kpete
kpete's Journal
Warren: "We must decide what kind of people we are & what kind of nation we are going to build"
Protecting and Promoting Equality
elizabethwarren | Thu, Dec 15, 2011 12:05 PM EST
Warren sets the terms of debate. - promoted by Bob_Neer
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As other states grapple with whether to support marriage equality, I’m ready to move to the next step: End the two-tiered system created by the Defense of Marriage Act. Our federal government should not be in the business of selecting which married couples it supports and which it treats with contempt. States define marriage among couples, and, once married, all those couples and their families should have the same protections, the same benefits, and the same tax treatments. Fairness and equality are foundational values in our country, and nowhere is that more important than in our families.
In the workplace, people should be hired for what they can do and evaluated on their performance – period. I strongly support the fully inclusive Employee Non-Discrimination Act. Particularly in these uncertain times, people must have confidence that they will be judged on the merits. Again, this speaks to the fairness and equality that mark us as a people.
Finally, Massachusetts has been a leader in combating the rise of bullying. After college, I taught elementary school and saw first hand how important it is for kids to learn in a safe and welcoming environment. We need to help teachers and administrators create and foster an environment that welcomes students and their families, whether kids are being raised in a single parent household, by their grandparents, or by their lesbian moms or gay dads. All children – straight, questioning, perceived, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender – can thrive in school only when they are truly safe and secure.
This is our moment in history. From marriage equality to investing in public education, from sensible financial regulations to environmental protections, we must decide what kind of people we are and what kind of nation we are going to build. All across the Commonwealth and the country, people want to create a better future for their children and their grandchildren. They want an America in which every kid has the opportunity to succeed.
more:
http://bluemassgroup.com/2011/12/protecting-and-promoting-equality/
Obama "ASKED US TO REMOVE the language which says that US citizens would NOT be subject to this..."
I am not sure which is worse: the loss of core civil liberties or the almost mocking post hoc rationalization for abandoning principle. The Congress and the President have now completed a law that would have horrified the Framers. Indefinite detention of citizens is something that the Framers were intimately familiar with and expressly sought to bar in the Bill of Rights. While the Framers would have likely expected citizens in the streets defending their freedoms, this measure was greeted with a shrug and a yawn by most citizens and reporters. Instead, we are captivated by whether a $10,000 bet by Romney was real or pretend in the last debate.
Even more distressing is the statement from sponsor Senator Levin, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee that “The language which precluded the application of Section 1031 to American citizens was in the bill that we originally approved … and the administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S. citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/12/15/obama-breaks-promise-to-veto-bill-allowing-indefinite-detention-of-americans/
Military given go-ahead to detain US terrorist suspects without trial
Civil rights groups dismayed as Barack Obama abandons commitment to veto new security law contained in defence bill
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/15/americans-face-guantanamo-detention-obama
Rev. Jesse Jackson: "Jesus was an Occupier"
LONDON -- Veteran activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson compared the global anti-capitalist movement to the U.S. civil rights struggle, the battle against apartheid in South Africa and the fight for Indian independence during a visit to an Occupy camp in London on Thursday.
"Jesus was an Occupier, born under a death warrant, a Jew by religion, born in poverty under Roman occupation," the two-time candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination told a crowd near Saint Paul’s Cathedral. "Gandhi was an Occupier, Martin Luther King was an Occupier, (Nelson) Mandela was an Occupier."
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9471810-rev-jesse-jackson-to-london-protesters-jesus-was-an-occupier
Facebook Unfriends Coal, Partners with Greenpeace for Clean Energy Future
&feature=player_embeddedFacebook Unfriends Coal, Partners with Greenpeace for Clean Energy Future
By Joe Romm on Dec 15, 2011 at 12:36 pm
“After 20 months of mobilizing, agitating and negotiating to green Facebook, the Internet giant has today announced its goal to run on clean, renewable energy. The clear message to energy producers from Facebook is: invest now in renewable energy, and move away from coal power. That’s a status update we can all celebrate!”
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2011/Cool%20IT/Facebook/Facebook_Statement.pdf
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/12/15/390088/facebook-unfriends-coal-partners-greenpeace-clean-energy-future/
The Truth Hurts - And Heals
The Truth Hurts - And HealsSubmitted by Charles Hugh Smith from Of Two Minds
Nothing is fixed until the whole truth and nothing but the truth is revealed for all to see, in broad daylight.
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If we can finally be truthful with ourselves as a nation, then we must admit that our financial system is fundamentally based on lies, fraud, embezzlement, misinformation, perverse filters and incentives, shadow systems that mock transparency and regulation, class privilege and the systemic flouting of the rule of law.
This is the truth that hurts because it reveals the financial system as one stupendous exploitative fraud; but it also reveals the complicity and irrelevance of our judicial system and the complete capture of the legislative and Executive processes of governance.
There is a system of government in which rule of law is merely a propaganda screen, where financial and political Elites run the show and escape the consequences of their actions: it's called tyranny.
The truth is that we live in a financial tyranny.
If you want evidence, then ask yourself:
How many people have been indicted, convicted and served time for financial crimes during the current era of financial fraud and malfeasance, the most pervasive in U.S. history?
Much more, plus healing:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogdec11/truth-hurts-heals12-11.html
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-truth-hurts-and-heals
'That a congressman would be tainted by accepting $$$ from private sources is a Socialist Argument'
Don't look to Newt Gingrich as a shining example of even his own proposed reforms. Not only did he receive $265,697 in PAC money for his 1988 re-election campaign, he's one of Congress's highest spenders on junk mail. Naturally, he also pocketed close to the limit, $26,800 of $26,850, allowed per year in honoraria. "The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument," explains Gingrich.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/12/your-daily-newt-politicians-cant-be-bought
Finally, A Rich American Destroys The Fiction That Rich People Create The Jobs
Finally, A Rich American Destroys The Fiction That Rich People Create The Jobs
It's time we stopped mouthing the fiction that "rich people create the jobs."
Rich people don't create the jobs.
Our economy creates jobs.
We're all in this together. And until we return to more reasonable tax policies that help the 99% instead of just the 1%, our economy is going to go nowhere.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-07/raise-taxes-on-rich-to-reward-true-job-creators-nick-hanauer.html
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The most important reason the theory that "rich people create the jobs" is absurd, argues Nick Hanauer, the founder of online advertising company aQuantive, which Microsoft bought for $6.4 billion, is that rich people do not create jobs, even if they found and build companies that eventually employ thousands of people.What creates the jobs, Hanauer astutely observes, is a healthy economic ecosystem surrounding the company, which starts with the company's customers.
The company's customers buy the company's products, which, in turn, creates the need for the employees to produce, sell, and service those products. If those customers go broke, the demand for the company's products will collapse. And the jobs will disappear, regardless of what the entrepreneur does.
Now, of course entrepreneurs are an important part of the company-creation process. And so are investors, who risk capital in the hope of earning returns. But, ultimately, whether a new company continues growing and creates self-sustaining jobs is a function of customers' ability and willingness to pay for the company's products, not the entrepreneur or the investor capital. Suggesting that "rich entrepreneurs and investors" create the jobs, therefore, Hanauer observes, is like suggesting that squirrels create evolution.
the rest:
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/finally-rich-american-destroys-fiction-rich-people-create-152949393.html
Lawrence Wilkerson: " my Republicans seem to be intent on suicide."
They want to defeat this man. They want to bring this man out of the White House. They want to embarrass this man. They want to put this man through every kind of turmoil they can possibly put him through politically.
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It's not America. It`s not the United States. It's not our best interests. It's certainly not our national security interests. It's getting rid of this president.
That is political opportunism and political blindness of the first order. And it may cause me to leave this party eventually, I must say that. [...]
Any issue you want to pick, my Republicans seem to be intent on suicide.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9467822-my-republicans-seem-to-be-intent-on-suicide
America, failed state.
America, failed state.
Almost half in U.S. are poor or low-income
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2011-12-15/poor-census-low-income/51944034/1
A record number of Americans are living in poverty or near-poverty, according to the latest census data.
http://www.petroleumworld.com/sunopf11112001.htm
And:
Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30 % of Americans
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2011/12/14/six-waltons-have-more-wealth-than-the-bottom-30-of-americans/
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