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Thom had a brief discussion with the woman that calls in with the current news. Obama is having a closed meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, and settlements would very likely be on the agenda. It occurred to me that there could be a connection between this meeting and the Senator from Israel Joe Lieberman. I am having trouble explaining the good senator's threat to stop the health care reform process. Yes, he takes major health care money in campaign donations, but he is bucking not only the Democratic Party, the President and the majority of his constituents. Joe would have had plenty of notice on the meeting with the President. Chances are Obama has plans to take the situation up a level. Joe may have been called on to put some pressure back on Obama.
@ THOM: Ned Lamount is looking at running for Connecticut's Governor.
http://ofearna.us/art/canty.html
thought it was him. Tom Canty - fantastic artist!
@Richard
It seems to me that your thinking and comments have an aspect of ivory tower utopianism at their root, and you employ ration and logic to reach your ideals. That is not in anyway meant to disparage. If that comes somewhere near to your truth, then you have my sympathy and support. Sympathy, because so many don't give a s@*! and are so blissfully unaware in any case...(At times it can seem as if you are constantly throwing pearls before swine).....and....support, because I think you are spot on. Accuracy in communicating and cognitive linguistics are crucial to progress in moving people coherently.
i actually have heard Noam Chomsky a number of times on TV. But, it was on the Canadian station. He spoke out against the war in Iraq. Not recently though.
Will check on artist and let you know.
The donut hole shrinking is a good part in bill! Thanks for that update!
http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/111/house/1/887
Worth a look see . . .
I love Dar Jamil. When my father and I were reconnecting strangely enough over the war - he told ME to be against it, I was able to send him a community newspaper that included Dar's breaking news about the mercenaries. My father said that Dar's article and reporting made sense and further bolstered by father's inside connections that the entire Iraqi War was a scam.
OH MY!!!! John Ensign homeless! At least, he has his government run healthcare to see him through . . .
Source: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/ensign_no_longer_at_c_...
Thom - let me recommend this amazing series of portraits of our military & veterans for peace - the "Warriors for Peace portrait series"
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2655317&id=135295017741
Because lore it is all disingenuous attempts to win votes to get into power. A well educated society would not allow this type of unchallenged thinking. And the fact this inconsistency in logic is actually taken seriously in our country is a measure of how well we are educating or simply empowering people who know better. I was ecstatic to hear labor radio report today and the passage of the law in Wisconsin to include labor history in the class room. (You had better believe we cover it in my own- )
the nanny state --- protecting us from bad products, harmful chemicals,etc. is much deplored by Republicans but then they expect us to cower and cringe if muslims are mentioned! hmmmm what gives? are we supposed to be chicken-sh*t republicans? lol
i want the protections from those who can harm or kill me. Idon't expect that crimes are preventable to a large degree, but are subject to lawful prosecution.
Why is the difference not considered normal?
• Eliminates the “doughnut hole”: The House legislation would immediately start closing the coverage gap known as the doughnut hole, which forces those in Medicare to pay 100 percent of their medications once they have purchased more than $2,700 worth of drugs. About 3.4 million Americans fell into the doughnut hole in 2007, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Lore,
I agree with you. I think we must not be afraid of ideas. I think Noam Chomsky is a very important voice. It's too bad that he seems to have had to live almost "underground" all these years.
BTW, speaking of "loving" things, I love your avatar!
i love the discourse that this site provides! Getting real discussion should be in the mainstream media if we really were a democracy.
To pimp another --- Noam Chomsky - I was listening to audio of Class War The attack on Working People-- he talked about the political slogan of CHANGE and how it was reconstituted from Roosevelt. However, he also said it wasn't happening ---- this was in 1994 about Clinton. Are we still there??
Richard,
I don't disagree with your arguments. I just wonder how this dialogue can change in a population as large (and largely undereducated) as ours.
Thanks for the Lakoff referall. I haven't read that particular book.
@ mstaggerlee:
Word.
@Quark:
It is worth pimping George Lakoff’s “Moral Politics” at this juncture . . . as I so often do . . .
I still hold strongly to the belief that in any political arguement, the first one to characterize the other as a "Nazi" loses
experiment
I believe that a big part of issues are that America has largely become a nation without history and rhetorical skills (Thank you, Ronald Reagan). The Labor history thingy is just a symptom. The largely interchangeable use of socialism/fascism/communism/democratic with zero regard for the actual definitions and concepts by the recessivists is a symptom. The rampant use of jingoism and circular and inverted logic steams is a symptom. This is why public education is continuously under assault here. Only in lack of facts can insane lie become truth . . . Where is our George Orwell?
Richard,
If one rejects the loaded, jingoistic vocabulary used in today's political discussions, he needs a NEW way (a new vocabulary?) to express political ideas. How does one achieve that? Abandon any short-hand vocabulary?
@Quark:
Welcome to the club.
@GeraldSocha:
I say this as a gut that largely coined and champion the words ‘Recessivism’ and ‘Recessivist’. We must re-design our language to reflect reality. Inaccuracy will kill us
The term "Fascist” may be fairly appropriate, BUT the term “Nazi” refers to a specific political party which is actually relatively powerless in American politics and provides little to the conversation other than inflammatory emotionalism.
I advocate precision in languaging over inaccurately-applied, intentional emotionally-charged jingoism. The position you are speaking against are largely focused on forcing folk to revert to socio-economic systems based on a stylized idealistic construct of a more constrained, history-based fantasy. To play this game is the providence of those who advocate fascism over democracy. If we wallow into their happy horse hockey we will lose credibility and we will cease to be relevant.
I open this to the folk here . . . Am I correct in my assessment?
If this is One Nation Under God, why is Home Depot open for business on the Sabbath...and what does it say about any someone that sells their labor there?
Gerald- would you be my facebook friend? Please!
I heard the concern of one rep about the Insurance companies working out of Mariana's and I had not considered that as an option! Turns out it was specifically added into legislation!!!!! Found article at ThinkProgress.org. Still we have the scary legislation???? How come? Will write reps to object and try to keep out of final bill.