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My goal is to post liberal talking points to combat those from the right.

Friday, January 30, 2009

In His First Ten Days

(from berni_mccoy at Democratic Underground http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8154609)

President Obama

1. He removed the ban on federal funding for family planning that includes birth control and abortion, on NGOs that operate outside the U.S. (corrected by cali)

2. Promote disclosure of the administration under FIA

3. Directed the U.S. Military to develop plans to withdraw from Iraq

4. Reduced secrecy given to Presidential Records

5. Ordered the closing of Gitmo and immediate review of all detainees

6. Promoted the passage in the House of the economic stimulus package

7. Signed into law the expansion of SCHIP to provide coverage for 4 million children who go without

8. Allowed states who want to enforce stricter-than-EPA standards to do so

9. Shamed Wall Street for giving out $18 billion in bonuses after being bailed out by the American people

10. Froze salaries of people working for the Administration

11. Removed lobbyists from the administration

12. Revamped Whitehouse.gov

13. Signed the Libby Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. (Thanks clusterblog)

14. Formed a task force headed by Vice President Biden, for the middle class. (Thanks clusterblog)

Economic News or Reaganomics 101

While the economy shrank at a 3.8 percent pace at the end of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century, Exxon Mobil Corp reported a profit of $45.2 billion for 2008, breaking its own record.

I believe it is the largest profit by a corporation ever in the history of the world.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Liberal vs. Conservative

(from Thom Hartmann's transcript section of thomhartmann.com)

"A true progressive, a true liberal, gets it that we're all in this together; all of life together; we're a community; we humans and all other living things, we're a community; that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Progressives see peace as strength not as weakness and see war as an admission of failure, not a noble venture.

Now, true conservatives - Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, Ulysses Grant, Herbert Hoover, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney - true conservatives believe that each man is an island. It's every man for himself. That humans are superior to all other forms of nature and so killing nature for fun or for recreation or simply as, you know, as a routine thing, no big deal. "So what? Half the species are going extinct, who cares?"

Conservatives think that strength always wins over weakness, no matter what its impact is on community. This whole idea that, you know, the powerful win: survival of the fittest. It's not, you know, the reality isn't survival of the fittest. The reality is survival of the co-operator. If an individual organ in your body decided that it was going to take over the rest your body and start consuming all the resources in your body, that's not called survival of the fittest - that's not called winning competition - that's called cancer."

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Why Do Republicans Hate Wolves?

The Seattle Time ran an article recently about how the loss of wolves (from trapping, poisoning, and shooting,etc) may be unraveling one of the most beautiful ecosystems in the US.

Article link

"But the loss of the stealthy predators in the early 1900s left a hole in the landscape that scientists say they are just beginning to grasp. The ripples extend throughout what is now Olympic National Park, leading to a boom in elk populations, overbrowsing of shrubs and trees, and erosion so severe it has altered the very nature of the rivers, says a team of Oregon State University biologists. The result, they argue, is an environment that is less rich, less resilient, and — perhaps — in peril."

"We think this ecosystem is unraveling in the absence of wolves," said OSU ecologist William Ripple."

While some are just figuring Nature's balance out, the Alaskan republicans (aka Palin) still love the "sport" of slaughtering wolves by shooting them from helicopters. The deaths of the wolves is slow, painful, and horrible. And all to make it easier for rich republicans fly to Alaska to find and kill plenty of moose.

Monday, January 12, 2009

TORTURE IS A DOMESTIC CRIME AND A WAR CRIME

Weatherboarding is torture. Duh. When the Nazi’s water boarded, WE called it torture. But Bush and Cheney say water boarding is not torture. The Bush administration, Gonzales, re-defined the word torture so George could say, “We don’t torture”. Right Georgie, we water board but don’t torture.

But even using the Bush/Gonzales new definition of torture we torture. Possibly as many as 100 people have died do to our "enhanced" interrogation techniques. That’s torture even per the Bush/Gonzales memo.

And now Susan J. Crawford the top Bush administration official overseeing the military trials of terrorist suspects held at the U.S. prison in Cuba told The Washington Post that the United States tortured a Saudi man in 2002. She said that even though the specific methods might not have been torture, the way they were used did amount to torture.


Sensory deprivation is not torture per Bush/Gonzales but it can cause insanity within 48 hours. Detainees have been sensory deprived for months by the Bush Admin. One American citizen was arrested and confined in a tiny cell without seeing daylight or other individuals for 22 months. He is now legally and medically insane. This is torture.

President Obama can not over look these crimes.

Mo