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Joe La Fleur

Highlights of Sheriff Joe's March 31 Press Conference - 0 views

www.westernjournalism.com/s-most-recent-press-conference

highlights sheriff joe march press conference

shared by Joe La Fleur on 01 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Joe La Fleur on 01 Apr 12
     
    OBAMAS FORGED DOCUMENTS
thinkahol *

Snapshots of Washington's essence - Salon.com - 0 views

www.salon.com/...singleton

Snapshots of Washington's essence - Salon.com

shared by thinkahol * on 31 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 31 Dec 11
     
    I intended to post sporadically or not at all this week, and that's still my plan, but there is a new Washington Post article which contains three short passages that I really want to highlight because they so vividly capture the essence of so much. The article, by Greg Miller, is being promoted by the Post this way: "In 3 years, the Obama administration has built a vast drone/killing operation"; it describes the complete secrecy behind which this is all being carried out and notes: "no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation's security goals." Here is the first beautifully revealing passage:
Fay Paxton

http://thepoliticalpragmatic.blogspot.com/2013/12/celebrating-obamacare-success-stories... - 0 views

thepoliticalpragmatic.blogspot.com/...obamacare-success-stories.html

insurance exchange Kentucky ObamaCare success stories policy cancellation pre-existing conditions

shared by Fay Paxton on 05 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Fay Paxton on 05 Dec 13
     
    Stories collected from letters to the editor, blogs, and newspaper coverage highlighting the significant benefits that ObamaCare is already providing to real Americans throughout the country.
thinkahol *

The media's authoritarianism and WikiLeaks - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com - 0 views

www.salon.com/...index.html

The media's authoritarianism and WikiLeaks - Glenn Greenwald Salon.com

shared by thinkahol * on 12 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 12 Dec 10
     
    The willingness of leading media outlets to amplify clear falsehoods highlights their true allegiances
thinkahol *

US Gross National Debt As Percent of Gross Domestic Product - 0 views

uspolitics.about.com/...bl_gross_national_debt.htm

US Gross National Debt As Percent of Domestic Product

shared by thinkahol * on 23 Jan 11 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 23 Jan 11
     
    Using data from the Whitehouse, this chart shows gross national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product since 1950. As the highlighted areas show, cumulative debt increased during the Reagan-Bush Administrations and under the current Bush Administration. It is currently more than 65% of GDP. Source: zFacts.
thinkahol *

Walker's Budget Plan is a Three-Part Roadmap for Conservative State Governanc... - 0 views

rortybomb.wordpress.com/...-conservative-state-governance

Walker's Budget Plan is a Three-Part Roadmap for Conservative State Governance « Rortybomb

shared by thinkahol * on 25 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 25 Feb 11
     
    Tim Fernholz wrote an excellent article in the National Journal about the "bait and switch" of Governor Walker's Wisconsin plan. Fernholz points out that the short-term deficit problem can be covered by debt restructuring, and that the big pieces of the bill that relate to dismantling public sector unions, control over Medicaid and creating a no-bid energy asset sale process are not directly budget related. There's a three-prong approach in Governor Walker's plan that highlights a blueprint for conservative governorship after the 2010 election. The first is breaking public sector unions and public sector workers generally. The second is streamlining benefits away from legislative authority, especially for health care and in fighting the Health Care Reform Act. The third is the selling of public assets to private interests under firesale and crony capitalist situations. This wasn't clear to me at first. I thought this was about a narrow disagreement over teacher's unions. Depending on what you read, you may have only seen a few of these parts, and you may have not seen them put together as a coherent whole. This will be the framework that other conservative governors, and even a few Democratic ones, will use in their state, so it is good to get a working model in place. In order to frame where it stands now, I'm going to chart this and give a set of descriptions and must-read links:
Michael Haltman

How are those Iranian sanctions working? or Iran's nuclear program just keeps chugging ... - 0 views

politicsandfinance.blogspot.com/...iranian-sanctions-working.html

human rights council iran libya Norway nuclear missile parts nuclear weapons president obama UN resolutions un sanctions US national security white house Zimbabwe Iran Zimbabwe uranium

shared by Michael Haltman on 04 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Michael Haltman on 04 Mar 11
     
    As the Middle East continues to churn, possible out of control, Iran continues on its merry way towards inclusion in the nuclear club! In the article are just two recent examples that highlight the attempt, one in Norway and one involving Zimbabwe. This while the U.N. sanctions and President Obama seem totally incapable or without the desire to do anything about it!
thinkahol *

The two-tiered justice system: an illustration - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com - 0 views

www.salon.com/...justice

The two-tiered justice system: an illustration - Glenn Greenwald Salon.com

shared by thinkahol * on 21 May 11 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 21 May 11
     
    Of all the topics on which I've focused, I've likely written most about America's two-tiered justice system -- the way in which political and financial elites now enjoy virtually full-scale legal immunity for even the most egregious lawbreaking, while ordinary Americans, especially the poor and racial and ethnic minorities, are subjected to exactly the opposite treatment: the world's largest prison state and most merciless justice system. That full-scale destruction of the rule of law is also the topic of my forthcoming book. But The New York Times this morning has a long article so perfectly illustrating what I mean by "two-tiered justice system" -- and the way in which it obliterates the core covenant of the American Founding: equality before the law -- that it's impossible for me not to highlight it.
thinkahol *

The Blog : How Rich is Too Rich? : Sam Harris - 0 views

www.samharris.org/...how-rich-is-too-rich

The Blog : How Rich is Too Rich? Sam Harris

shared by thinkahol * on 19 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 19 Aug 11
     
    I've written before about the crisis of inequality in the United States and about the quasi-religious abhorrence of "wealth redistribution" that causes many Americans to oppose tax increases, even on the ultra rich. The conviction that taxation is intrinsically evil has achieved a sadomasochistic fervor in conservative circles-producing the Tea Party, their Republican zombies, and increasingly terrifying failures of governance. Happily, not all billionaires are content to hoard their money in silence. Earlier this week, Warren Buffett published an op-ed in the New York Times in which he criticized our current approach to raising revenue. As he has lamented many times before, he is taxed at a lower rate than his secretary is. Many conservatives pretend not to find this embarrassing. Conservatives view taxation as a species of theft-and to raise taxes, on anyone for any reason, is simply to steal more. Conservatives also believe that people become rich by creating value for others. Once rich, they cannot help but create more value by investing their wealth and spawning new jobs in the process. We should not punish our best and brightest for their success, and stealing their money is a form of punishment. Of course, this is just an economic cartoon. We don't have perfectly efficient markets, and many wealthy people don't create much in the way of value for others. In fact, as our recent financial crisis has shown, it is possible for a few people to become extraordinarily rich by wrecking the global economy. Nevertheless, the basic argument often holds: Many people have amassed fortunes because they (or their parent's, parent's, parents) created value. Steve Jobs resurrected Apple Computer and has since produced one gorgeous product after another. It isn't an accident that millions of us are happy to give him our money. But even in the ideal case, where obvious value has been created, how much wealth can one person be allowed to keep? A trillion doll
Asif Sheeraz

Watch Live With Talat - 19th May 2009 - 0 views

www.pkaffairs.com/playshow.asp

shared by Asif Sheeraz on 20 May 09 - Cached
  • Asif Sheeraz on 20 May 09
     
    Muhammad Khalid Khan Umar Zai in fresh episode of Live with Talat. Talat Hussain highlighting IDPs , not from camps but from residing in different schools of Mardan and they are still waiting government's support.
thinkahol *

Today in Endless War - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com - 0 views

www.salon.com/...index.html

Today in Endless War - Glenn Greenwald Salon.com

shared by thinkahol * on 22 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • thinkahol * on 22 Jun 11
     
    As usual, there are multiple events from just the last 24 hours vividly highlighting the nature of America's ongoing -- and escalating -- posture of Endless War:
sofarso Shawn

UN reports highlight Israeli infringement of Palestinians' rights - 0 views

www.un.org/...story.asp

Un human rights Messopotamia

shared by sofarso Shawn on 16 Nov 08 - Cached
  • sofarso Shawn on 16 Nov 08
     
    Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has spotlighted in two new reports to the General Assembly how Israeli practices impinge upon the rights of Palestinians through the continued building of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory and other means.
Levy Rivers

Obama and McCain Clash Over Economy - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...08debate.html

election mccain obama

shared by Levy Rivers on 08 Oct 08 - Cached
  • But in a moment that caught the attention of people in both parties, he appeared agitated in criticizing Mr. Obama for a Senate vote he cast, referring to his opponent only as “that one.”
  • Mr. McCain sought to break through by highlighting a proposal under which the Treasury Department would buy up mortgages that had gone bad, and in effect refinance them at prices homeowners could afford
  • There were no obvious dramatic breakthrough moments by Mr. McCain; indeed, although the two men pummeled back and forth, it was Mr. Obama who more consistently drew sharp contrasts between the voting records and campaign promises of the two.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • He cast his arm at Mr. Obama. “That one,” he said. “You know who voted against it? Me.”
  • “Senator McCain and I actually agree on something,” Mr. Obama said. “He said a while back that the big problem with energy is that for the last 30 years politicians in Washington haven’t done anything. What McCain doesn’t mention is he’s been there 26 of them and during that time he voted 23 times against alternative fuels.”
Skeptical Debunker

Opinion: Trudy Rubin: U.S. ignores health care successes in Europe, Japan - San Jose Me... - 0 views

www.mercurynews.com/...ci_14498573

healthcare conservative lies socialism myths

shared by Skeptical Debunker on 05 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Skeptical Debunker on 05 Mar 10
     
    One of the most bewildering aspects of the current health care debate is the failure to learn key lessons from health systems abroad. Conservative talk show hosts decry the alleged evils of "socialized medicine" in countries with universal health coverage; they warn grimly of rationed health care. Yet there's nary a peep from Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck - let alone Congress - about countries such as Germany, France, Switzerland or Japan, where coverage is universal, affordable, and top quality, and patients see private doctors with little or no waiting. And, oh yes, their health costs are a fraction of our bloated numbers: The French spend 10 percent of GDP on health care, the Germans 11 percent, and they cover every citizen. We spend a whopping 17 percent and leave tens of millions of Americans uninsured. If you want a very readable short course on how European systems really work, take a look at "The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care," by T.R. Reid, a former Washington Post foreign correspondent. You might also watch a fascinating 2008 Frontline series, available online, in which Reid was an adviser: "Sick Around the World: Can the U.S. Learn Anything From the Rest of the World About How to Run a Health Care System?"
  • Skeptical Debunker on 05 Mar 10
     
    Article continued (Diigo would not highlight!?) - So far, the answer seems to be "no," not because there aren't valuable lessons, but because politicians won't relinquish their myths about European health Advertisement systems. Reid takes up that task. Myth No. 1, he says, is that foreign systems with universal coverage are all "socialized medicine." In countries such as France, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan, the coverage is universal while doctors and insurers are private. Individuals get their insurance through their workplace, sharing the premium with their employer as we do - and the government picks up the premium if they lose their job. Myth No. 2 - long waits and rationed care - is another whopper. "In many developed countries," Reid writes, "people have quicker access to care and more choice than Americans do." In France, Germany, and Japan, you can pick any provider or hospital in the country. Care is speedy and high quality, and no one is turned down. Myth No. 3 really grabs my attention: the delusion that countries with universal care "are wasteful systems run by bloated bureaucracies." In fact, the opposite is true. America's for-profit health insurance companies have the highest administrative costs of any developed country. Twenty percent or more of every premium dollar goes to nonmedical costs: paperwork, marketing, profits, etc. In developed countries with universal coverage, such as France and Germany, the administrative costs average about 5 percent. That's because every developed country but ours has decided health insurance should be a nonprofit operation. These countries also hold down costs by making coverage mandatory and by using a unified set of rules and payment schedules for all hospitals and doctors. This does not mean a single-payer system or a government-run health system. But it does sharply cut health costs by eliminating the mishmash of records and charges used by our myriad insurance firms, who use all kinds of gimmi
Skeptical Debunker

Big Content condemns foreign governments that endorse FOSS - 0 views

arstechnica.com/...ernments-that-endorse-foss.ars

open source Special 301 USTR IIPA absurd recommendations self-serving

shared by Skeptical Debunker on 25 Feb 10 - Cached
  • University of Edinburgh law lecturer Andres Guadamuz wrote a blog entry this week highlighting some particularly troubling aspects of the IIPA's 301 recommendations. The organization has condemned Indonesia and several other countries for encouraging government adoption of open source software. According to the IIPA, official government endorsements of open source software create "trade barriers" and restrict "equitable market access" for software companies. The profound absurdity of this accusation is exacerbated by the fact that Indonesia's move towards open source software was almost entirely motivated by a desire to eliminate the use of pirated software within the government IT infrastructure. It's important to understand that Indonesia has not mandated the adoption of open source software or barred government agencies from purchasing proprietary commercial software. The Indonesian government issued a statement in 2009 informing municipal governments that they had to stop using pirated software. The statement said that government agencies must either purchase legally licensed commercial software or switch to free and open source alternatives in order to comply with copyright law. This attempt by Indonesia to promote legal software procurement processes by endorsing the viability of open source software has apparently angered the IIPA. In its 301 recommendations for Indonesia, the IIPA demands that the government rescind its 2009 statement. According to the IIPA, Indonesia's policy "weakens the software industry and undermines its long-term competitiveness" because open source software "encourages a mindset that does not give due consideration to the value to intellectual creations [and] fails to build respect for intellectual property rights." The number of ways in which the IIPA's statements regarding open source software are egregiously misleading and dishonest are too numerous to count. The IIPA seems to have completely missed the fact that there is a very robust ecosystem of commercial software vendors in the open source software market and that open source software is at the heart of some of the most popular consumer electronics products that are sold in the United States. It has clearly become an important part of the US software economy and increasingly serves as an enabler of innovation and technological progress. In light of the profitability of Red Hat and other open source leaders, it seems absurd to contend that open source software adoption will weaken the software industry or reduce its competitiveness. In fact, the emergence of open source software has contributed to creating a more competitive landscape in the software industry by offering alternative business models that enable smaller companies to gain traction against the dominant incumbent players. The IIPA's position is profoundly hypocritical, because many parts of the US government, including the Department of Defense, have issued their own memos endorsing open source software adoption. The IIPA's disingenuous move to equate open source software with piracy reeks of desperation. The BSA and other IIPA members are likely losing sleep over open source software because that development model and approach to licensing will empower developing countries to build their own domestic IT industries, eliminating the need for them to tithe to American software giants. It's another failing of the 301 review, which Big Content wants used to coerce other countries into adopting ever-more-stringent copyright laws.
  • Skeptical Debunker on 25 Feb 10
     
    In accordance with US trade law, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) is required to conduct an annual review of the status of foreign intellectual property laws. This review, which is referred to as Special 301, is typically used to denounce countries that have less restrictive copyright policies than the United States. The review process is increasingly dominated by content industry lobbyists who want to subvert US trade policy and make it more favorable to their own interests. We have already noted the targeting of Canada for its supposedly lax copyright laws, but that is not the only nation drawing the ire of Big Content. One of the organizations that plays a key role in influencing the Special 301 review is the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a powerful coalition that includes the RIAA, the MPAA, and the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The IIPA, which recently published its official recommendations to the USTR for the 2010 edition of the 301 review, has managed to achieve a whole new level of absurdity.
Arabica Robusta

Bloggers are Africa's new rebels - Chicago Tribune - 0 views

archives.chicagotribune.com/...chi-corr_africajan13

social movements africa blogging us intervention politics obama washington

shared by Arabica Robusta on 27 Dec 09 - Cached
  • Dagem, as he chose to be called, was a new type of African revolutionary: a blogger.
  • The U.S. should take note. As it prepares to engage with Africa more intensely than at any time since the Cold War, in part by the Pentagon’s establishment of a new Africa Command headquarters to coordinate military and security interests, the U.S. will be competing on an increasingly flat information playing field.
  • Gone are the days when Washington could control its messages in client states. The scruffy cyber cafes of Chad and the man in Congo who rents his cell phone by the minute – sometimes climbing atop a tree to improve reception – ensure that Washington’s voice will have to vie with those of the resource-hungry Chinese, or with the designs of Al Qaeda recruiters.
  • Arabica Robusta on 27 Dec 09
     
    "The U.S. should take note. As it prepares to engage with Africa more intensely than at any time since the Cold War, in part by the Pentagon's establishment of a new Africa Command headquarters to coordinate military and security interests, the U.S. will be competing on an increasingly flat information playing field."
  • Arabica Robusta on 27 Dec 09
     
    This older article highlights the immorality of much that is called U.S. foreign policy and journalism. The lesson learned here is not what it should be, that people on the grassroots are fighting against authoritarian violent governments funded by the U.S. Rather it is a bland, neoimperialist comment about what the U.S. propaganda machine has to deal with in future interventions.
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