December 30, 2010

GDAE Podcast - Episode 40

The Right Critiquing the Right

Episode 40 - December 30, 2010

Part of the series on the left and right joining forces to challenge the establishment (See Below).

  • Libertarian Critique of Republicans: "The Persistence of Red-State Facism," by Anthony Gregory.

  • Prosecute Bush: Scott Horton on State Department cables that expose US
    obstruction of justice in Spain and Germany to suppress their
    investigations of extraordinary rendition, torture and illegal
    activities associated with the Guantanamo prisons.






Click to Download Episode 39.

Recent Series: Can the Populist Left & Right Unite to Challenge the Establishment and Regain Control of Our Republic?

The answer is "yes," as history has proven. Check out the 9-part GDAE Podcast series that explores how common people across the political spectrum can come to the aid of our democracy.

GDAE Podcast Episode 29
  • Motivation for reaching out to the conservatives, from a progressive perspective

GDAE Podcast Episode 30
  • The Power of Ordinary People

GDAE Podcast Episode 31
  • Left & Right Populists Working Together: to fix our flawed democracy
  • What is a "principled" conservative: Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has some thoughts
  • Audit the Fed: Bernie Sanders leads the Left & Right to push for Senate Unanimous vote on Amendment to "audit the Fed."

GDAE Podcast Episode 32
  • Left & Right Populists: The American Populist movement of the 1800s with Jim Hightower (Bill Moyer's Journal).
  • Left & Right United: The Tenth Amendment with Michael Boldin (Mother Jones Magazine).

GDAE Podcast Episode 33
  • Principled and Unprincipled Conservatives: Will Bunch, Author of "The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama," on the Tea Party movement and the recent primary elections.
  • Principled and Unprincipled Liberals: Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional and civil rights litigator now writer and blogger.

GDAE Podcast Episode 34
  • Conversation with Vince Tola: Perspectives on the potential of principled people on the left and right to join forces and reassert the power of the people over our democratic institutions. Vince is a public school teacher and Maryland Green Party organizer.

GDAE Podcast Episode 35
  • Case-study from Electoral Politics: David Sirota on Tea-party-backed candidate for US Senate in Colorado, Ken Buck.
  • Shared Left/Right Populist Anger: CNN interview with David Sirota explains Bush & Obama failure on Financial Bailout.

GDAE Podcast Episode 36
  • Motivation for Reaching out to the Political Right on Issues of Common Concern: Preventing the Drift toward "Barbarism".
  • Right-Wing TV/Radio Incitement: The case of Byron Williams who attempted to murder eleven people in San Francisco after listening to Glenn Beck and others.
  • Walden Bello: A historical perspective on the Drift toward "Barbarism" and its relation to the Moviation to reach out to genuine conservatives.
  • 2006 Conservative Essay: "Now Is the Time for a Left-Right Alliance: A rebel alliance already exists that could stop Bush administration attacks on the Constitution."

GDAE Podcast Episode 37
  • History: Demagogues take advantage of bad economic times for political gains including the use of government to enrich themselves.
  • Three economists see three futures: Pretty Bad, Very Bad and Absolutely Catastrophic.
  • Call for unity among principled conservatives and progressives: Unite to counter-act dangers of demagogues during the coming hard times.

Source:

GDAEman.Com

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December 29, 2010

The Eroding Justice

Many western foreign ministers, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, are voicing concern about the equal application of justice in Russia after the conviction of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky. They say it's retribution for Khodorkovsky's funding of opposition political candidates to Putin and his resistance to a Russian oil pipeline monopoly, both of which are true.

But, if I'm not mistaken, Khodorkovsky gained his position through organized crime, and he is not alone. Many years ago Putin cut a deal with powerful organized crime figures; they stay out of politics and the Kremlin looks the other way. Khodorkovsky reneged on the deal and now he's paying the price. Sounds like big boy street justice to me... he could have simply been shot or blown up.

That aside, the US has an eroded moral foundation for its criticism of Russian justice. The US was just caught obstructing German and Spanish justice systems by using extortion tactics to stop their investigations into illegal renditions and torture at Guantanamo... all of this thanks to leaked State Department cables.

But we didn't need the cables to know that the US beacon of justice is eroding. Guantanamo itself is right in our faces... so big and obvious it's easy to forget. The, the irony.... Bradley Manning, the army private presumed to have leaked the cables, is being held without charge in conditions designed to erode his senses. Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, is facing very uneven treatment by the western justice system, there is even talk of retroactively creating a law to go after Assange; we've recently seen laws that retroactively erase crimes (war crimes, privacy crimes by ATT and other telecom corporations) but creating a law to make a past act illegal... that rings new to me. Meanwhile very serious criminal behavior, by George Bush and his cohorts, can't be addressed because we have to look forward, not backwards. Never mind the Wall Street tycoons who walk free and the litany of other examples.

WARNING: Step back and look at the big picture. The world is loosing its moral compass; some would say "has lost." People are now rolling their eyes at the United States' criticism of Russia and US officials will bristle at this. But over time US officials could become used to such criticisms. Given a little more time on this path of our eroding justice system and they might admit they are in no position to make such criticisms. Gradually, with only a small number of people jumping up and down waiving their arms trying to warn others, we will become an undeniable police state; some would say "have become."

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December 23, 2010

January 5th Senate Rules Opportunity

Due to abuse of the U.S. Senate filibuster procedure, any major issue now requires a 60% majority vote to pass (super-majority).

In the past, all Senate business would stop during a filibuster; however, some time ago the Senate adopted a two-track process that allows business to continue while a filibuster is occurring. This means that there is no price for conducting a filibuster, so it can be used willy nilly. This has to stop.

January 5th, the U.S. Senate adopts its rules for the next two years. It's critical that they fix this problem on that single day. Contact your Senators and insist that they support Colorado Sen. Mark Udall's proposed rules change, or similar measure, to fix the filibuster problem.

Thanks

For Your Convenience:

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December 20, 2010

GDAE Podcast - Episode 39

December 18, 2010 Episode of GDAE Podcast

Episode 39 Conversation on Corporate Power

  • Corporate Power: Conversation on how excessive corporate power is creating dysfunctional elections, health care system, financial system, news media, and its affect on American democracy and its citizens..

  • Prosecute Bush: Obstruction of justice in Spain and Germany by US officials exposed by WikiLeaks. Emerging facts have a way of forcing democratically governed countries to choose between maintaining their status as democracies or admitting that they are authoritarian states. If they choose to maintain their status as democracies, they have to prosecute high officials for crimes.






Click to Download Episode 39.

Recent Series: Can the Populist Left & Right Unite to Challenge the Establishment and Regain Control of Our Republic?

The answer is "yes," as history has proven. Check out the 9-part GDAE Podcast series that explores how common people across the political spectrum can come to the aid of our democracy.

GDAE Podcast Episode 29
  • Motivation for reaching out to the conservatives, from a progressive perspective

GDAE Podcast Episode 30
  • The Power of Ordinary People

GDAE Podcast Episode 31
  • Left & Right Populists Working Together: to fix our flawed democracy
  • What is a "principled" conservative: Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has some thoughts
  • Audit the Fed: Bernie Sanders leads the Left & Right to push for Senate Unanimous vote on Amendment to "audit the Fed."

GDAE Podcast Episode 32
  • Left & Right Populists: The American Populist movement of the 1800s with Jim Hightower (Bill Moyer's Journal).
  • Left & Right United: The Tenth Amendment with Michael Boldin (Mother Jones Magazine).

GDAE Podcast Episode 33
  • Principled and Unprincipled Conservatives: Will Bunch, Author of "The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama," on the Tea Party movement and the recent primary elections.
  • Principled and Unprincipled Liberals: Glenn Greenwald, former constitutional and civil rights litigator now writer and blogger.

GDAE Podcast Episode 34
  • Conversation with Vince Tola: Perspectives on the potential of principled people on the left and right to join forces and reassert the power of the people over our democratic institutions. Vince is a public school teacher and Maryland Green Party organizer.

GDAE Podcast Episode 35
  • Case-study from Electoral Politics: David Sirota on Tea-party-backed candidate for US Senate in Colorado, Ken Buck.
  • Shared Left/Right Populist Anger: CNN interview with David Sirota explains Bush & Obama failure on Financial Bailout.

GDAE Podcast Episode 36
  • Motivation for Reaching out to the Political Right on Issues of Common Concern: Preventing the Drift toward "Barbarism".
  • Right-Wing TV/Radio Incitement: The case of Byron Williams who attempted to murder eleven people in San Francisco after listening to Glenn Beck and others.
  • Walden Bello: A historical perspective on the Drift toward "Barbarism" and its relation to the Moviation to reach out to genuine conservatives.
  • 2006 Conservative Essay: "Now Is the Time for a Left-Right Alliance: A rebel alliance already exists that could stop Bush administration attacks on the Constitution."

GDAE Podcast Episode 37
  • History: Demagogues take advantage of bad economic times for political gains including the use of government to enrich themselves.
  • Three economists see three futures: Pretty Bad, Very Bad and Absolutely Catastrophic.
  • Call for unity among principled conservatives and progressives: Unite to counter-act dangers of demagogues during the coming hard times.

Source:

GDAEman.Com

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December 19, 2010

Debate Continues on Obama Tax Deal

Below is a comment of mine on the December 17 Episode of "WakeUp AM" podcast (Episode 239). Brian of WakeUp AM had taken the position that Obama's tax deal with the Republicans was effectively the only pragmatic alternative. I, and others, took an alternative view:

Good discussion on the tax legislation. Brian made an argument worth noting; if the economy continues to do poorly in two years, then the Republicans would blame it on Obama for raising taxes on upper income earners.

Brian is right that the ultimate outcome was that the Republicans would get tax cuts for the rich; however, we could have done better, both in substance and in process (MLK would argue that process matters and I'll leave it at that for process).

On substance, he didn't drive a good bargain. For example, Obama could have sought to decouple the upper and lower income tax cuts by giving a three-year cut to lower earners and two-years for upper earners. Decoupling the two taxes would allow Democrats to vote separately on extending tax cuts for high-earners. This would avoid the potential for hostage-taking.

So, it might be true that tax cuts for the rich were inevitable, but Obama caved way too early. As you alluded, Obama might have been pissed at Congressional leaders for not using the tax cut legislation as a campaign issue; he might feel this was partly to blame for the bad mid-term election results. He might be unwilling to let it happen again. However, I think he erred in judgment on this one.


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December 15, 2010

Mail Box Full

My Congressman's voice mail box is full this morning. Hopefully it's full of voice mails that say something to the effect:

I call to urge you to seek a better tax deal than what President Obama and the US Senate have agreed to. Please stand on the side of the majority of the people who understand that disparity of wealth in the US is at a dangerous extreme. The economic system has been rigged for decades leading to a disgraceful situation of common people working harder for less and seeing the future of their children in peril. The US House of Representatives is the chamber of the people. Stand up to the elite minority so often represented by the US Senate and stand with the people. Thank you

I'll send him an e-mail.

Update: On second thought, I'll also leave a voice mail at one of his district offices.


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December 13, 2010

Take the Pledge

Take the Pledge:

The Supreme Court's flawed decision allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts to influence election outcomes endangers our democracy and threatens to drown out the voices of individual citizens. I pledge to protect America from unlimited corporate spending in our elections by supporting a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision giving corporations the same First Amendment rights as people.

Sponsored by People for the American Way and Pubic Citizen.

We need to generate and sustain momentum. This is a multi-generational struggle.


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December 12, 2010

Obama's Long-View on Taxes a Huge Mistake?

"I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub." - Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform

Obama talks a good line about taking the long-view in defending the ransom he's willing to pay to Republican hostage takers on tax legislation.

Unfortunately, Obama's long-view is probably a huge mistake. Many of us have that gut feeling. James Kwak (real name), blogging on Simon Johnson's baseline Scenario site, explains. First, he argues that the tax cuts for the wealthy are likely to become permanent:

If you think the tax cuts were bad policy, your chances of fixing that bad policy are much worse in two years than they are now. The administration’s best card would have been a threat to veto any bill that contained an extension of the tax cuts for the rich. The House is going to pass an across-the-board permanent extension in 2012. Are the Democrats going to block it in the Senate in an election year? Is Obama going to veto it in 2012? (And even if he leaves it for a lame-duck session, he’s going to have to make a commitment during the campaign.)

He then reminds us that this permanent tax policy is a permanent redistribution of wealth upwards:

This was the best chance to kill the tax cuts once and for all. Yes, it would have been worse in the short run for the economy. But this is a huge price to pay for a modest stimulus made up entirely out of tax cuts (largely tax cuts for the rich). Instead, we are stuck with a huge reduction in the tax burden of the rich and a small reduction in the tax burden of the middle class–which, on balance, helps the rich and hurts the middle class–forever.

Then he reminds us of the Republican long-view, toward which they've been marching for decades, and are nearing the final plunge of their stake, thanks in part to this tax deal from Obama:

... the old Republican “starve the beast” strategy: cut government revenues to the point where it is unable to do anything. ... Republicans have cut revenues and continued to spend on whatever they felt like spending on. But the core of the strategy is that if you cut taxes at every possible opportunity, eventually you will force the government into a crisis where something has to give (and probably it will be a Democratic administration that takes the political hit for cleaning up the mess). And unless American public opinion does an about-face, the thing that will give will be entitlements.

In other words, don't be fooled by excessive Republican government spending, thinking that it is a contradiction to their "less government" philosophy. Rather, they want to spend our government into hoc so that it has no alternative but to cut social programs. Kwak looks into the crystal ball at how this will likely play out:

So perhaps with the best intentions, the Obama administration, by making it more likely that the Bush tax cuts will become permanent... is probably hastening the day when push will come to shove and Medicare will be gutted. The bigger the projected national debt, the more seemingly reasonable people in the middle of the ideological spectrum shake their heads sadly and say something has to be done about Medicare, as if it’s a fact of nature and not a fact of politics.

Obama's unwillingness to at least try to draw the line now makes one wonder whether he is blind to this scenario or whether he also believes in a version of the "starve the beast" strategy.
Sources:

Baseline Scenario Blog, "More on the Tax Deal," by James Kwak, December 8, 2010.

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December 11, 2010

Obama Acted too Soon on Tax Framework

I've listened to a variety of commentary on Obama's Tax Cut ransom "Framework" with the hostage takers (AKA Republicans).

What stands out for me is the Rachel Maddow show of 12/7/10 with Simon Johnson and Senator Sherrod Brown (D) OH. Three things stand out in particular: 1) People falling for Obama's rhetoric and concluding "he did the right thing under the circumstances", 2) Obama's list of what the Republicans supposedly "gave up" in this deal, like Childcare Tax Credits, College Tuition Tax Credits. But these were tax cuts added to Obama's earlier stimulus package to presumably attract Republican vote (in other words, the Reeps didn't "give these up") , and 3) Sherrod Brown's convincing scenario of the "fighting" path Democrats could have taken if the White House had coordinated a strategy with the Hill; a messaging campaign, taking the Reeps to the brink and making them blink at the 11th hour. He's convinced that the extension of unemployment benefits would have passed... without all of the other capitulations, like changes to inheritance taxes that will further polarize wealth in our Country.

I think Hugo Chavez was right: Obama is a prisoner. Even if Sherrod Brown's scenario didn't play out, at the 11.5th hour they could have caved... but they didn't really fight for it.

I know some say that the Reeps also held other legislation hostage until they ransomed the tax cuts for the rich, like "don't ask," but if the Dems want to frame and control the message, then they need to let the Reeps dangle in the breeze before paying the hostage ransom.
Sources:

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December 10, 2010

Refrigerator Child Poetry in Late 2010

I found the following written in refrigerator magnets on our fridge. I'm pretty sure it was written solely by our 10-year old daughter.

American peace harass apparatus influence death bomb against argue triumph knife enlist war chief president oppose law blood

Fortunately, she's a happy, intelligent, creative kid who, like most her age, doesn't listen very well.

Oh. Don't forget to contact your representatives and tell them to bargain harder on the tax legislation that Obama caved on.
Sources:

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December 5, 2010

Healthcare in the Great U S of A

My mom, in her 70s, is a no-nonsense lady from the "Show Me" state of Missouri. She's definitely open minded, but not new age or inclined towards "alternative" non-western culture and practices. She's also dealt with plenty of health issues, including at least one knee replaced. This is all by way of background for the following, which I excerpted from an e-mail of hers to an old friend:

I have been seeing an acupuncturist and have had some real breakthroughs in my lower back and shoulder. I overdid while in NYC a year ago and ended up not being able to go up stairs using alternate feet. I had two injections at a spine center in May with no improvement. After 2 acupuncture treatments recently the problem was gone. Yesterday I saw her for my shoulder which has been so weak and sore for about 3 mths. and I'm much better today. I called Medicare and they won't provide any coverage so I'm going to lobby them and my congressman (who is a dope). Probably won't do a bit of good, but will get it off my chest :-).


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December 3, 2010

Deficit Commission Corporate Compromise

Here's a "compromise" for you from the "bipartisan" deficit commission (as if Democrats and Republicans aren't captured by corporate power and actually represent the broad range of people's interest... oh yea, I forgot. Corporations are people too).

It would eliminate or scale back tax breaks — including the child tax credit, mortgage interest deduction and deduction claimed by employers who provide health insurance — in exchange for rate cuts on corporate and income taxes.

Can you believe it? Close a loop-hole for corporations, but "in exchange" their tax rates are cut to get them to go along. Reminds me of a Sci-Fi book I'm reading in which the "Transnats" rule. Not that different than today, except in some bankrupt countries, and on mars, there is no government of the people and the Transnats set the rules... or leave it to the whims. Yes. "Freedom."

Sources:

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December 2, 2010

New Geological Era?

Are humans having such a potent effect on the planet that we are entering a new era? Some say we are already in that era:

The term anthropocene is used by some scientists to describe the current period in the Earth's history when human activities have had a significant global impact on the Earth's ecosystems. It has no precise start date, but may be considered to start with the Industrial Revolution (late 18th century).[1] Other commentators link it to earlier events, such as the rise of agriculture. The term was coined in 2000 by the Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen, who regards the influence of human behavior on the Earth in recent centuries as so significant as to constitute a new geological era. Use of this concept as an official geological concept gained support in early 2008, with publication of two new papers supporting the idea.

Sources:

Wikipeida Anthopocene

1. Crutzen, P. J., and E. F. Stoermer (2000). "The 'Anthropocene'". Global Change Newsletter 41: 17–18.
2. a b Zalasiewicz, Jan; et al. (February 2008). "Are we now living in the Anthropocene?". GSA Today 18 (2): 4–8.

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