bad peace = obama
bad economy = obana
bad eco-friendy= obana
David Korten's new book Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth outlines an agenda to bring into being a new economy—locally based, community oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all, not simply increasing profits.
In this special pre-publication excerpt, Korten summarizes his version of the economic address to the nation he wishes Barack Obama were able to deliver.
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| David Korten's new book: Agenda for a New Economy |
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I suffer no illusion that he will deliver it. He has surrounded himself with advisers aligned with Wall Street interests in an effort to establish public confidence in his ability to restore order in the economy. Because there has been no discussion of any other option, to most people “restoring order” means restoring the status quo with the addition of a job-stimulus package, and that is most likely what he will try to do.
This speech presents the missing option—the program that a U.S. president must one day be able to announce and implement if there is to be any hope for our economic, social, and environmental future.
Here is the address.
Fellow Citizens:
My administration came to office with a mandate for bold action at a time when our most powerful economic institutions had clearly failed us. They crippled our economy; burdened governments with debilitating debts; corrupted our political institutions; and threatened
the destruction of the natural environment on which our very lives depend.
The failure can be traced directly to an elitist economic ideology that says if government favors the financial interests of the rich
to the disregard of all else, everyone will benefit and the nation will prosper. A thirty-year experiment with trickle-down economics that favored the interests
of Wall Street speculators over the hardworking people and businesses of Main Street has proved it doesn’t work.
We have no more time or resources to devote to fixing
a system based on false values and a discredited ideology. We must now come together to create the institutions of a new economy based on a values-based pragmatism that recognizes a simple truth: If the world is to work for any of
us, it must work for all of us.
Corrective action begins with recognition that our economic crisis is, at its core, a moral crisis. Our economic institutions and rules, even the indicators by which we measure economic performance, consistently place financial values ahead of life values.
We have been measuring economic performance against GDP, or gross domestic product, which essentially measures the rate at which money and resources are flowing through the economy. Let us henceforth measure economic performance by the indicators of what we really want: the health and well-being of our children, families, communities, and the natural environment.
Like a healthy ecosystem, a healthy twenty-first-century economy must have strong local roots and maximize the beneficial capture, storage, sharing, and use of local energy, water, and mineral resources. That is what we must seek to achieve, community by community, all across this nation, by unleashing the creative energies of our people and our local governments, businesses, and civic organizations.
Previous administrations favored Wall Street, but the policies of this administration henceforth will favor the people and businesses of Main Street—people who are working to rebuild our local communities, restore the middle class, and bring our natural environment back to health.
- We will strive for local and national food independence by rebuilding our local food systems based on family farms and environmentally friendly farming methods that rebuild the soil, maximize yields per acre, minimize the use of toxic chemicals, and create opportunities for the many young people who are returning to the land.
- We will strive for energy independence by supporting local entrepreneurs who are creating local businesses to retrofit our buildings and develop and apply renewable-energy technologies.
- It is a basic principle of market theory that trade relations between nations should be balanced. So-called free trade agreements have hollowed out our national industrial capacity, mortgaged our future to foreign creditors, and created global financial instability. We will take steps to assure that our future trade relations are balanced and fair as we engage in the difficult but essential work of learning to live within our own means.
- We will rebuild our national infrastructure around a model of walkable, bicycle-friendly communities with efficient public transportation to conserve energy, nurture the relationships of community, and recover our farm and forest lands.
- A strong middle-class society is an American ideal. Our past embodiment of that ideal made us the envy of the world. We will act to restore that ideal by rebalancing the distribution of wealth. Necessary and appropriate steps will be taken to assure access by every person to quality health care, education, and other essential services, and to restore progressive taxation, as well as progressive wage and benefit rules, to protect working people.
- We will seek to create a true ownership society in which all people have the opportunity to own their homes and to have an ownership stake in the enterprise on which their livelihood depends. Our economic policies will favor responsible local ownership of local enterprises by people who have a stake in the health of their local communities and economies. The possibilities include locally owned family businesses, cooperatives, and the many other forms of community- or worker-owned enterprises.
We will act to render Wall Street’s casino-like operations unprofitable. We will impose a transactions tax, require responsible capital ratios, and impose a surcharge on short-term capital gains. We will make it illegal for people and corporations to sell or insure assets that they do not own or in which they do not have a direct material interest.
To meet the financial needs of the new twenty-first-century Main Street economy, we will reverse the process of mergers and acquisitions that created the current concentration of banking power. We will restore the previous system of federally regulated community banks that are locally owned and managed and that fulfill the classic textbook banking function of serving as financial intermediaries between local people looking to secure a modest interest return on their savings and local people who need a loan to buy a home or finance a business.
And last, but not least, we will implement an orderly process of monetary reform. Most people believe that our government creates money. That is a fiction. Private banks create virtually all the money in circulation when they issue a loan at interest. The money is created by making a simple accounting entry with a few computer keystrokes. That is all money really is, an accounting entry.
My administration will act immediately to begin an orderly transition from our present system of bank-issued debt money to a system by which money is issued by the federal government. We will use the government-issued money to fund economic-stimulus projects that build the physical and social infrastructure of a twenty-first-century economy, being careful to remain consistent with our commitment to contain inflation.
To this end I have instructed the treasury secretary to take immediate action to assume control of the Federal Reserve and begin a process of monetizing the federal debt. He will have a mandate to stabilize the money supply, contain housing and stock market bubbles, discourage speculation, and assure the availability of credit on fair and affordable terms to eligible Main Street borrowers.
By recommitting ourselves to the founding ideals of this great nation, focusing on our possibilities, and liberating ourselves from failed ideas and institutions, together we can create a stronger, better nation. We can secure a fulfilling life for every person and honor the premise of the Declaration of Independence that every individual is endowed with an unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
No government on its own can resolve the problems facing our nation, but together we can and will resolve them. I call on every American to join with me in rebuilding our nation by acting to strengthen our families, our communities, and our natural environment; to secure the future of our children; and to restore our leadership position and reputation in the community of nations.
This is an abridged excerpt from David
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bad
peace obama = Capitol Hill Applauds Israels War Crimes: Money Buys the Darndest Things
http://december18th.org/ I support the Shministim and their right to peacefully object to military service.
I call for the release of those teenagers who have been jailed for their principled
refusal to serve in an army which occupies the Palestinian Territories. The
imprisonment of these conscientious objectors is a violation of their human
rights and contrary to International Law. institute for war & peace reporting
http://jewishpeacenews.blogspot.com/ I am inspired by these caring students and their counterparts
in Palestine, whose nonviolent resistance to the Occupation points the way to
a just peace and security for all people in the region. They are our best hope
for the future. I urge you to heed them, and not punish them. http://gazaeng.blogspot.com/
Cowardice asks the question - is it safe? Expediency asks the question - is it politic? Vanity asks the question - is it popular? But conscience asks the question - is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right ~Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In case you missed it, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (so often the running joke between politicians and talking heads) once again stood firmly on the side of right this past week, as he spoke twice on Capitol Hill, arguing for the rule of law from our lawmakers on Capitol Hill. It seems that, in the midst of so much condemnation of Israels war crimes by the international community, the Senate and the House felt inspired to draft an official Resolution to pledge their unwavering commitment of support for Israels war on Gaza.
Rep. Dennis Kucinichs statements were directed not only toward the contradictory message this resolution sent toward our supposed goal of peace but to the actual U.S. laws that govern how Israel is allowed to use the billions of American dollars worth of F-16s, tanks, Apache helicopters, phosphorus shells, depleted uranium, cluster bombs, and so on that Israel is using in violation of the Genev Convention to commit said war crimes against the mothers, fathers and chilren of Gaza http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm
Silly Dennis. Will he never learn? Were not a nation of laws. The tinkering of the past 4 administrations has left us a nation of endorsements, with the greatest deference given to those with the deepest pockets to fill our politicians campaign coffers.
In real-speak, this means that our politicians (now having much in common with trained seals) clap on command indifferent to right or wrong their job reduced to authoring (or subcontracting this work to lobbyists) and authorizing bills, resolutions and laws that will best serve their most generous benefactors oil energy moguls, media magnates, pharmaceutical insurance industry titans, financial banking tycoons, Zionist-AIPAC barons (the latter being of special importance to this weeks resolution, as the Israel Lobby provides upwards of 60% of the campaign contributions to our Democratic lawmakers).
A little man like Dennis Kucinich doesnt stand a chance among big men.
Even armed with the law of the land, or with big documents, such as the U.S. Constitition or the Bill or Rights, Dennis Kucinich nearly always comes up short his voice carrying about as much stature as a blue-bottle fly, buzzing about a putrid feed trough. He is nonetheless to be commended for his ethics, his patriotism and, most certainly, his bravery.
According to Ronnie Lipschutz, professor of politics at UC Santa Cruz, withholding support for pro-Israel, AIPAC measures is not common, and often carries grave political consequences for members of Congress. They are thinking what are the costs of voting against it, not what are the benefits, said Lipschutz.
Perhaps this is what inspires statements, such as the one that Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, proclaimed before the vote: Our resolution reflects the will of the state of Israel and the will of the American people.
The will of the American people? Au contraire, Mr. Reid. Your resolution reflects the will of your biggest campaign supporters: the giants. In this case, AIPAC.
Because, make no mistake your resolution passed, despite the will of the American people. Your resolution passed despite the protests of the American people in every major American city. Your resolution passed, despite thousands upon thousands of phone calls, faxes, letters and emails sent by the American people to their Senators in Washington. And, as if it mattered, your resolution passed, despite the United Nations resolution calling for an immediate truce (a resolution passed, no thanks to the U.S., on the same day you passed your resolution of praise for Israel); and your resolution passed despite that Israel has fired on and killed several United Nations workers in Gaza. Your resolution passed despite Israels refusal to allow Red Cross workers to reach the wounded women and children of Gaza. Your resolution passed despite that Israel has been repeatedly accused of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Convention. These accusations have come from the United Nations (from the onset of this war, up to today) and from humanitarian workers and the Red Cross in a statement released 2 days ago:
The Red Cross believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable.
Harry Reid, your resolution does not reflect the will of the American people!
A wounded Palestinian boy is helped as he arrives at a hospital on January 4 in Gaza City.
Your resolution and the relative complicity of so many Americans reflects the success of Israeli-U.S. propaganda campaign. (Because, you see, the American people dont know the truth this war. But you do. Whats your excuse?) It also reflects the success of the fearmongering campaigns that you and your esteemed colleagues, most notably George W. Bush Dick Cheney, have unwaveringly perpetuated over the past 8 years a heaping dollop of which you, yourself, served-up in your rhetorical WWJD-esque question, posed in the final minutes before the passage of this illicit resolution:
I ask any of my colleagues to imagine that happening here in the United States. Rockets and mortars coming from Toronto in Canada, into Buffalo New York. How would we as a country react?
And then, as if responding on cue, the trained seals echoed something to the effect of Hear! Hear! and The Israelis are responding exactly the same way we would! before voting unanimously to approve the resolution.
Of course, there was no mention of war crimes during all this praise, nor in the language of the Senate resolution. Instead, the resolution went onto the House the next day and passed with flying colors, as 390 approved the resolution, 22 voted present, and a pathetically small, but courageous total of 5 voted against it:
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Ron Paul (R-TX)
Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Gwen Moore (D-WI)
Nick Rahall (D-WV)
What would the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would Mahatma Gandhi do? What would Abraham Lincoln do? Or, to put it more succinctly, what would George W. Bush do? the-obama-factor-in-israels-gaza-war
Americans well-learned the answer to that last question. But what many Americans have yet to learn, is that (the will of the American people be damned) the answer to the question is the same today and has been for years now no matter who we turn to in Washington: Bush, Bush, Cheney, Reid, Pelosi, Clinton, Clinton, and so on
And this is especially true in matters of U.S.-Israeli policy because when you get right down to it the same giants who have so generously lined the pockets of Bush-Cheney Co. over the past 8 years are the same giants who line your pockets, Harry Reid, and who also line the pockets (or scare the bejeebers out of) all but 5 of our representatives on Capitol Hill — not to mention the past 4 presidents of the United States and, apparently, our current President-Elect.
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
- The Children of Palestine: A Photo Essay on Israels War Crimes in Gaza
- Many U.S. Congress Members are Israeli-Zioncons or Fake Americans
- Old fashioned businesses that still make money, 5 easy ways to beat money s…
- U.S. Looking for Ammo Ships for Israel?
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
BERKELEY, CA (KGO) -- International relief agencies are desperately trying to get supplies into Gaza, but it's difficult and dangerous. Now a Bay Area woman is preparing to bring medical aide to Palestinians. ABC7's Cheryl Jennings talked to the international relief agency CARE, as well as the founder of an organization, called the Middle East Children's Alliance.
"It's horrifying for all of us here, watching it. You have 1.5 million people locked up in the Gaza Strip with nowhere to flee," said Juliette Siebold from CARE. The war between Israel and Hamas means innocent civilians on both sides are on the losing end. http://www.mecaforpeace.org/
The international relief agency CARE's West Bank/Gaza director talked with ABC7 News from Jerusalem today, about the desperate race to get supplies to Palestinians who are running out of food, fuel, water and medicine. The war has driven most from their homes into winter weather, with very little shelter and the imminent danger from weapons of war.
"It's a massive, catastrophic crisis and it's absolutely important that we have an immediate cessation of violence right now," said Siebold. CARE's Palestinian relief workers are trying to get supplies through, while their own families are being injured or killed.
"We have five tons of pediatric medicine that we purchased in Holland and is being shipped to Cairo as we speak," said Barbara Lubin from the Middle East Children's Alliance. Lubin's organization, The Middle East Children's Alliance, is based in Berkeley. She's leaving for the war zone on Wednesday. She'll to fly to Egypt, to meet the shipment and hopefully get those supplies to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing in Egypt.
"We'll be waiting at the border for that border to open to allow some of the aid organizations in," said Lubin. Lubin is a 67-year-old Jewish woman who just
wants to help the children in Palestine. "I grew up in a very right wing Jewish home, Zionist home," said Lubin. http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1159.shtml
She visited Palestine 21 years ago, during the first conflict, and was shocked. "I couldn't believe that Jewish people would treat children in the way children were being treated in Palestine, being denied an education, being shot at, being wounded, having their homes destroyed," said Lubin.
That's why Barbara is making this next dangerous journey to Gaza. http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
"I decided I really wanted to make a difference, and try and change some lives and give some hope to kids in Palestine," said Lubin. http://www.mecaforpeace.org/
The Middle East Children's Alliance has delivered more than $10 million in food, medicine and medical supplies to war torn Middle Eastern countries since 1988.
The United Nation's Children Fund is calling for a complete halt to fighting, and total access to the Gaza strip.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6158
Founded in 1988 by Barbara Lubin, the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) describes itself as "a non-profit organization working for justice in the Middle East, focusing on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israel and Occupied Iraq." Viewing the Iraqi and Palestinian peoples, respectively, as victims of American and Israeli oppression, MECA claims that since its inception it has "brought over $8 million of much needed relief to besieged communities in Iraq and Palestine through emergency medical aid and direct aid to families and communities." Among the projects funded by this organization are: children's clinics and family mental health projects in various refugee camps throughout what MECA calls the "Occupied West Bank and Gaza," as well as various community projects for children including, playgrounds, libraries, and youth centers.
"Our work in the United States," says MECA (which calls the U.S. occupation of Iraq "illegal" and accuses the U.S. of "purposefully"
targeting civilian areas), "is centered … on educating North Americans about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, the affect it has on children, families and communities there, and the connection these policies have to our own communities. Through public lectures, audio-visual, presentations, teach-ins, demonstrations, and community work we dispel the myths and raise awareness about the history behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the current situation in the Occupied
Palestine and Occupied Iraq and the role of U.S. policy in maintaining and perpetuating instability and conflict in the Middle East. … We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people as they seek freedom from oppression and we support the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. MECA is a member organization of International
ANSWER's steering committeethe United For Peace and Justice antiwar coalition, the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, the Palestine
Solidarity Movement's divestiture project, the Justice in Palestine Coalition, and the Middle East Policy Advisory Committee. MECA is also the fiscal sponsor
for the International Solidarity Movement USA.
MECA's Board of Directors and Board of Advisors have at one time or another included such individuals as Leonard Weinglass; Noam Chomsky; Ramsey Clark; Maxine Waters; Ron Dellums (a socialist who is the current Mayor of Oakland, California, and who served as a U.S. Congressman in that state from 1971 to 1998); Gus Newport (MECA's current President, the former Mayor of Berkeley, and the onetime General Manager of Pacifica Radio affiliate KFPA); Maudelle Shirek ( a former Berkeley City Council member suspected of havin close ties to the Communist Party); Father William O'Donnell (a liberation theologian who was sentenced to a six-month jail term for protesting the School of the Americas); Fathi Arafat (the brother of Yasser Arafat), Edward Said (the late Columbia University professor and a member of the Palestine National Council); Ibrahim Abu Lughod (currently a member of the Palestine National Council); and the co-founders of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, James Abourezk and James Zogby.
MECA supports the Ibaada Center in the West Bank, which the Jerusalem Post describes as an indoctrination center that teaches Arab children to reject Israel's existence and to support Palestinian terrorism aimed ultimately at conquering Israel by violence. The Center's walls are festooned with scenes of terrorist "resistance."
MECA has also promoted a clinic in Gaza, the Union of Health Work Committees, whose former manager was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which i classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
MECA spokeswoman Penny Rosenwasser and Executive Director Barba a Lubin are both allied with the Marxist-Leninist Workers
World Party. MECA's Political Education Coordinator is Uda Walker, who has visited American high-school campuses with the organization Voices in the Wildernessduring school hours, and who has denouncedU.S.
foreign policy before audiences in the United Kingdom.
The Middle East Children's Alliance's recent activities include the
following:
- a 24-hour "Support Cindy Sheehan" vigil in San Francisco in August 2005
- a September 24, 2005 antiwar march in San Francisco, where every conceivable aspect of American foreign policy came under attack. The rally's themes included: "End Colonial Occupation: Iraq, Palestine, Haiti..."; "Support the Palestinian People's Right of Return"; "Military Recruiters Out of Our Schools"; "Stop the Racist, Anti-Immigrant and Anti-Labor Offensive"; "U.S. Out of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Afghanistan"; and "Stop the Threats Against Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea."
- a "Wheels of Justice Bus Tour,"where MECA members joined their counterparts from Voices in the Wilderness, Al-Awda, and the International Solidarity Movement in a two-year "nonviolent educational tour against war and occupation in Iraq and Palestine and for justice and universal human rights."
In 2004, MECA was a signatory -- along with more than 200 other leftist organizations -- to a letter exhorting members of the U.S. Senate to oppose Israel's construction of an anti-terrorist security fence in the West Bank, characterizing the barrier as an illegal "apartheid wall" that violated the civil and human rights of Palestinians.
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/lightsoutgaza.shtml
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