale and millions of oil dollars going missing.
  • I've repeatedly seen that what makes corruption on a global, massive scale possible, well it isn't just greed or the misuse of power or that nebulous phrase "weak governance." I mean, yes, it's all of those, but corruption, it's made possible by the actions of global facilitators
  • Obiang junior.
  • He did business with global banks. A bank in Paris held accounts of companies controlled by him, one of which was used to buy the art, and American banks, well, they funneled 73 million dollars into the States, some of which was used to buy that California mansion. And he didn't do all of this in his own name either. He used shell companies. He used one to buy the property, and another, which was in somebody else's name, to pay the huge bills it cost to run the place.
  • Dan Etete
  • he awarded an oil block now worth over a billion dollars to a company that, guess what, yeah, he was the hidden owner of
  • with the kind assistance of the Nigerian government
  • to subsidiaries of Shell and the Italian Eni, two of the biggest oil companies around
  • the reality is, is that the engine of corruption
  • our international banking system
    • John Zoeller
       
      Giant Pool of Money!
    • John Zoeller
       
      Remember, banks can't make a profit unless they lend money...or collect fees for moving money.
  • anonymous shell companies
  • secrecy
  • failure of our politicians to back up their rhetoric and do something really meaningful and systemic to tackle this stuff
    • John Zoeller
       
      Its because we do not know, and therefore cannot demand more from our politicians.
  • take the banks first
  • banks accept dirty money
  • but they prioritize their profits in other destructive ways too
    • John Zoeller
       
      It would have been better to say that they have choices to make when it comes to doing business.
  • For example, in Sarawak, Malaysia
  • has just five percent of its forests left intact
  • because an elite and its facilitators have been making millions of dollars from supporting logging on an industrial scale for many years
  • the state's chief minister, despite his later denials, used his control over land and forest licenses to enrich himself and his family
  • HSBC bankrolled the region's largest logging companies that were responsible for some of that destruction in Sarawak
  • earned around 130 million dollars
  • And then there's the problem of anonymous shell companies
  • they're used quite a bit by people and companies who are trying to avoid paying their proper dues to society, also known as taxes
  • shell companies are used to steal huge sums of money, transformational sums of money, from poor countries
  • A recent study by the World Bank looked at 200 cases of corruption. It found that over 70 percent of those cases had used anonymous shell companies, totaling almost 56 billion dollars
  • shell companies, they're central to the secret deals which may benefit wealthy elites rather than ordinary citizens
  • in the Democratic Republic of Congo sold off a series of valuable, state-owned mining assets to shell companies in the British Virgin Islands.
  • these shell companies had quickly flipped many of the assets on for huge profits to major international mining companies listed in London
  • Congo may have lost more than 1.3 billion dollars from these deals. That's almost twice the country's annual health and education budget combined
  • there are typica
  •  
    Here is the transcript of Charmian Gooch's TED Talk on global corruption.
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