Obama calls for ‘collective action’

[octoberlib]

In his second inaugural address, President Obama argued that now is the time to address climate change and defended entitlement programs that have been targeted for cuts.
“We are made for this moment, and we will seize it – so long as we seize it together,” he said.
Our current challenges, he argued, call for “collective action.”
“We have never relinquished our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s ills can be cured through government alone,” he said. “But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.”
Obama defended entitlement programs that Republicans hope to reform as part of deficit-reduction cuts.
“The commitments we make to each other – through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security – these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us,” he said. “They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.”
He promised action on the climate, saying, “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”
Obama also pledged his commitment to equal pay for women as well as equal rights for gay Americans and voting reforms to avoid long lines at the polls. And he said touched on immigration reform, declaring that “our journey is not complete … until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/01/21/obama-defends-entitlements-promises-climate-action/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

[Enrique]

1. it means he's coming for us

he's going to put us in hobbit homes.

[octoberlib]

4. Ha! The Repukes are probably having a meltdown over that phrase

Socialist! Communist! I loved it.

[flamingdem]

10. Repugs are thinking:

[bigtree]

17. he mentioned fighting communism in the next few lines

[flamingdem]

21. He really is quite anti-communist / socialist

and this can be seen with the poor relationship towards Cuba and Venezuela, one area where I fault Obama. The State Department really blew it on Honduras -- there is a human rights crisis there as a result of undermining President Zelaya and not rejecting the coup thugs, one of whom is now running for President -- all because Zelaya was friendly with Chavez, and this is a disaster that has gone basically unreported. I understand being an Americanist but not to the point where one is blinded by the idea of other countries, weaker countries choosing a different system.

It's all words, it's all bullshit. POWER is what counts in the end.

I really hope that he addresses the multiple errors in Latin America in his second term but sadly there is not much impetus towards doing anything.

[patrice]

2. That's what I heard & collectives are not unidirectional, top-down, authoritarian.

They elevate workers as equal partners in an enterprise.

[Fumesucker]

8. All partners are equal

But some are more equal than others.

[patrice]

9. Learning. If one remebers past mistakes, one is less doomed to repeat them. nt

[Fumesucker]

16. Indeed

If one has been snookered by high soaring rhetoric in the past then remaining skeptical is a lesson learned from experience.

[patrice]

18. "high soaring"? what I heard was, tte, what happens was/is/will be about the work you do together.

[Fumesucker]

22. Like the blind men and the elephant, the perceptions differ markedly depending on perspective n/t

[patrice]

26. I agree to that, so I could never rationally say what one perceives isn't one's perception, but that

also means that neither can I accept that judgement of my own perception(s), nor does it mean that someone can't back away from that elephant and its perceivers a bit and perceive multiple perceptions.

All with the caveat, of course, that perception is NOT a one ne process, 1 unit of sensory input : 1 unit of perceptual output. That isn't even the architecture of the neurophysiology that makes perception possible, let alone of the "software" that runs it.

[flamingdem]

12. Absolutely, THIS is the new model, not capitalism

not socialism/communism

We are capable as humans to learn from the past and improve our lot!

(Unless you are a Republican but they are the minority now he he)

[virgo7]

3. last time citizens took up him at his word this happened:

[Fire Walk With Me]

6. Obama: I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence

against peaceful protesters."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2045085,00.html

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. Well, he's obviously not Egyptian so what's the beef?

[Fire Walk With Me]

29. His admonishment to the Egyptian "authorities" is in stark contrast to the treatement endured

by Occupy in his own country, under his watch. Not a single word out of the WH regarding 7400+ Occupiers beaten and arrested, excepting HR347 and the NDAA.

[patrice]

15. Wondering here if PNAC has given up it's lust to control Egypt. nt

[patrice]

19. Yeah, Obama should wear better disguises and stay out of CA.

[Fight2Win]

24. yes, where was the protection for these protesters?

The right wing was laughing over this, and our side was silent.

"we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends"
Martin Luther King Jr

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. Collective action...like the Occupy Wall Street movement, which is beaten and jailed.

While "tea party" people get to strut around with rifles and racist placards.

[patrice]

11. As I understand it, it's Occupies, each one it's own thing.

[ChazII]

14. That is my understanding

as well.

[patrice]

20. And around here, at least for a while, "our" Occupy was the Tea Party. nt

[Fight2Win]

25. +100000

"we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends"
Martin Luther King Jr

[patrice]

27. Always thought you vendetta types were more about vengeance than anything else. Silence can

mean a lot of things, or nothing at all, and only fascists would try to determine that for everyone else. And the hallmark of a fascist is someone who doesn't ask others "better ____________ (what) than _________________ (what)" too afraid to disturb their tired old cliches about trees of something and the blood of other people, not their own.

[HereSince1628]

13. 1000 points of light...

[Fight2Win]

23. With Martin Luther King Jr agrees with this message

Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism.

We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.

[Fight2Win]

28. I believe Martin Luther King would be irate at what has happened to the poor in this country

The military grows to new heights, at the expense of the many
The crushing poverty of millions right now, millions of homeless school children, bankers walk away stealing people's homes...
Meanwhile powerful interests control our media and blame us for the problems, while they pilfer and loot our treasury for the bankers, the military industrial complex.

This is where we need to focus our collective action:
Majority of Tax dollars go to the Pentagon(Trillions missing in 2001) Which Cannot Be Audited? WTF!!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022231576