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avivajazz jazzaviva

Obama Warns Debt Ceiling Should Not Be 'Used As A Gun' To Extract Tax Breaks - Politica... - 0 views

blogs.abcnews.com/...gun-to-extract-tax-breaks.html

obama debt ceiling GOP taxes corporate wealthy hostage jobs economy

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 31 Jul 11 - No Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 31 Jul 11
     
    Speaking at the Twitter Town Hall at the White House today, the president said Congress "shouldn't be toying" with the debt ceiling and cautioned against risking the financial health of the country in order to protect the interests of the super wealthy.   "Never in our history has the United States defaulted on its debt. The debt ceiling should not be something that is used as a gun against the heads of the American people to extract tax breaks for corporate jet owners, for oil and gas companies that are making billions of dollars because the price of gasoline has gone up so high.  I mean, I'm happy to have those debates.  I think the American people are on my side on this," Obama said. The president was adamant that when it comes to fixing the economy and solving the deficit problem "we should go with what works," and that's a tax increase on the wealthy. "If the wealthiest among us -- and I include myself in this category -- are willing to give up a little bit more, then we can solve this problem.  It does not take a lot… when people say, you know, "job-killing tax increases, that's what Obama's proposing," we're not going to," he said. "You're entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.  And the facts are that a modest increase for wealthy individuals is not shown to have an adverse impact on job growth." "We can test the two theories.  You had what happened during the '90s.  Right?  Taxes for wealthy individuals were somewhat higher, businesses boomed, the economy boomed, great job growth;  and then the 2000s, when taxes were cut on wealthy individuals, jobs didn't grow as fast, businesses didn't grow as fast. I mean, it's not like we haven't tried what these other folks are pitching.  It didn't work.  And we should go with what works," he said.
ken meece

Think Again: God - By Karen Armstrong | Foreign Policy - 1 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...god_0

ReadItLater

shared by ken meece on 19 Oct 09 - Cached
  • An inadequate understanding of God that reduces “him” to an idol in our own image who gives our likes and dislikes sacred sanction is the worst form of spiritual tyranny. Such arrogance has led to atrocities like the Crusades. The rise of secularism in government was meant to check this tendency, but secularism itself has created new demons now inflicting themselves on the world.
  • In the West, secularism has been a success, essential to the modern economy and political system, but it was achieved gradually over the course of nearly 300 years, allowing new ideas of governance time to filter down to all levels of society. But in other parts of the world, secularization has occurred far too rapidly and has been resented by large sectors of the population,
  • Shiism had for centuries separated religion from politics as a matter of sacred principle, and Khomeini’s insistence that a cleric should become head of state was an extraordinary innovation.
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • In the same spirit, Hassan al-Banna (1906-1949), founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, began his movement by translating the social message of the Koran into a modern idiom, founding clinics, hospitals, trade unions, schools, and factories that gave workers insurance, holidays, and good working conditions. In other words, he aimed to bring the masses to modernity in an Islamic setting. The Brotherhood’s resulting popularity was threatening to Egypt’s secular government, which could not provide these services.
  • John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama have invoked faith as a shared experience that binds the country together -- an approach that recognizes the communal power of spirituality without making any pretense to divine right.
  • it is not God or religion but violence itself -- inherent in human nature -- that breeds violence. As a species, we survived by killing and eating other animals; we also murder our own kind. So pervasive is this violence that it leaks into most scriptures, though these aggressive passages have always been balanced and held in check by other texts that promote a compassionate ethic based on the Golden Rule
  • "religious" wars, no matter how modern the tools, always begin as political ones.
  • In recent Gallup polling conducted in 35 Muslim countries, only 7 percent of those questioned thought that the September 11 attacks were justified. Their reasons were entirely political.
  • Fundamentalism is not conservative. Rather, it is highly innovative -- even heretical -- because it always develops in response to a perceived crisis. In their anxiety, some fundamentalists distort the tradition they are trying to defend.
  • All fundamentalism -- whether Jewish, Christian, or Muslim -- is rooted in a profound fear of annihilation.
  • The Bible and the Koran may have prohibited usury, but over the centuries Jews, Christians, and Muslims all found ways of getting around this restriction and produced thriving economies. It is one of the great ironies of religious history that Christianity, whose founder taught that it was impossible to serve both God and mammon, should have produced the cultural environment that, as Max Weber suggested in his 1905 book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, was integral to modern capitalism.
  • the religious critique of excessive greed is far from irrelevant. Although not opposed to business, the major faith traditions have tried to counterbalance some of the abuses of capitalism. Eastern religions, such as Buddhism, by means of yoga and other disciplines, try to moderate the aggressive acquisitiveness of the human psyche. The three monotheistic faiths have inveighed against the injustice of unevenly distributed wealth
  • Religion is not simply a matter of subscribing to a set of obligatory beliefs; it is hard work, requiring a ceaseless effort to get beyond the selfishness that prevents us from achieving a more humane humanity.
  • in their rebellion against the modern ethos, fundamentalists tend to overemphasize traditional gender roles. Unfortunately, frontal assaults on this patriarchal trend have often proven counterproductive.
  • But their reading of scripture is unprecedentedly literal. Before the modern period, few understood the first chapter of Genesis as an exact account of the origins of life; until the 17th century, theologians insisted that if a biblical text contradicted science, it must be interpreted allegorically.
  • Ironically, it was the empirical emphasis of modern science that encouraged many to regard God and religious language as fact rather than symbol, thus forcing religion into an overly rational, dogmatic, and alien literalism.
  • What has alienated many Muslims from the democratic ideal is not their religion but Western governments’ support of autocratic rulers, such as the Iranian shahs, Saddam Hussein, and Hosni Mubarak, who have denied people basic human and democratic rights.
  • a 2006 Gallup poll revealed that 46 percent of Americans believe that God should be the source of legislation.
  • A fatwa is not universally binding like a papal edict; rather, it simply expresses the opinion of the mufti who issues it. Muslims can choose which fatwas they adopt and thus participate in a flexible free market of religious thought, just as Americans can choose which church they attend.
  • Religion should be studied with the same academic impartiality and accuracy as the economy, politics, and social customs of a region, so that we learn how religion interacts with political tension, what is counterproductive, and how to avoid giving unnecessary offense.
  • In the Middle East, overly aggressive secularization has sometimes backfired, making the religious establishment more conservative, or even radical.
Anne Hulthen

Thoreau's Civil Disobedience - 1 - 0 views

thoreau.eserver.org/civil1.html

shared by Anne Hulthen on 30 Oct 13 - Cached
  • He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish;
    • Anne Hulthen
      Anne Hulthen on 30 Oct 13
       
      This is kind of like Jimmy Carter, How sometimes the best person doesn't make the best president, because they lack the ability to persuade the caucus or play the politician.
  • All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. 
  • "This principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other."(
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.(15) There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do,
  •  It is not so important that many should be as good as you, as that
  • Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may.
  •   All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it.
  • There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves.
  • "I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico; — see if I would go";
  • ow many men are there to a square thousand miles in this country? Hardly one. Does not America offer any inducement for men to settle here? The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow (17) — one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness, and a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful self-reliance; whose first and chief concern,
  • and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute
avivajazz jazzaviva

Ron Paul Says Bernie Sanders "Sold Out," Sided With Chris Dodd to "Gut" Audit the Fed |... - 0 views

fdlaction.firedoglake.com/...hris-dodd-to-gut-audit-the-fed

audit-the-fed sanders dodd congress legislation bernie changes fed ron-paul

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 07 May 10 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 07 May 10
     
    Sanders/Dodd Audit-The-Fed allows audit of TARP + TALF, but not FOMC, discount window operations, or agreement with foreign central banks. "Even the so called "independent" leftists, Kucinich and Sanders, have both capitulatied to the corporate, class markets and their class despotism, proving they are not real opposition leaders, but phony socialists, phony anti war activists." ~Eric Albert Schwing I read all three versions of the Sanders amendment carefully, and I believe Sanders made a good call if the decision was compromise with Dodd or have no amendment at all. The big differences with the compromise are: -Single audit covering December 1,2007 to May 2010 rather than open-ended audit until all bailout funds are recovered. -Specific parameters on the audit focusing on whether proper procedures were followed and what could be done to improve Fed governance. However it is not clear that the audit is limited to these items. -Fed website still must report lots of previously undisclosed details about the bailout measured-who got what and why. ~bmull
avivajazz jazzaviva

Outcry From the Left Precedes Debt Deal - NYTimes.com - 0 views

community.nytimes.com/...om-the-left-preceeds-debt-deal

obama surrender capitulation rightwing president debt deal

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 01 Aug 11 - No Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 01 Aug 11
     
    This seems to be The President's modus operandi - 1) Lay out clear markers that are supported by a majority of Avericans - i.e. balanced approach with cuts and revenues; 2) Watch the republicans take a hard line to satisfy the tea party; 3) Give the republicans 99% of what they want; 4) Blame the left for not compromising. It looks like the framework for the deal is beginning to take shape, and it's not at all surprising. Tilted heavily toward cuts that will affect the middle and working classes disproportionately, and almost tailor-made to spare the rich any sacrifice whatsoever. While this is not surprising given the terms of the debate, it still boggles the mind to witness our republic complete its transformation into the very definition of a plutocracy. We have a political system designed specifically to protect the interest of the monied elite (I suppose one could argue that this had been the case for a long time, but it only really became nakedly, brazenly obvious during the 2008 financial crisis). Stories like these don't end well. Including for the elite. The history books are replete with warnings. Our country is going into a dark time.
avivajazz jazzaviva

How the Democratic Party Works, and Doesn't Work | Not a Sentimental Piece | Open Left - 0 views

www.openleft.com/...ic-party-works-and-doesnt-work

democrats democractic party weakness progressives power authority passivity

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 20 Sep 09 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 20 Sep 09
     
    The reason why Democrats so often ignore and betray progressives is that we haven't given them incentives not to. Money, votes, and publicity are what count, and so far progressives have not leveraged these incentives effectively. Also, Democrats really need some leaders who are functional in the worlds of bluffing, bargaining, gambling, and fighting.
Anne Hulthen

John F. Kennedy and the Press - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum - 0 views

www.jfklibrary.org/...n-F-Kennedy-and-the-Press.aspx

shared by Anne Hulthen on 09 May 14 - No Cached
  • The public loved John F. Kennedy's press conferences, although some of his advisors worried about the risk of mistakes by the president and others thought the press showed insufficient respect for the dignity of his office
    • Anne Hulthen
      Anne Hulthen on 09 May 14
       
      He's making himself not only seem more relatable but more attainable as though we, ourselves, could become friends with the president. As if we were of his same class and he was speaking to us. Given the aspirational nature of late 50s/ early 60s society, it makes sense that this would be a greatly affective strategy. He was also making himself not only a public figure, but a celebrity. Seen on the screen nearly as often as Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart.
  • 65 million people
    • Anne Hulthen
      Anne Hulthen on 09 May 14
       
      Here is the example of celebrity and glamour. By presenting himself to the public on his own terms, he therebye marketed himself to them and chose how he would portray himself instead of the media. 18 million watched him on average which is an incredible number. He had some draw that pulled them in, a quintessential thing that made everyone relate to him. Hope? Idealism? Can you commercialize these? Can intangible ideas be marketed?
  • even though we disapprove, there isn't any doubt that we could not
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • President Kennedy helped to significantly enlarge the role of television as a news medium,
  • but he continued to be a voracious consumer of print journalism
  • Oh, yes. No, no, I think it is invaluable, even though it may cause you—it is never pleasant to be reading things that are not agreeable news, but I would say that it is an invaluable arm of the presidency, as a check really on what is going on in the administration, and more things come to my attention that cause me concern or give me information.
    • Anne Hulthen
      Anne Hulthen on 09 May 14
       
      Appears educated and Sophisticated. Perhaps this was another aspect of the Kennedy appeal. Sophistication and Education were really two ideals of modern American life during the 1960s. The whole Kennedy family had this air of sophistication which captured the whole of America. They had this image of royalty. In the 60s, we see the image of the sophisticated family, who all read and discussed politics. America was changing it's image from vulgar to glamorous, Seeking to aquire a culture that the rest of the world always seemed to think we lacked. Kennedy played into our own ego's by presenting himself as a man of the world, ready to promote American intelligence and competence at home and abroad. His wife, Jackie, who spoke French and Spanish, added to this air of worldly appeal.
avivajazz jazzaviva

Obama the Realist | Paul Wolfowitz | Foreign Policy - 0 views

www.foreignpolicy.com/...think_again_realism

obama foreign-policy foreign policy idealist pragmatist realist idealism realism pragmatism nation-building nation-defending war terror wolfowitz

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 17 Sep 09 - No Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 17 Sep 09
     
    Obama the realist. Not the pragmatist. Certainly not the idealist. Realism as a doctrine: The principal purpose of U.S. foreign policy SHOULD be to manage relations between states, rather than to alter the nature of states. U.S. foreign policy shouldn't be in the business of nation-building.
avivajazz jazzaviva

What the hell is up with Kos? Kucinich a killer--when he said same stuff a few months a... - 0 views

seminal.firedoglake.com/...34334

kucinich kos principles pragmatism ideals mandates HCR #HCR healthcare healthreform dailykos markos killer

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 11 Mar 10 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 11 Mar 10
     
    Kos himself where he says they should either remove the mandate or kill the bill. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/12/15/814776/-Remove-mandate,-or-kill-this-bill So a few short months ago, they should kill the bill if the mandates were not removed but now Kucinich should be villified for refusing to vote for the bill that still has the mandates in it? Kucinich may or may not be a Nader, but Kos is a Palin and this is his very own bridge to nowhere.
avivajazz jazzaviva

Daily Kos: Open Letter: Call me a BOZO, I'm for Health Reform: UPDATE 4X w/POLL - 0 views

www.dailykos.com/...ealth-Reform:-UPDATE-4X-w-POLL

healthcare healthreform#hcr HCR mandate #passthedamnbill kucinich healthreform

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 10 Mar 10 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 10 Mar 10
     
    *I've been very critical of HCR (1+ / 0-)Obama, and the whole process and what appears that the end result will be.  What would be enough for the democrats opposed to the bill to support it? Personally speaking, I recognize that it's never going to be perfect.  But the sticking point is forcing people to buy a product from a private company without any effective cost control measures.  That's it, anything else I can work with. So for me, I would need either the mandate taken out, strict cost regulation added, or a non-profit pulic option added. What about the rest of you? by Skellen on Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 11:59:13 AM PST[ Reply to This | Recommend ] REPLY by .@avivao: Mandate to buy private insurance? (0 / 0)Exactly. A mandate to buy from private insurers (who're already raising rates in advance of the bill's passage--a way of gaming medical loss ratios, etc.) must be counterbalanced by a substantive public plan (Medicare for All or Medicare for More would be the most expeditious way to go, I suspect). Also, the mandate will surely cause suffering "down the road" unless regulation of insurers is actually enforceable. Still, we must pass this #HCR bill, I think. I'm extremely worried about (1) passing it with a unilateral mandate; (2) not passing it because of a unilateral mandate. How did we get trapped like this? What went wrong? Sure; a lot has gone right. I don't deny it. I'm glad. But we're backed into a corner now on passing this health bill. If we don't pass it, the news is very, very bad. If we do pass it, the news is probably very,very bad (for a different constellation of reasons). I say: #PassTheDamnBill. But I'm very disturbed by the potential consequences of doing so. There are many benefits to this bill; I pray that the liabilities don't outweigh them. We'll see. by avivagabriel on Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 11:56:59 AM PST[ Parent | Reply to This ]
avivajazz jazzaviva

Why the Financial Reform Bill is Better Than Nothing (But Not by Much) | BNET Financial... - 0 views

industry.bnet.com/...r-than-nothing-but-not-by-much

reform politics economy economics financial financialreform

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 04 May 10 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 04 May 10
     
    Why the Financial Reform Bill is Better Than Nothing (But Not by Much)
avivajazz jazzaviva

Why Bother With the Constitution? Elena Kagan and Our Constitution : NYTimes.com - 0 views

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/...y-bother-with-the-constitution

kagen scotus constitution

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 11 May 10 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 11 May 10
     
    It's Supreme Court nomination time again, which means that it will soon be nomination hearing time, which means that Elena Kagan will soon be asked how she believes the Constitution should be interpreted. But just in time comes a new book - "The Living Constitution," by David A. Strauss - that tells us not to bother about that question because, odd though it might seem, the Constitution does not play a central role in constitutional interpretation.
avivajazz jazzaviva

Good News: Kagan May Not Be a Giant Shill For State Power « SpeakEasy - 0 views

blogs.alternet.org/...-a-giant-shill-for-state-power

kagan scotus qualifications

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 11 May 10 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 11 May 10
     
    Kagan may not be a giant shill for state power; but she'll be easier to confirm if progressives don't know this « http://bit.ly/bWqOdy
avivajazz jazzaviva

Don't invade Kagan's privacy - Elena Kagan, Supreme Court Nominee - Salon.com - 0 views

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

kagan scotus lesbian

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 11 May 10 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 11 May 10
     
    "Elena Kagan is a legal scholar and advocate, not a gay-baiting politician. Her sexuality should not be an issue "
avivajazz jazzaviva

Election Integrity's Victoria Collier Speaks Up - Interview with Joan Brunwasser - Vote... - 0 views

www.votescam.org/interview_with_joan_brunwasser

victoriacollier victoria collier ben ptashnik benptashnik votescam votescam: the stealing of america fraud fraudulent elections voting machines politics

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 09 Apr 12 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 09 Apr 12
     
    Victoria Collier, you're the daughter and niece of James and Kenneth Collier, authors of the book  Votescam: The Stealing of America , a chronicle of their 25-year investigation into how elections are rigged by computerized voting machines. Victoria is the editor of www.votescam.org.  I've run across a number of your most recent op ed pieces including What To Do When They "Let" Us Win Elections and Why Americans Viciously Protect Their Hub Caps But Not Their Ballots: A Thoughtful Exploration of Modern Democracy. 
avivajazz jazzaviva

Enlightened Economics: There Is an Alternative - 0 views

www.laprogressive.com/enlightened-economics

capitalism paradigm economy economics

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 28 Aug 12 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 28 Aug 12
     
    Both Republicans and Democrats have been explaining that "There Is No Alternative," we need public policies promoting austerity because government is "out of money." The question seems to be not "do we need austerity?" but "will we be austere sooner or austere later?" Meanwhile, the bipartisan consensus is that the government is definitely out of money. But these assertions are at odds with the common knowledge that the U.S. government literally creates its own money. Unlike the euro, the dollar is a sovereign, fiat currency, unconstrained by exchange rates or treaties. And since Nixon closed the gold window, government can issue dollars without waiting for gold or silver mines to provide any backing for them. So we can't possibly be "out of money," any more than the Bureau of Weights and Measures can be "out of inches."
avivajazz jazzaviva

New Economy 101: Fix the Economy, Not Wall Street by David Korten - 0 views

www.yesmagazine.org/...ix-the-economy-not-wall-street

economy economics wall street

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 28 Jul 12 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 28 Jul 12
     
    "Why regulate a broken system when we can build a better one? Welcome to New Economy 101. "
avivajazz jazzaviva

A Real-Market Alternative for a New Economy by David Korten - 0 views

www.yesmagazine.org/...a-real-market-alternative

economy economics wall street bankers alternative politics financial corruption

shared by avivajazz jazzaviva on 28 Jul 12 - Cached
  • avivajazz jazzaviva on 28 Jul 12
     
    "Our current economic choice is not between capitalism and communism. It is between locally accountable Main Street markets and Wall Street central planning by predatory global financiers."
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