Afghan Peace Activist Malalai Joya Speaks on “Crisis and Resistance”
T A K E A C T I O N
Urgent Appeal for Help
Malalai Hospital is being scaled down due to lack of funds
Help us run MH to help tens of thousands of deserved families
Afghan Refugee
Camp Forcibly Evacuated
Help
http://blog.sojo.net/2009/10/29/afghanistan-a-whole-new-approach/
Afghanistan: A Whole New
RAWA Resettle the Families in Afghanistan
Send us donations to run our humanitarian
projects
to empower Afghan women against fundamentalism
Collect donations for us to run Malalai
Hospital, schools, orphanages,
literacy courses etc.
http://www.rawa.org/action.htm
Women in Afghanistan:Field Report
from Women for Women Int'l
http://www.womenforwomen.org/index.php
Based
on a poem for Kashmir
Afghanistan
Bleeds
And beauty.
Who devoured you?
Beasts of prey.
What is your crime?
Pursuit of happiness and liberty.
Brutes garbed as men
Out to denude you of dignity.
Afghanistan envy of paradise,
Reduced to ashes by fire and fury
Fire that burnt life and liberty,
Beauty and dignity.
Your bereaved Kabul where arson and
Rape reign supreme.
Where death is cheaper than life
Where life must cry and moan
Where children die before they areborn
Where chastity is molested day andnight.
Hills, valleys and lakes glow in bloodand fire.
The enemy of humanity:
Fundamentalism.
Approach
by Jim Wallis 10-29-2009
We’ve all been watching carefully as the Obama
administration tries to decide how to move forward on U.S. policy in Afghanistan.
And we’ve been listening to the arguments and counter-arguments being
offered. Religious leaders in particular have been paying close attention to
both the political and moral arguments that fill the air.
Contrary to Dick Cheney’s accusation that the administration is “dithering,”
many of us feel that a period of discernment is clearly called for in Afghanistan.
We know what Cheney wants America to do — he never dithered, even when
there were no facts to support his case for more war. Dick Cheney always wants
to fight. But Cheney’s foreign policy was an embarrassment for America,
and a tragedy for the rest of the world. And not to follow his advice is always
a good first step of moral wisdom.
But we need more than that. What we need is a whole new approach in Afghanistan.
The argument in Washington, D.C. is far too narrow. Two points of view are contending
inside the Obama team, and on Capitol
Hill. One supports a robust strategy of counter-insurgency, requiring a substantial
escalation of troops that would bring the total number of U.S. forces to as
many as 100,000. The other prefers counter-terrorism, relying on the most sophisticated
technology and Special Forces precision to focus on the most dangerous operatives
who are the greatest threat to us.
Of course these are all old arguments. Counter-insurgency increases the massive
American footprint in Afghanistan, which is clearly one of the primary causes
of our failures in that country thus far. Add in a corrupt Afghan government,
a radically decentralized society, and a physical terrain that has confounded
every other occupier in history there; it doesn’t make many of us hopeful,
and painfully reminds us of a history that deeply formed us. The laser-like
precision of our counter-terrorist missiles and unmanned drones may cost less
in American lives and treasure, but they often don’t just hit the bad
guys. They have resulted in serious civilian casualties, even further alienating
the populace and producing more angry young recruits for terrorism. And the
solution that may be emerging in Washington could be a confused combination
of the two strategies, bringing us the worst of both worlds.
We need a whole different approach.
We should know by now, and most of those on the ground in places like Afghanistan
do, that what re-builds a broken nation; inspires confidence, trust, and hope
among its people; and most effectively undermines terrorism is an old and proven
idea — massive humanitarian assistance and sustainable economic development.
And it costs less — far less — than continued war. Perhaps this
was best put by Richard Stearns, the U.S. president of World Vision, at a recent
meeting of President Obama’s Council
on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in Washington, D.C., when
he said, “The best face of America for the world is a baseball hat and
not a helmet.
Many of us have advised the president that the people who know places like Afghanistan
the best are neither the military nor the private contractors who increasingly
dominate U.S. foreign policy in war-torn regions. Rather they are the NGOs doing
relief and development work who have been there for years, have become quite
indigenous, and are much more trusted by the people of the country than are
the U.S. military or their mercenary friends.
So here is the new approach. Lead with what works — development. Yes,
effective development needs security, and when you massively intervene in a
country as much as the U.S. has in Afghanistan, you can’t responsibly
just walk away — as has tragically happened to this country too many times
before. But we should lead with development now, and only provide the security
necessary to protect the strategic rebuilding of the country that is urgently
needed — and that kind of security might better attract the international
involvement we so desperately need in Afghanistan, even from Arab and Muslim
countries.
And here is an idea of how to do that. Bring to the White House the international
organizations who know Afghanistan well because they have been there so long
— such as World Vision, Mercy
Corps, Catholic Relief Services,
Oxfam, Tearfund,
Christian Aid, Church
World Service — and many others. Ask them what U.S. policy would
best work, and what kind of security they would need to really do the kind of
development in Afghanistan that is most needed.
Let the non-military strategies lead the way, rather than the other way around,
which often just makes aid and development work another weapon of war; but then
provide the security needed for that work, and make it as international as possible.
Also bring in some of the religious and other nonprofit leaders from the Obama
Advisory Council and others, to focus on the deeply ethical and moral issues
that are at stake in our decisions about future policy in Afghanistan —
legitimately protecting Americans from further terrorism, defending women from
the Taliban, developing a diplomatic surge, genuinely supporting democracy,
and saving innocent lives from the collateral damage of war — to name
a few.
The conversation is much too narrow right now on Pennsylvania Avenue and at
the U. S. Congress. It’s time for a deeper look and a whole new approach.
Stupid people might call that dithering; smart people would call it discernment.
 My Environmental Concerns: http://my.opera.com/dcimagery/blog/ http://my.opera.com/azimagery/blog/ http://www.vimeo.com/user428906 http://www.youtube.com/user/azimagery http://my.opera.com/azimagery/blog/2009/09/04/american-casino-movie Why I Care about the Environment: Denny Carr, MFA Photographer and Video Artist BIKE !!!! hase lepus trike (stroke-paralysis) age 61 eco-friendly no-car "I am a stroke survivor and deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films." For more information, visit these websites: http://www.azimagery.com/stroke/ http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/ Topics of Interest: http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/love-ellen.html http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/surviving-economic-meltdown-in-age-of.html 
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Friday, October 23, 2009
Virtual Evolution of Revolution
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/
I am a stroke survivor and deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films." For more information, visit these websites:
http://www.azimagery.com/stroke/
http://r2meshwork.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-world-fair-trade
http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/
http://stroke-azimagery.blogspot.com/
http://my.opera.com/dcimagery/blog/
http://my.opera.com/azimagery/blog/
http://www.vimeo.com/user428906
http://www.youtube.com/user/azimagery
http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/lo
Life is full of beauty. Notice
it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams. Ashley Smith
http://www.agnt.org/
Planetary healing through self-realization and spiritually-motivated activism is the new promise of these teachings.
Once called the "religion of healthy-mindedness" by the philosopher, William James, the New Thought movement was born almost 150 years ago as a revolt against the negative dogmas so prevalent in the churches of that day. The early New Thought movement was driven by the discovery that physical healing was possible through the power of mind and spiritual awareness. As that initial idea unfolded into successful application, practitioners of New Thought began to see that the power of an uplifted consciousness could also bring healing to negative circumstances and conditions in one's personal life. As it evolves today, twenty-first century New Thought is driven by a far broader intention. Planetary healing through self-realization is emerging as the new promise of these teachings.
Out of a deep conviction and pure passion to give our movement a clear voice and commanding presence on the global stage, the Association for Global New Thought - AGNT - has been born. We invite you to learn more about this movement and its global initiatives for peace, justice and healing, and in the process discover your own spiritual calling. Welcome!
| Imagine a movie that carries a global message as urgent as Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth and a spiritual message as powerful as The Secret. Imagine showing that movie to your loved ones and friends. See why people like Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson and Rev. Michael Beckwith call Barbara Marx Hubbard's Humanity Ascending a must-see movie! | http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/23/amidst_uncertainty_on_us_role_in Amidst Uncertainty on US Role in Upcoming Climate Talks, 350.org Holds International Climate Action Day in 170 Nations 350-web Seven weeks before the UN Copenhagen Climate Conference, the group 350.org is organizing an International Climate Action Day. More than 4,500 events are scheduled to take place in 170 nations. We speak to two of the major thinkers and writers tackling climate change: the writer and environmentalist Bill McKibben, co-founder and director of 350.org, and Australian scientist Tim Flannery, chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council and author of the international bestseller The Weather Makers. |
Parliament of the World's Religions: Melbourne, 2009 TEN major organizations within New Thought evolve toward a collaborative model to participate in the Parliament of the World's Religions 2009 as program presenters and full supporters. We invite you to find out more and consider becoming part of the Global New Thought Delegation in Melbourne in December, 2009. | Thank you to everyone who was able to join us in Palm Springs for our most memorable event to date! Whether or not you were able to be there in person, you can still experience our most recent Awakened World Conference by clicking above...
|
Join hundreds
of task forces around the world in prayer gatherings and workshops focusing on interfaith communication and harmony. Beginning in 2008, we are partnering with Unity for 11 Days of Global Unity. This celebration of oneness spans from September 11(Birth of Gandhian Nonviolence and Unity World Day of Prayer) to September 21(The United Nations' International Day of Peace). The Season then continues through December and the Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne Australia. | http://www.youtube.com/user/normankremer Barbara Marx Hubbard and other cutting- edge futurists and scientists offer their insights on what might be in store for mankind in the years to come. |
Saturday, October 17, 2009
peaceful, just and sustainable world by the end of 2012
global movement dedicated to co-creating the foundations of a peaceful, just and sustainable world by the end of 2012.
http://worldshift2012.org/content/the-worldshift-2012-declaration
The WorldShift 2012 Declaration
http://www.worldfairtradeday10.org/
BIG BANG!! BEAT THE DRUM FOR WORLD FAR TRADE DAY 08 MAY 10
There is no doubt that we are now in a state of global emergency. This unprecedented worldwide crisis is a symptom of a much deeper problem - the current state of our consciousness: how we think about ourselves and our world. We have the urgent need, and now the opportunity, for a complete rethink: to reconsider our values and priorities, to understand our interconnectedness and to begin a new direction - living in harmony with nature and each other.
The Crisis And The Opportunity
Every person, community, and society
in the world is already, or will soon be, affected by the crisis, through climate change, economic breakdown, ecosystem collapse, population pressure, food and water shortages, resource depletion, nuclear and other threats. If we continue on our present unsustainable path, by mid-century the Earth could become largely uninhabitable for human and countless other forms of life. However, total system-collapse could occur much sooner caused by eco-catastrophes or escalating wars triggered by religious, geopolitical or resource conflicts.
These threats are real. The underlying causes of the present global crisis have been building momentum for decades and could soon become irreversible. Estimates of when the point of no return will be reached have been reduced from the end of the century, to mid-century, to the next twenty years, and recently to the next five to ten years.
The window of opportunity for pulling out of the current crisis and breaking through to a peaceful and sustainable world may be no more than a few years from now. This timeline coincides with the many forecasts and prophecies that speak of the ending of the current cycle of human life on this planet, and the possible dawning of a new consciousness by the end of the year 2012.
Today, forward-thinking groups and individuals all over the world are addressing the many opportunities presented at this critical time. Designs for sustainable systems, structures and technologies are being developed and implemented in all sectors, at all levels and in every society. This global awakening is a hopeful sign of the vitality of the human spirit and our ability to respond to the dangers we now face with insight and creativity.
The totality of our current efforts does not yet match the scope, scale and urgency of the necessary transformation. But if we collaborate and act with vision, foresight and commitment we can lay the foundations of a global community that is both peaceful and sustainable. We may then ensure our survival and wellbeing, as well as that of future generations. While the window of time is still open, our top priority, as global citizens, is to accelerate our evolutionary shift to a planetary consciousness and, together, lay the foundations for a peaceful, just and sustainable world.
An Urgent Call
We accordingly issue this urgent call to all the peoples of the world to deepen our awareness of both the dangers and the opportunities of the global crisis. We declare our firm commitment to work together to bring about a timely and positive WorldShift, for the survival and wellbeing of all the peoples of the human community and the flourishing of all life on Earth.
Sign The Declaration
Please electronically sign this declaration (only applicable if you are not already logged-in)... your name will be added to the current
list of signatories.
The Decision Window
It has been said that our generation is the first in history that can decide whether its the last in history. We need to add that our generation is also the first in history that can decide whether it will be the first generation of a new phase in history. We have reached a watershed in our socil and cultural evolution.
The sciences of systems tell us
that when complex open systems, such as living organisms, and also ecologies and societies of organisms, approach a condition of critical instability, they face a moment of truth: they either transform, or break down.;
Humankind is approaching a critical instability - a moment of truth. We can continue without decisive change and face disaster, or we can wake up and begin to transform.
The following two scenarios illustrate the nature of the choice before us.
The BAU (Business
As Usual) Scenario
produces drought, in others devastating storms, and in many areas it leads to harvest failures. In coastal areas vast tracts of productive land are flooded, together with cities, towns and villages. Hundreds of millions are homeless and face starvation.
tidal wave of destitute people India builds up its wall along the border with Bangladesh, the U.S. along the Mexican border, and both Italy and Spain build walls to protect their northern regions from their overrun southern regions.
into states and populations intent on protecting themselves, and masses of desperate people facing imminent famine and disease. The conflicts create unsustainable stresses and strains in the structure of international relations. Social and economic integration groups and political alliances break apart. Relations break down between the U.S. and its southern neighbours, the European Union and the Mediterranean countries, and India and China and the hard-hit Southeast Asian states.
spending rises exponentially as governments attempt to protect their territories and re-establish a level of order. Strong-arm rgimes come to power in the traditional hot-spots and local food- and water-wars erupt between states and populations pressed to the edge of physical survival.
narco-traffickers, and organized crime syndicates form alliances with unscrupulous entrepreneurs to sell arms, drugs, and essential goods at exorbitant prices. Governments target the terrorists and attack the countries suspected of harbouring them, but more terrorists take the place of those that are rounded up and killed or imprisoned.
lobbies press for the use of powerful weapons to defend the territories and interests of the better-off states. Regional wars fought initially with conventional arms escalate into wars conducted with weapons of mass destruction.
The environment, its productive processes and vital heat balance impaired, is no longer capable of providing food and water for more than a fraction of the surviving populations. Chaos and violence engulfs peoples and countries both rich and poor.
Here, however, is another scenario...Timely
Transformation.
The TT (Timely
Transformation) Scenario
- The experience of terrorism and war, together with rising poverty and the threats posed by a changing
climate, trigger a widespread recognition that the time to change has come. In country after country, an initially small but soon rapidly growing nucleus of people pull together to confront the dangers of the global crisis and seize the opportunity it offers for change. - The rise of popular movements
for sustainability and peace leads to the election of political leaders who support economic cooperation and social solidarity projects. Forward-looking states monitor the dangerous trends and provide financing for the urgently needed economic, ecological, and humanitarian initiatives. - Non-governmental organizations link up to undertake projects to revitalize regions ravaged by environmental
degradation. Emergency funds are provided for countries and regions affliced by drought, violent storms, coastal flooding, and failures of the harvest. - Military budgets are reduced and in some states eliminated, and the resulting peace-dividends are assigned
to increase the production of staple foods, safe water, basic supplies of energy, and essential sanitation and health services for the needy disadvantaged populations. - Country after country shifts
from fossil-fuel based energy-production to alternative fuels, reducing the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and slowing the process of global warming. A globally networked renewable energy system comes on line, contributing to food production, providing energy for desalinizing and filtering sea-water, and helping to lift marginalized populations from the vicious cycles of poverty. - Leading business companies join
the classical pursuit of profit and growth with the quest for social and ecological responsibility. On the initiative of enlightened managers a voluntarily self-regulating social market economy is put in place, and the newly elected forward-looking political leaders give it full support. - As the new energy system and the self-regulating social market economy begins to function, access to economic activity and technical and financial resources becomes available to all countries and economies.
- Frustration, resentment, animosity and distrust give way to a spirit of cooperation, liberating the spirit and enhancing the creativity of a new generation of locally active and globally thinking people.
- Humanity is on the way to a peaceful and sustainable, diverse yet cooperative planet-wide civilization.
As you can see, it is a simple choice to make between Business As Usual or Timely Transformation.
The transition may be difficult for some, but it will be far more difficult for all if we don't start the process very soon. Before we can do that we first have to collectively and consciously decide that this is what we actually want. Are you ready to take The
WorldShift Challenge?
The WorldShift 2012 Challenge
The choice between these scenarios is not yet made. As of today, we are moving along the path of the BAU scenario, but more and more people are waking up and searching for ways to move to a scenario of timely transformation.
The question is: how much time is there for this shift?
The window of time is finite: when conditions in a complex open system reach a critical point the system becomes chaotic, and it either transforms, or breaks down. The longer the transformation is delayed, the more difficult it becomes to carry it out.
To define the feasible decision-window we must take into account both the time by which idividual trends reach a critical phase, and cross-impacts and feedbacks among the trends.
The unfolding of individual trends. Time estimates of when individual life-threatening trends would reach points of criticality have been reduced from the end of the century to mid-century, and for some trends to the next ten to twenty years.
For example, the
sea level has been rising one and a half times faster than predicted in the IPCCs Third Assessment Report published in 2001. Forecasts published at the end of 2008 project global sea-level rise that is more than double the 0.59 meter rise forecast even by the Fourth Assessment Report.
Carbon dioxide emissions and global warming have likewise outpaced expectations. The
rate of increase of CO2 emissions rose from 1.1 percent between 1990 and 1999 to over 3 percent between 2000 and 2004. Since 2000 the growth-rate of emission has been greater than in any of the scenarios used by the IPCC in both the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports.
The warming of the atmosphere progressed faster than expected as well. In the 1990s
forecasts spoke of an overall warming of maximum 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Then the time-horizon for this level of increase was reduced to the middle of the century, and presently some experts predict that it could occur within a decade.
At the same
time, the prediction for the maximum level of global warming rose from 3 to 6 degrees. The difference is not negligible. A three degree warming would cause serious disruption in human life and economic activity, while a six degree warming would make most of the planet unsuitable for food production and large-scale human habitation.
Feedbacks and cross-impacts.
Most predictions of points of criticality take only one trend into consideration global warming and attendant climate change; water quality and availability; food production and self-reliance; urban viability, poverty, and population pressure; air quality and minimal health standards, or others. They fail to consider the possibility that a criticality in one trend could accelerate the unfolding of other trends toward a point of criticality.
There are multiple feedbacks and cross-impacts among the relevant trends, both in regard to the
biosphere and conditions in the human world.
In the biosphere, all the trends that affect human life and wellbeing also impact on the cycles that maintain the planets ecology within a humanly viable range. This is the case in regard to the global water and the global carbon cycle: the alteration of these cycles by any one trend affects the way the other trends unfold.
For example,
an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to global warming and that affects rainfall and the growth of forests. That, in turn, reduces the biospheres carbon absorption capacity. Feedbacks are also conveyed by air and ocean currents. Warmer water in the oceans triggers hurricanes and other violent storms alters the course of major ocean currents,
such as the Gulf and the Humbold. And that triggers further changes in the climate.
Feedbacks also obtain between ecological and societal trends. For example: The warming of the atmosphere produces prolonged drought in some areas and coastal flooding in others. Starving and homeless masses are impelled to migrate from the highly impacted areas to less hard-hit regions creating critical conditions in those regions as well.
A drop in the quality of the air in urban and industrial megacomplexes below the minimum required for health creates a breakdown in public health, with epidemics spreading to vast areas. A breakdown of the financial system would impact not only on banks and stock markets, but would interfere with industrial output and trade the world over, creating critical conditions first of all for the poorest countries and eonomies.
Cross-impacts among accelerating global trends reduces the feasible decision-window. The precise time for effecting meaningful change is not predictable with certainty, but due to feedback and cross-impacts among the trends, its likely to be less than the forecasts of critical points for individual trends.
The decision-window may close within ten years and possibly sooner - conceivably by the end of 2012, coinciding with the famous Mayan prophesies that predict if not the end, then the transformation, of our world.
We do have a choice. We can determine our own destiny and secure not just the future of humanity, but it's conscious evolution. By rising to The WorldShift Challenge, we ask you to commit to the positive transformational change required to co-create at least the foundations of a peaceful, just and sustainable world by the end of 2012.
Read and sign The WorldShift 2012 Declaration. http://www.clubofbudapest.org/mission.php
I am a stroke survivor and deal daily with a speech disorder called Aphasia. This disorder is a result of my stroke in 2005. I am thankful God has given me the ability to express myself through my images and films. For more information, visit these websites:
http://www.azimagery.com/stroke/
http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/
http://stroke-azimagery.blogspot.com/
http://my.opera.com/dcimagery/blog/
http://my.opera.com/azimagery/blog/
http://www.vimeo.com/user428906
http://www.youtube.com/user/azimagery
http://steetsblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/
Thursday, October 8, 2009
imperial American war machine, hell
 |  |
| http://falloftherepublic.com/ | http://www.obamadeception.net/ |
ProsecuteBushCheney.org
National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance - evilObama=evilwarAfghanistan
This Memorial Day: Should We Arrest Cheney and Bush, Impeach Obama?
By Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological Internet
Earth Meanders come from Earth's Newsdesk
War and climate criminals will be brought to justiceIt has been awhile since I have written how U.S. militarism to prop up an unsustainable way of life is destroying both Earth and freedom. As Obama induced "hopenosis" starts wearing off, it is clear that on several key issues -- war, civil liberties and climate change --
we are getting "Bush Lite" policies from President Obama that differ little from his criminal predecessor. Military commissions to try those illegally held for years will occur after all, and some may be held forever without charges. We continue to be spied upon. Obama is escalating the unwinnable war in Afghanistan, and drawing out the criminal occupation of Iraq. Meanwhile the real Earth and society crushing crises of climate change and global ecosystem collapse remain woefully unaddressed. Heil Bush! Heil Obama!
After nearly a decade of criminal rule, America continues under new management to careen forward, wounded and flailing in vain attempts to return to a state of excessive democratic consumption. On the economy, the President has borrowed (stolen?) $trillions from our children to rescue a dying industrial and speculative
capitalistic shell game built upon usury, greed and unsustainability. And we are getting an inadequate climate change policy that cherry picks token measures to be seen as acting while coddling coal and tar sands which we know must end to survive. America's might makes right, damn the truth and consequences, mind set is destroying civilized society and our one shared Earth.
Democrats and Republicans are two faces of the same imperial American war machine, hell-bent to destroy Earth for one last fix of economic growth. Happiness and meaning is always having more stuff, damn the consequences for the Earth and poor. President Bush is a known war criminal that a truly just, law-abiding, democratic system would bring to justice. Torture, rigged elections, unprovoked illegal and imperial wars, spying on law-abiding citizens -- President or not, these are illegal behaviors. As are the current weak (and orders of magnitude insufficient) climate bill, subsidizing coal and its mountaintop removal mining, and continuing a state of unjustified perma-war when a great nation and its peoples are going bankrupt -- both financially and morally.
We are calling for withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, ending the illegal bombing with US drones, including neighboring Pakistan, and the closing of the Bagram prison and ending indefinite detention and torture. We are calling for an end to these wars and occupations, including that of Iraq, so that our resources can be used for life-sustaining actions including the funding and the rebuilding of Afghanistans and Iraq's infrastructure and medical assistance to Afghans and Iraqis, in addition to poverty reduction programs in the United States and world wide. We are calling for accountability for those who have committed war crimes.
The Fight for the Public Option Hits Home Stretch -- Is Obama Hiding?
By Adele Stan, AlterNet
Posted on October 6, 2009, Printed on October 6, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143081/
For months, as Congress has debated health-care reform, President Barack Obama's tepid rhetoric about the importance -- but not the necessity -- of a public health-care plan has caused anxiety among progressives. Indeed, even in his health-care speech last month before a joint session of Congress, Obama seemed less than committed to a fight-to-the-finish on behalf of the public option.
Then the left got serious.
Groups like Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched television ads targeting senators -- including Democrats -- who stand in the way of the public option. Progressives began raising campaign funds for pro-public option legislators, and the Accountability Now PAC promised primary challenges to those who fell out of step with progressive priorities like a public health insurance plan.
Lo and behold, the ground seemed to shift with this weekend's news that President Obama and members of his administration have been quietly talking with reluctant lawmakers, trying to cut a deal for a public option.
It's hard to say whether Obama is responding to pressure from the left, or was always inclined to step back publicly from the public option while quietly cutting a back-room deal for its survival. But it's safe to say that the pressure from the left hasn't hurt, even if one Democratic senator, a public-option advocate, contends it has. But the senator in question, Chuck Schumer of New York, almost has to say that: He's deeply involved in getting fence-sitting Democrats to come his way on the public plan when it's time for a vote.
This week, Senate leadership will begin the work of hammering out that body's final health-care bill, a combination of the legislation drafted by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which contains a public option, and the one expected to be offered by the Finance Committee (the committee will vote on its bill today), which does not. If the final Senate bill does not include the public plan, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has signaled that he will carry the issue to the Senate floor in the form of an amendment. Failing that, the public plan could still survive via a budget maneuver when the House and Senate bills are reconciled in the conference committee.
Republicans, seeing that they may have to concede defeat on their attempt to derail the public option, are now looking to scuttle health-care reform with an attack on the mandate included in all the bills -- a requirement that all Americans buy health insurance (some with government help). In the mark-up session for the Finance Committee bill, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., made his argument that the mandate equals a tax on people making less than $150,000 per year -- a violation, he says, of Obama's campaign promise not to increase taxes on working families.
http://healthcarecantwait.com/
And the assault on the mandate doesn't end with the Senate. In more than a dozen states, efforts are currently under way to pass legislation that would declare the mandate unconstitutional under state law. Once the health-care reform bill is signed by the president, a state with a mandate ban in place will likely try to force a constitutional challenge to the insurance requirement. While leading constitutional scholars contend that federal law would trump state law in such a contest, the challenge could gum up the health-care works, possibly delaying the implementation of health-care reform in the state that posed the challenge. And with a heavy roster of right-wingers occupying the bench of today's Supreme Court, a surprise could be in order should a challenge to the mandate find its way to the high court.
So why not strip the
mandate out of the bill? Because the public option can't really work without it. The mandate is what keeps the public plan remotely affordable; it provides a pool that includes young, healthy people. Without them, you wind up with
a public plan populated by otherwise uninsurable people, most of them uninsurable because they are already quite sick. And health-insurance reform without a mandate will allow insurance companies to continue to cherry-pick the healthiest consumers for their rolls.
Back in Washington, support appears to be coalescing around the prospect of a health-care reform bill that contains a public option. In the House, Greg Sargent reports, there are 170 firm votes for a bill that contains a public option. That leaves 48 more to get, which insiders contend is do-able.
The Senate is a much tougher game. There it takes 60 vote to shut down a filibuster, one maneuver likely to be employed by opponents of reform. The Democratic caucus comprises exactly 60 senators, but not all are on board with a public option. That's why progressives have targeted television advertising on Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, both of whom seem to defy popular opinion in their states with their reluctance to embrace the public plan. (Coincidentally, both also receive a major portion of their campaign
funding from the health-care sector.) Other reluctant Dems include Senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Kent Conrad of North Dakota.
Still, Schumer contends that at least 54 Senate Democrats are ready to vote for a bill that contains a public insurance plan. That leaves six more to get, which Schumer says can be done.
If Obama is to get his public-option deal, however, he will likely need to win over heel-dragging lawmakers with some weakened version of the plan -- something either administered by the states, and perhaps not even launched until insurance companies fail to provide affordable insurance according to some benchmark built into the bill as a "trigger." (There's some belief that, if they go that route, Senate Democrats could win a single Republican -- that of Maine's Olympia Snowe.) However, many experts, including former Secretary
of Labor Robert Reich, say that triggers don't work.
http://healthcarecantwait.com/
As the health-care reform bill wends its way through Congress, there's only one thing worth betting on: Some sort of health-care bill will pass into law. It looks like the bill will contain something called a public option. But whether it will represent true reform is anybody's guess. Adele M. Stan is AlterNet's Washington bureau chief. © 2009 Independent Media Institute.
http://moretexastruth.blogspot.com/2009/04/calls-for-obamas-impearchment.html
All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/143081/
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“Life is full of beauty. Notice
it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” Ashley Smith
What
Recession? As the Economy Crashed Around Them, 400 Richest Americans Lined Their Pockets with $30 Billion$
By Les Leopold, AlterNet
Posted on October 1, 2009, Printed on October 6, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/
It's great to know that during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the wealth of the 400 richest
Americans, according to Forbes, actually increased by $30 billion. Well golly, that's only a 2 percent increase, much less than the double digit returns the wealthy had grown accustomed to. But a 2 percent increase is a whole lot more than losing 40 percent of your 401k. And $30 billion is enough to provide 500,000 school teacher jobs at $60k per year.
Collectively, those 400 have $1.57
trillion in wealth. It's hard to get your mind around a number like that. The way I do it is to imagine that we were still living during the great radical Eisenhower era of the 1950s when marginal income tax rates hit 91 percent. Taxes were high back in the 1950s because people understood that constraining wild extremes of wealth would make our country stronger and prevent another depression. (Well, what did those old fogies know?)
Had we kept those high progressive
taxes in place, instead of removing them, especially during the Reagan era, the Forbes 400 might each be worth "only" $100 million instead of $3.9 billion each. So let's imagine that the rest of their wealth, about $1.53
trillion, were available for the public good.
What does $1.53 trillion$ buy?
It's more than enough to insure the uninsured for the next twenty years or more.
It's more than enough to create a
Manhattan Project to solve global warming by developing renewable energy and a green, sustainable manufacturing sector.
And here's my favorite: It's more
than enough to endow every public college and university in the country so that all of our children could gain access to higher education for free, forever!
Instead, we embarked on a grand experiment
to see what would happen if we deregulated finance and changed the tax code so that millionaires could turn into billionaires. And even after that experiment failed in the most spectacular way, our system seems trapped into staying on the same deregulated path.
Instead of free higher education,
health care and a sustainable economy, we got a fantasy finance boom and bust on Wall Street which crashed the real economy. We have our 400 billionaires, and we have 29 million unemployed and underemployed Americans. We have an infrastructure in shambles. We have an environment in crisis. We have a health care system that would make Rube Goldberg proud. And we have the worst income distribution since 1929.
I hazard to guess that each and every
Forbes 400 member could get by with a net worth of $100 million. I don't think that would kill their entrepreneurial drive or harm our economy--in fact it would be a major boon to the economy to step back from the edge of such massive concentration of wealth. The real problem is getting there form here. A wealth tax that kicks in when you become worth more than $100 million would be a good start. The Eisenhower tax rate on adjustable gross income over $3 million a year would help as well.
And please let's not call it socialism,
now that we've placed the entire financial sector on welfare to the tune of over $13 trillion in subsidies and guarantees. (By the way, the yearly budget outlays for means tested programs for low income citizens is about $350 billion per year. So Wall Street's welfare is about 37 times as large as welfare for poor.)
So if narrowing the income/wealth
gap isn't socialism, what is it? It's the America that thrived in the 1950s and 1960s. It's the America that created a middle-class and vowed never to let the financial gamblers return us to another depression. It's an America that put its people to work and built an infrastructure that was the envy of the world.
Where's Dwight David Eisenhower when we need him?
Les Leopold is the executive director of the Labor Institute and Public Health Institute in New York, and author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance Destroyed Our Jobs, Pensions, and Prosperity—and What We Can Do About It (Chelsea Green, 2009).
© 2009 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/
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Mastermind Terror Evil Lie obama
“endgame for the human race.”
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