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| Sharon, Our Secretary/Treasurer and Christmas Elf! Sharon Tirelessly Keeps us informed on the issues.
Here are some recent emails sent by Sharon to her readers: March 23, 2010 Food for Thought:
Pre-eminent historian Tony Judt of New York University is dying of an aggressive form of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Last August he delivered his last public lecture, which has been expanded into the newly published book, Ill Fares the Land.
Judt
argues that "Something is profoundly wrong with the way we live today.
For 30 years we have made a virtue out of the pursuit of material
self-interest....Much of what appears 'natural' today dates from the
1980's: the obsession with wealth creation, the cult of privatization
and the private sector,
the growing disparities of rich and poor. And above all, the rhetoric
which accompanies these: uncritical admiration for unfettered markets,
disdain for the public sector, the delusion of endless growth."
Judt's argument is that the postwar expansion of social democracy and its benefits across Europe and North America under the New Deal, the Great Society and the Welfare State
ushered in the era of peace and prosperity now at risk. To abandon
that now because we have lost any sense of solidarity and faith in collective action, Judt argues, "is to betray those who came before us as well as generations yet to come."
Judt
recently told an interviewer, "I think what we need is a return to a
belief not in liberty, because that is easily converted into something
else...but in equality.....Equality of access to information, equality
of access to knowledge, equality of access to education, equality of
access to power and to politics....Everything has been about growth,
efficiency, productivity and wealth, and not enough has been about
ideals...around which we can be motivated collectively, whether on the
issue of justice, inequality, cruelty or unethical behavior."
Does this strike a chord with you? It did with me.
Sharon
In 1992 the Clinton administration asked the Internal Revenue Service to begin tracking the incomes and tax payments of the country's 400 richest households. During the George W. Bush years, the IRS continued to collect the data, but didn't release it to the public. Last
week, the figures for 2007 were finally made available: The incomes of
the top 400 American households soared to a new record high in dollars
and as a share of all income in 2007,while the income tax rates
they paid fell to a record low. Between 2006 and 2007, the average
income of the country's 400 top taxpayers rose 31%, from $263 million
to $345 million. At the same time their effective income tax rate declined more than half a percentage point, from 17.2% to 16.7%. While
the richest 400 households increased their income between 1992 and 2007
by 399%, the lowest 90% of households gained just 13% points in
inflation-related dollars. For a country that prides itself on creating economic opportunity and promoting social mobility, these are distressing figures indeed, don't you think? ==================================================== Maureen Dowd can be pretty darned funny at times! February 14, 2010 Op-Ed Columnist Icicles, Inside and Out By MAUREEN DOWD WASHINGTON
Barack Obama knew that the snow clogging the capital would melt a lot sooner than Dick Cheney’s heart.
But when he saw that Cheney was going on ABC’s Sunday morning show with
Jonathan Karl, he braved the ultimate lion’s den. He took Jonathan Alter’s advice in Newsweek and called the former vice president to set up a private meeting in the Oval Office, hoping to use any combination of diplomacy and tongue-lashing that would make Cheney quit calling him weak.
Obama invited Bob Gates to the Saturday summit. Gates, after all, had
originally been brought in as defense secretary by W. to be a
common-sense counterbalance to the batty Cheney. The president prides himself on winning over hostile audiences, but this challenge would give a peacock pause. The three men sat before the fire in the Oval. OBAMA: Look, Dick, you’ve called me out on various particulars. And I have no problem with that. That’s politics. You thought Khalid Shaikh Mohammed should not be tried in New York City, and that’s fine.
And we both know that any blowhard can call me weak. But you’re not
just any blowhard, Dick. You were the architect of America’s defense
against terrorism. And when those folks sitting in a cave in Waziristan
hear you chest-thumping, saying our guard is down, they think, “Hey,
this might be a good time to attack.” You believe in the unitary executive. You believe that if the president says something is in the national security interest of the U.S., then it is. So I am the president now, and I’m telling you that you need to put a sock in it. CHENEY: What are you going to do about it, Hussein? Mirandize me? GATES: Dick, the president’s right. When a former vice president calls a new president weak, it emboldens terrorists. CHENEY (contemptuously looking at Gates with his one-sided smile): If you take the king’s coin, you sing the king’s song. OBAMA:
You keep saying there were no terror attacks after 9/11, Dick. That’s
like saying that blimps were safe after the Hindenburg. I wouldn’t have
been caught flat-footed reading “The Pet Goat” to second graders. CHENEY: No, you’d have been teaching a graduate seminar on “The Pet Goat.” Don’t you Muslims eat pet goats? OBAMA (shaking head in disgust): You have the audacity to say I’m “pretending” we’re not at war. You let the Taliban regroup. I sent 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. I’ve quadrupled the number of drone attacks in Pakistan.
The prisoners who returned to terrorism after being released from Gitmo
did so under your watch. You released one of the terrorists behind the
foiled Christmas Day plot into an art therapy program in Saudi Arabia. Nice work, Dr. Phil. CHENEY: You’re such a Nervous Nellie you can’t even use the words “war,” “win,” “terrorism,” “enemy combatant,” “Bomb Iran,” “Fire Eric Holder” or “Fire John Brennan.” OBAMA: You and W. liked Brennan well enough to put him in charge of the National Counterterrorism Center. And I didn’t want an attorney general who was a rubber stamp on torture. CHENEY: The tea partiers agree with me about torture, and that’s why you’re already over, Mr. Charisma. First you lost Teddy Kennedy’s seat. Now you’ve lost his kid. Scott Brown will wipe the floor with you in Pennsylvania and Ohio. GATES: Speaking of Scott, the new 41, why can’t you be classy in retirement like the original 41, Dick? CHENEY: Scott’s an All-American winner — Sarah Palin with better legs and less sarcasm. And the hair extensions make her seem even more phony. OBAMA: Consensus, at last. CHENEY:
You, on the other hand, have about as much hair on your chest as a
hairless Chihuahua. Michelle has the biceps in this family. OBAMA:
Michelle is campaigning against obesity. You might listen up on that,
Dick. At least the women in my family aren’t Mini-Me’s trash-talking
about the commander in chief. CHENEY (growling): Liz and I are right! You’re on the terrorist team! GATES: Calm down, Dick. You don’t want to end up in the hospital like poor Bill Clinton. CHENEY: Joe Biden’s
going to end up in the hospital if he brags again that Iraq will “be
one of the greatest achievements” of your administration. OBAMA:
If I don’t get re-elected, it will be because you ruined the country
beyond even my ability to rescue it. Remember when you said deficits
don’t matter, Dick? CHENEY: Stop whining, Mr. Radical Chic. You
won’t get a second term because you’re letting America fall into second
place. Put that in your teleprompter. OBAMA: Why don’t you go help W. with Haiti instead of spewing paranoia? CHENEY (stomping out): Is that your Indonesian birth certificate in the Oval vault? GATES: So, that went well.
We watched Obama answer questions and that House Republicans'
retreat and were very, very impressed. Obama knows his facts and is
fighting back at those who are uninformed, disingenuous, or just going
for the deceptive sound bite. Most memorable lines:
Obama
pointed out that the stimulus plan did cut taxes for millions of
Americans -- but he couldn't resist twisting the knife a bit. "I may
not agree to a tax cut for Warren Buffett. You may be calling for an across-the-board tax cut for the banking industry right now. I may not agree to that."
He mocked the GOP
for voting in lockstep against the stimulus bill, then trying to take
credit for projects it funded: "A lot of you have gone to appear at
ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against."
"When
we came into office, the deficit was $1.3 trillion. $1.3 trillion. So
when you say that suddenly I've got ... a monthly deficit that's higher
than the annual deficit left by Republicans, that's factually just not
true, and you know it's not true."
"If
the way these issues are being presented by the Republicans is that
this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge government in every aspect
of our lives, what happens is you guys then don't have a lot of room to
negotiate with me. You've given yourselves very little room to work in
a bipartisan fashion because what you've been telling your constituents
is, 'This guy's doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy
America.'"
"The
notion that I would somehow resist doing something that cost half as
much but would produce twice as many jobs -- why would I resist that? I
wouldn't ... It doesn't make sense if somebody could tell me, 'You
could do this cheaper and get increased results,' that I wouldn't say,
'Great.' The problem is, I couldn't find credible economists who would
back up the claims that you just made."
Sharon and Bruce
FRIDAY, JAN 29, 2010 15:10 EST The president smoothly mocks House Republicans, in an entertaining U.S. take on the prime minister's question time VIDEO REUTERS/Larry Downing U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the GOP House Issues Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, January 29, 2010. Before
President Obama started speaking to the House Republican conference's
retreat in Baltimore Friday, the GOP presented him with a little book,
one that wrapped up all of the policy ideas they've had since he took
office that have languished. It had a catchy title: "Better Solutions."
The pamphlet may not be an ideal blueprint for governing -- it only
takes 30 pages to wrap up everything from economic stimulus to national security to financial reform -- but, as it turned out, it did make for a pretty good prop. Which Obama demonstrated about an hour into what was easily the most entertaining program C-SPAN (or any cable news network, really) has aired in a long time. "You say, for example, that we've offered a health care plan, and I look up -- this is just [in] the book that you've just provided me, 'Summary of GOP Health Care Reform Bill,'" Obama said, casually flipping through the book as Rep. Tom Price,
R-Ga., stood by. Price had demanded the president tell Republicans how
they should answer constituents who don't like the way the White House
says the GOP hasn't offered any ideas. So Obama played it deadpan.
'"The GOP plan will lower health care premiums for American families and small businesses, addressing America's number one priority for health reform.' I mean, that's an idea that we all embrace. But specifically it's got to work." Two days after his feisty State of the Union speech,
Obama's trip to the retreat started off slowly, with a speech that
could have worked almost anywhere with only a few edits ahead of time.
And then the question-and-answer session got started, and the event
turned into a spectacle, the kind of thing that hasn't been seen in
American politics in years -- and probably won't again, once the people
responsible for putting it together go back to look at the video.
(Which is too bad, because NBC does have
an opening for a 10 p.m. show, and this was a lot more watchable than
Leno.) Rarely has his administration done such a good job of bluntly
underscoring the differences between what Obama wants to do and what
Republicans would prefer if they had power. The president was funny and
disarming, but he defended his policies fiercely, and he tiptoed up to
the line of calling Republicans liars to their faces. "We've
got to close the gap a little bit between the rhetoric and the
reality," he said. "I'm not suggesting that we're going to agree on
everything ... but if the way these issues are being presented by the
Republicans is that this is some wild-eyed plot to impose huge
government in every aspect of our lives, what happens is you guys then
don't have a lot of room to negotiate with me. I mean, the fact of the
matter is is that many of you, if you voted with the administration on
something, are politically vulnerable in your own base, in your own
party. You've given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan
fashion because what you've been telling your constituents is, 'This
guy's doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy America.'" The
ironic, detached style and professorial wonkiness that has sometimes
made it hard for Obama to connect on a visceral level since he took
office worked perfectly in Baltimore. And what could have been a
dangerous event politically, with Republicans riding high in polls and
Obama's agenda on its heels, turned into a presidential seminar,
instead. He ridiculed a year's worth of Republican talking points on
the stimulus: "The notion that I would somehow resist doing something
that cost half as much but would produce twice as many jobs -- why
would I resist that? I wouldn't ... It doesn't make sense if somebody
could tell me, 'You could do this cheaper and get increased results,'
that I wouldn't say, 'Great.' The problem is, I couldn't find credible
economists who would back up the claims that you just made." When Rep. Mike Pence
tried to push him to commit to "across the board tax cuts," Obama
pointed out that the stimulus plan did cut taxes for millions of
Americans -- but he couldn't resist twisting the knife a bit. "What you
may consider across-the-board tax cuts could be, for example, greater
tax cuts for people who are making a billion dollars," he said, tying
his answer into the Democratic effort to paint Republicans as friends
of the rich without blinking. "I may not agree to a tax cut for Warren
Buffett. You may be calling for an across-the-board tax cut for the
banking industry right now. I may not agree to that." He mocked the GOP
for voting in lockstep against the stimulus bill, then trying to take
credit for projects it funded: "A lot of you have gone to appear at
ribbon cuttings for the same projects that you voted against."
Sixty-eight of them, to be exact, according to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. GOP
aides only agreed at the last minute to air the questions, and the lack
of political polish made it seem like a freewheeling U.S. version of
Britain's prime minister's questions.
But on TV, the event played even more one-sided than it probably was in
real life. Except Pence, who was on the stage with Obama, the other
questions all came from disembodied voices in a dark hotel ballroom.
Which worked all right for Republicans like Rep. Shelley Moore Capito
of West Virginia, who basically just lobbed a softball about the
economy. But when others tried to push Obama, the setup only helped him
bat away their questions as they flew out of the darkness. "What were the old annual deficits under Republicans have now become the monthly deficits under Democrats," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling,
R-Texas (who Obama kept calling "Jim," for some reason). "You are soon
to submit a new budget, Mr. President. Will that new budget, like your
old budget, triple the national debt and continue to take us down the
path of increasing the cost of government to almost 25 percent of our
economy?" The
president laughed. "Jim, with all due respect, I've just got to take
this last question as an example of how it's very hard to have the kind
of bipartisan work that we're going to do, because the whole question
was structured as a talking point for running a campaign," he said.
"When we came into office, the deficit was $1.3 trillion. $1.3
trillion. So when you say that suddenly I've got ... a monthly deficit
that's higher than the annual deficit left by Republicans, that's
factually just not true, and you know it's not true." The whole thing basically went like that: Republican asks obnoxious question rooted in Glenn Beck-ian talking points; Obama swats it away, makes the questioner look silly, and then smiles at the end. It got so bad, in fact, that Fox News
cut away from the event before it was over. Democratic operatives
around Washington watching it had pretty much the same reaction: "Where
the hell has this guy been?" One source said GOP aides probably wished
they'd spoken to John McCain
"about what happened to him in the presidential debates" before they
broadcast the event. "It's quite a show," a White House official said,
apparently going for the same deadpan tone the president was. Republican
aides tried to argue that Obama was struggling to get past his initial
talking points, but that was a pretty desultory attempt at spin. By the
time Obama was done, and had stayed about 30 minutes past when he was
scheduled to leave, Republican leadership was ready to get him out of
the room. One GOP lawmaker asked for one more question, and as Obama
started to say he was out of time, Pence jumped in, too: "He's gone way
over." And with that, Obama took his booklet of GOP policy proposals
and left the room -- in much better political shape, possibly, than he
was when he walked in. Watch the question-and-answer session here, if you missed it -- or if you just want to see it again: (Or you can watch highlights with commentary and breakdown on the Olberman/Maddow shows.) _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Hi, Did you see Obama on the Jay Leno
show last night? We recorded it and watched it this afternoon.
Marvelous! I am still so, so happy every time I remember Obama is
actually our president and we don't have to listen to that danged Bush
any more! posted 3-20-09 ============================== Hi, Fellow Dems, Checks for 6 new members came in the mail the last two days. I'll send you a revised list later this week. Happy Days Are Here Again, Sharon | |
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