Occupy Cal video: Police brutally beat, arrest Berkeley students

Well this is insane. This was clearly a non-violent protest as these students were simply standing there when the police began beating them. The kid in the bushes on the left is being beaten from all sides. Those batons hurt I am sure.



And Chancellor Robert Birgeneau clearly has to go after he initially said the protesters' actions were worthy of police action during last week's campus conflict, writing in an email to the campus community:

“It is unfortunate that some protesters chose to obstruct the police by linking arms and forming a human chain to prevent the police from gaining access to the tents. This is not non-violent civil disobedience.”

Linking arms is not "non-violent civil disobedience"? Damn I guess Cal has been quite for awhile and the powers that be forgot what protests are like.

I gotta weigh in...on politics and the future of our country

Well I have been too busy to rant about politics lately even though there has been a tremendous amount to talk about. New information from the Census Bureau about the increasing poverty and financial disparity in this country; politicians gearing up for a new election; historic grass roots protests; record profits being made by the oil industry, yet again (while their tax payer subsidies have been protected at all costs by the Republicans in Washington), and general gridlock in Washington with the Republicans refusing to allow any problems to be solved for as they said "why we would we hand Obama a win?"

I could go on about each of these but first consider the latter - if the government solves any of the major problems we face it will be considered a win for Obama and this is exactly what the Republicans don't want to see. And ironically if Obama loses because he has failed to solve the problems the Republicans have promised to do more of what caused the problems in the first place - deregulate and cut taxes.

The main thing I want to weigh in on today is this notion that the government and taxes are bad. This idea is killing this country. First of all our education and infrastructure are dismal and these are the investments that we need to have a future as a nation. Second the world is at a turning point right now, we are seeing limits in our corporate capitalistic system, new technologies promise clean and limitless energy, global climate change driven by our burning of fossil fuels is causing expensive and devastating damage more and more frequently, and many of the world's food and water supplies are on the brink of collapse. Yet there are solutions to these problems.

Reagan was the catalyst for the downfall of America with his famous quote "The government is the problem, not the solution" and this idea lives on strong today in conservative politics with Rick Perry yesterday in the Republican debate saying when he becomes president he will completely abolish three government agencies: the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, and well he could not for the life of him remember the third! He later said the Department of Energy.

So let us look at this conservative philosophy. The mission of the Department of Commerce is to: "promote job creation and improved living standards for all Americans by creating an infrastructure that promotes economic growth, technological competitiveness, and sustainable development." The department of Education - obvious what it is concerned with, and the Department of Energy is in charge of domestic energy production and protection of our nuclear facilities and waste.

So in a time when we need jobs, we need to improve living standards (our country has by far the largest number of people living in poverty out of any developed nation), we are falling behind in technological competitiveness, sustainable development means we won't be unsustainable as a nation, our education is absolutely terrible, and our energy policy is fossilized and leading us to extinction as a world leader and has us fighting wars around the world to protect our energy interests; the conservatives want to abolish the government agencies that are in charge of fixing all these problems!

I want people running our government that believe the government can help solve these problems!!! And for the folks who believe the conservative talking points that private industry can solve these problems without government help - this nation became a leader in technology, production, middle class growth, education, etc BECAUSE of the government. When private industry has been put in charge without regulation they have shipped jobs overseas, created tax shelters in the Camen Islands, ignored infrastructure, and created economic bubbles that destroyed the economy which has hurt the majority of people while the rich actually have continued to profit.

Right now the 12,000 wealthiest families in America have as much money as the bottom 25 million families!!!!

In order to navigate the new world of emerging technologies, new promising forms of energy production, globalized markets and manufacturing, and increased threats to our global life support system we need a smart government that believes that what they do is essential in guiding and protecting this country. In a world of globalized corporations is it actually un-American, un-patriotic, treasonous even, to suggest that we should put them in charge and get rid of or make ineffectual our government. The government is supposed to be by the people for the people and corporations do not have that mission statement. They exist for profit and they increasingly benefit the small class of corporate elites who control them.

The problem is not the government, it is the control of our government by the corporate class. The occupy protesters have a ton of very good issues they are concerned about but number one on their list for getting this country back needs to be getting the money out of our political system.

In case anyone wants to help take a small but essential step toward that they should contact all of congress and the White House and tell them to support the constitutional amendment that would overturn the Citizens United ruling (that allows corporations to give unlimited amounts of money towards political campaigns under the guise of free speech). This amendment was put forth by the following brave senators: (all Democrats of course) - Tom Udall (NM), Michael Bennett (CO), Tom Harkin (IA), Dick Durbin (IL), Chuck Schumer (NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), and Jeff Merkely (OR)

Interview with the Marine who took on the NYPD

Here is a nice interview with the marine who took on a group of NYPD who had been hurting the unarmed peaceful protesters at Wall Street.

war veteran wounded by Oakland PD during peaceful protest

So I have not had time to comment on the incredible movement happening in the country - the Occupy Wallstreet protests and the spin offs around the country and world. But anyone who is proud of this country and of the strides we made thanks to protesters during the civil rights and Vietnam eras should be happy to see people engaged in peaceful protests once again. Of course the government is not so open to allowing protests, just as it was not in the past, as we can see by the police around the country pepper spraying, beating, using tear gas, and rubber bullets on protesters who have been nonviolent and just standing there while cops have shot at them form the sidelines. Here is a video showing the cops throwing a flash bang grenade into a group of people helping a veteran who was hit in the head with a tear gas canister...

I just ordered a cutome magnet to support the protests...

Hey there,
I just ordered a custom "I support the protesters" magnet. Doin what I can while I am too busy to occupy any place other than my home and school...order one and spread the word....

Make your custom magnet at SupportOurRibbons.com

assisinating the Nobel Peace Prize

Remember when Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize right after taking office. It was true that Obama becoming president, many of the words he spoke during the campaign, and the movement of people who wanted 'Change' all inspired dreams of peace. After Bush terms of war, Peace, was the change most of the world was looking for.

Of course Obama never promised peace (although many of his speeches implied it) but few predicted he would move us into the territory we are now in. I think he has basically been taken advantage of. He was a bit of an outsider and he kept much of the old guard in charge, which meant they knew how to get what they wanted. A perfect example I heard of this week was Obama's sale of deep penetrating bunker buster bombs to Israel. These were wanted for an attack on Iran and the Bush administration had refused to sell them to Israel. The Obama administration sold them the weapons six months after Obama took office. You know he wanted to be seen as supporting Israel and the powers to be saw the opportunity to act.

So I suspect the same has happened with Obama's massive expansion of the drone assassinations - including the one just today of an American citizen. The President ordering an execution of an American without a trial is new territory. We got mad at Bush for DETAINING Americans without a warrant and not Obama is ordering fools assassinated. That smacks of authoritarianism. Now Obama has already been ordering assassinations of non Americans. And these assassinations are happening is countries where we are not officially at war. To me there is no difference where a person is from, assassinating them is wrong. But as far as the law in this country goes, there is a big difference and Obama is pushing the limits beyond what Bush/Cheney did.

Now of course the targets of these assassinations are often clearly 'enemies' of this country. Our argument for killing this guy today is that he influences people to attack America. Well by assassinating him are we really convincing his followers that we should not be attacked? OF course not, with every drone attack we make more enemies. Our "war on terror" is a war of terror and the more people we kill and homes we destroy the more 'terrorists' we create. It makes me sick and while I think things are largely out of Obama's control, it is sad that he was given the Nobel Prize for Peace, for he is commander in chief over an expanding war of global scale that is pushing the rule of law as well as that of morality.

If I broke the law and killed people...

The double standard is infuriating. All this "debate" about corporations and how they don't need regulation, the free market will keep them responsible, the supreme court has even said they are people and can contribute endless money toward politics. Conservatives seem to think they should be above the law and be able to buy politicians.

In the news this week are a couple stories that demonstrate the double standard between real people and corporations. What would happen to me if I broke the law and it led to the deaths of numerous people? I think I would be in a little trouble. Like the mom who recently crossed a street illegally (j-walking) and a drunk driver killed her young child. The Mom is being prosecuted. Or the case of Troy Davis who is on Death Row. He is accused of killing a cop but 10 witnesses in the case have signed affidavits recanting their testimony and indicating that police coerced them into implicating Davis and there is no physical evidence linking him to the killing.

The same day I hear talk of this story the government released a damning report blaming BP, Transocean, and Halliburton for the accident. It says BP violated several Federal Regulations, cut corners, and failed required safety procedures. So they broke the law and people died. BP has done this before, BP is a serial killer. And even though the supreme court considers BP a person can BP go to Death Row? Can BP get the Death Penalty? BP is actually doing well right now financially and is opening new contracts around the world. Meanwhile many businesses in the Gulf have not rebounded. And as I write this the news is talking about clean up workers from the spill who are sick from the dispersants BP dumped.

Corporations should not have it both ways. If they want to be 'people' then they need to be held accountable for crimes like people.

If nothing else seeing the disregard for safety and regulations by all three corporations involved in this accident should remind people why we need stronger regulations and enforcement for corporations (which have no conscience) rather than less.

Danny, the Burning Van, and 9/11

In the summer of 2001 my boss at the time, Bob Licht of Sea Trek, told me he knew of the perfect car for me. I would learn later that he had told others it was an eye sore, but he was right - it was perfect for me. It was a 1984 Dodge Ram Van with broken windows and a stripped out interior. I bought it for $700, moved out of the '82 Toyota long bed 4x4 I had been living in for 3 years, and moved into what would be my home for the next few years (until Anke was 7 months pregnant and we were forced to start paying rent). Using all salvaged materials I made the interior homey by building a bed, cabinets, surfboard rack, and I put in wood paneling and carpet to finish it off. Before I drove it to Burning Man that year I painted flames on the side and in big bold letters christened it "The Burning Van".


A few days after returning from the Playa (A.K.A Burning Man) I was in a coffee shop in Mendocino with my fellow kayak instructors when we heard the news of the 9/11 attacks live on the radio. We would spend the day away from media, enjoying the incredible Mendocino coast by kayak. We explored caves, surfed over rocks and down waterfalls on the other side, shot through tunnels, and enjoyed the peacefulness of nature in the company of good friends on a day that we knew was going to change the course of history. We had an exceptional day that day, the tragedy of the morning reminding us how precious life is.

Back in the real world (it was weeks before I would see the images of the attacks on a TV - something my van was not equipped with) I was overwhelmed by the drum beats for war and the complete lack of representation of any nonviolent solution in the media. There was a complete blackout of any opinions that went against the Bush Administration's push for war and even congress was caught up in the fury - Barbara Lee being the only single person in the House of Representatives to vote against the resolution to attack Afghanistan. I felt like I had to say something and the biggest "voice" I had was my new found mobile billboard. So a week after 9/11 I painted a big red peace sign and the quote from Gandhi: "An eye for an eye will make the world blind".

Of course the Bush Administration was waiting for an excuse to got to war. In 1999 Cheney, Ashcroft, Wolfowitz, and many more had signed a document for the New American Century that said America must dominate the world through war and that in order to get the American people behind such a radical mission we needed a "new Pearl Harbor". Well they got what they wished for and off to war we went.

There was such a feeling created by the media and the government that to talk about peace was unpatriotic that I had a friend who asked me not to paint a peace sign on my van for fear of my safety. Well it felt good to speak out in what way I could and the van became an ever changing work in progress that would last me years. I often reacted to main stream media and current events. When we launched the War On Terror, I painted a line through the "On" and replaced it with "Is". When everyone started putting up "God Bless America" signs, I painted a globe and wrote "Goddess Bless the World". Later when we went to war with Iraq I painted "God Bless Iraq". I had in large letters for much of the time "The Bush Administration is a Terrorist Organization".

It was a very interesting experiment in free speech. I had an incredible amount of interactions with people. Some folks followed me so they could give me a hug. Many told me that it was the only time they saw something that spoke what they wish they had the courage to say. People left me notes, CDs, books. One time a guy walked into a coffee shop and asked who's van that was out front. I said it was mine. He told me I had a parking ticket and that he would like to pay for it. One time I needed a tow and the tow truck driver said "wow! a real life hippy van!" and then he towed me to Ocean Beach (I wanted to wake up for the dawn patrol) for free. The van was even put in the book "America 24/7".



Of course not all the comments were good. I got hate notes, middle fingers, and lots of disapproving head shakes. Once in Orange County while visiting a friend his neighbor asked me not to park it in front of his house. In fact in San Francisco in Pac Heights where I was working as a substitute teacher in a rich private all boys school a lady came out one day and asked me to park in front of my own house. When I told her that I worked nearby she said that the people in the neighborhood were offended by my van. After explaining to her why I did it she warmed up and said "well, you are a good artist!" The hate I felt multiplied exponentially after we went to war with Iraq. Once that happened, people got crazy. People would say things like: "I was against the war before it started, but now that we are in it you have to support it." The government was clever in blurring the line between supporting the troops and supporting the war. I always thought the best way to support the troops was to try and prevent or end the war so they could come home.

When I traveled I began writing on t-shirts, especially when I flew. When the Iraq war first started, I made one that said "God Bless Iraq". I had it on for five minutes when a guy came up to me and said "As an ex-marine.." I thought 'uh oh'. he continued: "I want to solute you for wearing that shirt." In fact most military guys who chose to talk to me about the van said they loved what I was doing. Getting off an airline once the pilot told me he did not appreciate my shirt ( the God Bless Iraq one). I said "God bless EVERYONE right?" He said "No, that's not right." Then while walking away from the plane a high school kid who had overheard him said " I think your shirt is cool." Another time I was walking through an airport in Germany with a shirt that said "Bush is a Terrorist". Two huge military guys walked past me and behind me I heard one say to the other "did you see his shirt?" ...."It's cool!"

The Burning Van was a fun vehicle/home for many years. I would say that for me, 9/11 was a terrible tragedy but it was the far worse wars that our government launched, using 9/11 as an excuse, that sparked my passion for politics. Passion is a funny word because mostly my interest in politics is simply anger/frustration at the terrible decisions which are being made every day by our government. But like the bumper sticker says: "If you aren't outraged, you're not paying attention."

Peace...

Three Graphs to Show the right wing

So I know statistics can be manipulated to appear to show different things and I did not have time to analyze these ones but they are pretty straight forward. We all know the Republicans are responsible for the economic mess we are in (with plenty of help from the Democrats) so they should be of no surprise....

Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law

Monday 29 August 2011

by: Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future | Op-Ed

Federal spending dramatically increased under former president, George W. Bush and it has not increased much under President Obama. (Photo: Eric Draper / White House)

Problem: Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about "Obama spending" and "Obama deficits" and how the "Stimulus" just made things worse.

Solution: Here are three "reality-based" charts to send to him. These charts show what actually happened.

Spending

Government spending increased dramatically under Bush. It has not increased much under Obama. Note that this chart does not reflect any spending cuts resulting from deficit-cutting deals.

Deficits

Notes, this chart includes Clinton's last budget year for comparison.

The numbers in these two charts come from Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2012. They are just the amounts that the government spent and borrowed, period, Anyone can go look then up. Peoplewho claim that Obama "tripled the deficit" are either misled or are trying to mislead.

The Stimulus and Jobs

In this chart, the RED lines on the left side -- the ones that keep doing DOWN -- show what happened to jobs under the policies of Bush and the Republicans. We were losing lots and lots of jobs every month, and it was getting worse and worse. The BLUE lines -- the ones that just go UP -- show what happened to jobs when the stimulus was in effect. We stopped losing jobs and started gaining jobs, and it was getting better and better. The leveling off on the right side of the chart shows what happened as the stimulus started to wind down: job creation leveled off at too low a level.

It looks a lot like the stimulus reversed what was going on before the stimulus.

Conclusion: THE STIMULUS WORKED BUT WAS NOT ENOUGH!

More False Things

These are just three of the false things that everyone "knows." Some others are (click through): Obama bailed out the banks, businesses will hire if they get tax cuts, health care reform cost $1 trillion, Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme or is "going broke", government spending "takes money out of the economy."

Why This Matters

These things really matter. We all want to fix the terrible problems the country has. But it is so important to know just what the problems are before you decide how to fix them. Otherwise the things you do to try to solve those problems might just make them worse. If you get tricked into thinking that Obama has made things worse and that we should go back to what we were doing before Obama -- tax cuts for the rich, giving giant corporations and Wall Street everything they want -- when those are the things that caused the problems in the first place, then we will be in real trouble.

In his defense - why it is the wrong time for Obama

Many people are down on Obama. People are saying is has failed to lead. That he is caving into the Republicans. Just recently 12 unions said they would boycott the Democratic national convention partly on for these reasons.

I am in the camp of people who are disappointed but in this blog I am going to defend Obama. It is not that he has failed to lead. It is simply that it is the wrong time for his style of leadership. A style, I might add, that is very honorable, however is arguably not very effective in today’s political climate.

Obama might be a centrist, we don’t really know what his core beliefs are. We don’t know what he would do if he was King. What we do know is that he wants compromise. He looks at both sides of an issue and then chooses a plan that is somewhere in the middle of the two sides. Take health care reform. The progressives wanted universal health care provided by the government, much like is done in pretty much every other developed nation on Earth. The conservatives wanted a purely corporate model without any government regulation (close to what we have today) where companies make profit by being middle men between people and their health care. So Obama chose a middle road. He took what many of the Democrats wanted – a single payer system, off the table of debate. Instead he proposed a public option that could be a choice for those who did not want private insurance. During the debate the Republicans refused to budge from their objection to any public option. Eventually, the new compromise was to move from Obama’s centrist proposal further to the right, leading him to drop his support of the public option. In the end, the Democrats got a few of the regulations they wanted but we ended up with a 2000 page health care bill that the Republicans helped to write (even though they still refused to the bitter end to vote for it) that really does not reform much about our system.

What many who voted for Obama hoped for was a champion of the left. Someone to balance out the pull to the right that is happening in politics today. Obama has shown us that this is not his style. The problem is, that while we have an extreme right wing controlling a significant proportion of our government, Obama’s style of taking the center as his position is giving us poor results. It is ineffective at solving our problems, to say the least. The Republicans (and now the Tea Party) do not compromise. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said his job is to prevent Obama from getting re-elected.

We will never know what would happen if Obama was a Dennis Kucinich – someone who would push for a left leaning agenda. Perhaps he would accomplish less. Perhaps what we end up with would be closer to the centrist position. If Obama had pushed for a single payer system maybe we would have ended up with a public option. While Obama’s style has been fairly ineffective we can’t know how other styles would fair. The Republican obstructionist party, the flood of corporate cash into politics, and the poor job of informing the public being done by the mass media is a perfect storm which are really to blame for the lousy work our elected officials are doing in carrying out the will of the people.

One of the biggest problems with Obama’s style is that he is trapped in Washington. He is looking at the debate in congress. He is choosing a middle ground between mostly corporate owned politicians. The majority of American people are often in support of the left side of these issues. So the legislation that ends up being passed is towards the right of the political spectrum and it is way out of line with what most Americans want. Not the most effective leadership for a democracy. But of course in an ideal world Obama would be dealing with rational leaders who want the best for the country and then perhaps his style of leadership would shine. Unfortunately that is not the kind of leaders he is dealing with. I don’t know if it would get better results but I wish we had a vocal spokesperson in the White House who would fight the fight against the Republicans and corporatists who are ruining this country.

With the Republicans refusing to compromise the debates in Washington look like this: Obama judges the desires of both sides and then starts with a proposal in between the two. After much debate the Republicans refuse to budge from their position so Obama chooses a new middle ground between his original middle position and the Republican position. This continues to happen and the end result is something far to the right and then in the end the Republicans still don't support it. It is painful to watch.

One other example: the debt debate. We had a bipartisan committee who came up with a plan to reduce the deficit. Their plan was not liked by liberals or conservatives, for which reason, many said it was a good plan. It included major spending cuts and actually lowered taxes but restructured them to close loopholes that corporate America uses to their advantage. This was not supported by the Republicans who are even against closing tax loop holes. So we had a long period of negotiation during which the Republicans refused any plan that included tax increases. In fact most of them signed a pledge written up by Grover Norquist to never raise taxes. To Obama’s credit he did offer a plan that would cut 3.5 Trillion and raise a Trillion in taxes over the next 10 years. This was refused. So now the congress has passed the buck and formed a super committee of 12 people to come up with a plan. The problem is that The Republicans on the committee have signed Norquists’ pledge to never raise taxes. So what will come out of the committee is sure to stink.

Now the Tea Party and Republicans are certainly to blame. In fact at the recent Republican debate every single candidate said they would not ever raise taxes. They all said that if there was a deal for 10 to 1 spending cuts to tax increases made to solve our debt crisis they would refuse the deal. That is who Obama is trying to compromise with.

Obama’s style of leadership has left the debate far to the right. We are likely to end up with huge cuts to Medicare and Social security (both of which the majority of Americans oppose) and we are not likely to see any new taxes on the wealthy, despite the fact that most Americans want this. Listen to the words of Bernie Sanders, Independent senator from Vermont, if you want to hear what I wish Obama would say during all this. Obama’s style of leadership would be admirable if it worked. But the results he is getting would suggest a change of strategy. It isn’t impossible for a President to change his style of leadership. In this current political landscape we need him to change if we want meaningful action from the government on any of the extremely important issues facing our nation and the world: the economy, jobs, the environment, health care, war, etc. It will be interesting if Obama finds his voice when he is campaigning next year and if he gets reelected (which I really hope he does!) it will be interesting to see how he leads during a second term.

a letter to the President

Dear President Obama,
I voted for you and worked hard for your election. I have been happy with some of the things you have done but not very happy with much of it. Where I usually disagree with you is when you move too far toward the Republican position on an issue. Dropping your support for a public option during the health care debate was a perfect example.

Now we have a debate happening in our country that cuts to the root of what I see as the difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. In the economic debate leading up to the need to raise the debt ceiling, we have seen the Republicans stand firm in their demand for lowering taxes on the wealthy while making cuts that will hurt working class families. This is an ideological position of theirs. They faught medicare and social security from the beginning. Their position that lower taxes for the wealthy creates jobs is contradicted by the historical facts. The wealthy have in the past decade made more money then ever before, payed the lowest taxes in 60 years, and job growth was the worst in the same time period.

I am a teacher and father of two small children. I recently bought a house (it is in escrow) and while it was the cheapest house in our neighborhood, we will just be able to afford it. I am surprised to hear that you are supporting a "bipartisan" plan to overhaul medicare and social security (which contributes ZERO to the deficit) and to lower even further the taxes for the wealthy. To pay for these tax breaks, the plan is to get rid of tax breaks for home owners and for employer provided health care. I find it incredible that while I am going to be squeezed to the point of possibly not being able to afford my new house, people making hundreds of millions of dollars a year are going to get a further tax break.

I would find a way to make it work and not complain too much if EVERYONE was paying more taxes but if the wealthiest Americans get a further tax break while the Democrats are in the White House and control the Senate and working class families pay more in taxes, then I promise you, I will go back to voting for the Green Party, for I do not see how having the Democratic party in control is helping the American people on the major issues of the economy, health care, and the wars (drone strikes in Pakistan are another major area where I disagree with your policies).

Please stand up for the American people and do not let the Republicans walk all over you! 79% of Americans support raising taxes on the wealthy to help pay down the defecit. Which side of the debate will you come down on?

Losing Hope,

Danny Boyer

why the Republicans are giving me hope

So I gotta say the Republicans these days are giving me a little more hope than I had just a few months ago. The Republicans have gained control of the House and of a number of state governments. With that new found power they are aggressively pursuing their legislative agenda. As the American people watch, it should be all too clear what the Republican Party's priorities are and that these priorities in every case go against what the majority of people in this country want, in fact their agenda goes against what the majority of Republican voters want. Not only that, their positions disregard evidence and fact, their actions are destroying our power around the world, they are killing jobs, and putting in jeapordy the future of this country and in fact endangering people's lives around the world.

This all gives me hope. Hope that at some point the American people will realize that the Republican politicians are not doing what is good for the country and they will stop electing them! This of course applies to many conservative Democrats as well.

So what are the priorities of the Republicans politicians? The first thing they did when they took over the House in January was disband the committee to study climate change and attack climate change legislation and regulation from all angles. Next they went after funding for womens health and family planning, most notably defunding Planned Parenthood. And of course their two main priorities - we can see it in their campaign promises and their current actions all over the country - decrease taxes for the wealthy and further deregulate the actions of corporations.

It is ironic - the cause of our current economic problem (high debt, the recession, low emplyment) were all cause by lowering taxes on the wealthy (while starting wars which are now predicited to cost 4 trillion dollars) and by deregulating the banking industry.

The debt ceiling and economic debate going on right now is a perfect example of all this. Our government is running up a debt. Thanks to wars and tax breaks, exasperated by the housing bubble collapse and the current recession. In order to reduce the debt there are two things we can do - cut spending and increase taxes. The majority of Americans think we should do a combination of both of these things. The majority of Republican voters thing we should do both. Yet the Republicans in the House have actually pledged to not ever raise any taxes. They have gone as far as saying they will not close tax loopholes that are exploited by corporations because that will in effect raise taxes. Now comes the debt ceiling issue. We need to raise the debt ceiling or risk defaulting on out debt. Republicans say they will not vote to do this without deep spending cuts to medicare, social security (which does not even add to our debt), education, etc (something else the American people disagree with the Republicans on). America is actually losing credibility in the world because the global economy could be dealt such a blow by a default on our payments and the Republicans are threatening to let it happen because they are completely unwilling to comprimise on the tax issue. The world thinks we are crazy! The obvious answer to our problem is that we cut spending and raise taxes.

We currently have the 2nd lowest tax rate of developed nations and the lowest taxes in 70 years. Some of the most profitable corporations pay little or no taxes at all thanks to all sorts of loop holes which were put in by politicians for hire. The Republicans claim you can't raise taxes or it will kill jobs. The fact is when taxes were highest in the 50's and 60's (over 70% for the wealthiest people) we had the highest rate of job growth and the worst job growth ever was during the Bush years when we had the lowest taxes. So there is no evidence for the Republican claim, in fact the evidence suggests the opposite of what they say is true.

Regardless of who you believe, this is a democracy and in a democracy you must compromise. The fact that the Republicans won't compromise is astounding. The bipartisan deficit commission actally laid out a plan that lowers taxes but closes loopholes, cuts spending, and solves our debt problem. The Republicans in power will not even agree to this plan.

Throughout the country we see states slashing spending, teachers being fired, unions under attack, while at the SAME TIME cutting even further the taxes for the wealthy. It is insane.

Switch gears. The Republican attack on Planned Parenthood. A Republican congressman gave a speech in congress saying that "90% of what planned parenthood does is give abortions". When he was later called on this lie (the truth is that 10% of what they do are abortions) his spokesperson said that his speech "was not intended to be factual". That so well illustrates what kind of people we are dealing with. Facts don't mean anything to them! The are basically trying to run the country like a theocracy. They have their belief system and they will make decisions based on that belief system not matter what the facts are.

Climate change is another example, and a serious one. At the request of congress the National Academy of Sciences wrote up a report outlining the scientific communities ideas about climate change. They concluded that the science is settled. 97% of scientists agree climate change is real and most likely caused by humans. The Republican party is the only major political party on EARTH that denies the reality of climate change. Sure, in other countries parties disagree on what should be done about it, but they all accept that it is most likely happening. Here we have the most severe droughts, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, cold spells, heat waves, in decades or even centuries, all happening around the world with more frequency. Shouldn't we at least consider that the scientist might be right? Well not if you have faith in the story that the Republican party is telling.

Of course climate change hurts our economy, and makes the world less safe, endangering our national security. And combating climate change would create jobs and make us competitive in the world (we are falling WAY behind in what Obama called the new Sputnick moment of our generation - new energy technologies). And all thanks to the Republicans who kill anything that could help develop new energy and combat the threat of climate change.

The last pillar of the Republican party - deregulation. Just as natual disasters give us evidence of climate change, human caused diasters show us that industry MUST be regulated. Massy energy - coal mines that kill miners in America - they keep fake safety reports and are guilty of tens of thousands of safety violations. The BP oil spill, turns out BP has a terrible record of cutting corners to save money at the cost of safety. The nuclear melt down in Japan - turns out the nuclear industry there had been faking safety records. The banking industry here was guilty if widespread fraud and criminal activity that led to our current recession, people losing their homes, etc. Over and over again we have been shown that the corporations will try to make money regardless of the cost to human lives, the economy, the environment, etc. The job of the government is to regulate these industries to make sure they act responsibly. Of course the Republicans don't think so.

I can go on and on, look at health care. The Republicans are running for office with the promise to repeal "Obamacare". Our expensive health care industry is helping to destroy the middle class as well as making manufacturing in this country unable to compete with other countries that have national health care.

I lost the end of my rant, but you get the point,

peace out

Thanks to the Germans for the type of leadership the world needs!

The kind of leadership the world needs, not the "clean coal and nuclear is safe now" corporate line that Obama is taking. The Germans hit the streets - 100,000 of them in protest of their nuclear industry, they get the credit for this really. The politicians tend to follow - where are our protesters?

From Democracy Now:

Germany Announces Plans To Close Nuclear Plants Amid Massive Protests

Germany has announced plans to close its 17 nuclear power plants by 2022. Chancellor Angela Merkel described the move as a revolution in energy supply.

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel: "Step by step, we will abandon nuclear energy by the end of 2022. This path is a big challenge for Germany, but it also means huge opportunities for future generations. We believe that our country can become a front runner for the creation of renewable energy and as the first large industrial nation, we can create such a change towards highly efficient and renewable energies, with all its opportunities for export, developments and technology which create jobs."

The safety of Germany’s nuclear plants has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of Japan’s ongoing nuclear crisis. Angela Merkel announced the nuclear phase-out two days after an estimated 100,000 anti-nuclear protesters gathered in 20 German cities.

The (Republican) Circus is coming to town

So I have been too busy to comment much on politics, although with the lunatics in charge of they asylum (The House of Representatives) I have plenty to say.

But the fun is just beginning as the circus is coming to town - gearing up for the 2012 Presidential elections. I am not ready for another election, but as painful as it is going to be, it will hopefully provide for some laughs. (I laugh to avoid crying)

Certainly the best clown for the circus is Donald Trump. Not too likely to win the nomination but he is getting a lot of media attention. This is a man who, despite all the evidence and facts that have been presented to prove Obama was actually born in Hawaii (even Fox news has admitted as such), Trump was still questioning the fact (as have other Republican politicians). Obama last week had the long form of the birth certificate released and he said in response to Trump that there is not time for such distractions and we need to focus on the problems America faces.

In response to the release - Trump said he was "proud" to have pushed the birther issue. Imagine, someone who is proud to ignore facts for political gain wanting to be president, oh, I forgot, he is a Republican, that is what they do.

So now that the birth issue is settled, what was the issue Trump moved to next? Now he is questioning Obama's grades in school.

I did hear Trump comment on one real issue - regulation. He states the republican position painfully well. He said that the high gas prices was due to Obama and the regulations he put in place after the BP Gulf oil spill. Trump said government regulations should be gotten rid of. He said - 'sure, we will have oil spills, but we will clean them up and move on, no big deal.'

This stance is of course ridiculous if you are concerned about the economy. How many small businesses - fishermen, hotels, restaurants, tour guides, etc, went out of business due to the spill? What is the long term effect on America's largest economic fishery? Not to mention the death of animals and the death of the workers on the rig. Of course new regulations is not what we need as much as enforcement of current ones. The other reason the republican stance on this is is foolish is that Obama actually did not go overboard in regulating the oil industry, quite the opposite, in every instance the Republicans complain about too much regulation (financial, oil, nuclear), Obama has actually given in to industry far more than he has protected the people. Their premise that Obama is overreaching with government regulation is just false.

It is going to be an interesting election year if nothing else.

Peace...

Bernie Sanders has it right! It is not rocket science.

Video: GOP mocks nuclear safety

Here is a great little video of some GOP senators mocking nuclear safety.

Nuclear energy is subsidized by the tax payers - much of that money is used to buy politicians which is why there is so much support for an industry that creates highly toxic waste that will last tens of thousands of years. Intelligent.

The GOP wants to end Unions because they give money to Democrats and influence politicians. I would be fine with ending the money coming from unions into politics if we ended the money from toxic radioactive corporations and Billionaires like the Koch brothers influencing politics too. Can you say "reverse Citizens United please"!

just say no to Nuclear power, duh

It seems obvious to me, nuclear power is a bad idea.

With respect to the people in Japan and those around the world who are concerned about them, I will not turn this into a cynical rant about reasons why the nuclear industry has such a strong hold on our government and governments around the world. One of the few things Democrats and Republicans agree on is that we should build new nuclear reactors here and around the world. (They also agree that Iran should not build them.)

I understand there are those who put forth arguments in favor of nuclear power. It can supply a lot of electricity.

But spreading such a dangerous technology all over the world seems plain stupid. How can we ever expect there will not be an accident (caused by nature, terrorism, human error, whatever). How can we think producing radioactive waste is a good idea?

Our elected leaders will only follow. Right now they are being led by money. People need to get out and have their voices heard if they are against nuclear power (and weapons).

There are many power plants around the world who's contracts are being considered for renewal. These must be shut down. New nuclear power plants should not be built.

It costs billions of dollars to build nuclear power plants and to protect them and their waste. That money would go far in the wind and solar industry.

The Federal Government: Robin the Hood

Well I was gonna start out by blaming Obama, as his new budget proposes major cuts in domestic spending. Things like heating assistance for low income families so they don't freeze (or starve by spending their money on heating), water treatment grants, airport grants, pell grants, etc. In other words he is slashing jobs during a recession. Right after we gave Billionaires a tax break. (In fact the cuts will save us far less each year than the tax breaks cost us.)

Slashing domestic spending is the opposite of what should happen in a recession. Money going to poor people gets spent, helping the economy. Money going to Billionaires gets put in the bank. In fact the lower the tax on the rich, the more corporations pay them. When we had a super high income tax on the super rich, corporations actually reinvested their money in their company.

And of course, looking down the road, the cost of health care is the real drain on the economy and the largest factor increasing the deficit. Too bad the chamber of commerce (who Obama courted last week) spent tens of millions to advertise against a public option.

So Obama is taking from the poor and middle class and giving to the rich. And ensuring a slower recovery from the recession, making his re-election bid less likely. (OK, for those of you who worry about the deficit two things: the quickest way to get rid of it would be to get our economy going again so we have revenue, but if we must cut, how about cutting OVERSEAS spending - try closing our military bases in Japan - they don't want us there anyway, or Germany, or Bahrain, or Italy, or Bulgaria, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or any of the 63 countries where we have military bases.)

But I said I was not going to blame Obama. Well he does not deserve all the blame. The Republicans want to slash far more of the budget. Obama actually increased spending in some areas like clean energy. The Republicans also want to make the tax cuts permenant and Obama has said this is a mistake.

So while I feel like I am sucking on a lemon when I hear what Obama is doing and the decisions he is making, if the Republicans get their way we will be eating shit.

I will take the lemon, but I hope enough Democrats are willing to suck it up rather than staying home on election day or we all just might have to choke down the latter.

Asmaa Mahfouz & the YouTube Video that Helped Spark the Egyptian Uprising

This is inspiring, often we think one person cannot have a huge effect on the world, this woman proves that idea wrong. I also love the feeling of solidarity and peace that she conveys regarding the popular movement in Egypt. This is sure a much nicer form of regime change than "Shock and Awe".

State of the Onion - (it makes me cry)

You are spared a long winded blog here for I do not have the time. But I gotta just weigh in on the lunacy of it all - it does make me want to cry.

So Obama , in his State of the Union address, laid out some lofty goals to help the US remain a world leader. Improve our education, invest in green energy and technologies, and spur innovation. Yes, exactly what we need, a new industrial revolution that will allow for an improved environment, and improved economy, and improved national security!

But wait, where is the money for all this gonna come from? Obama also said he wants to freeze domestic spending for 5 years. And of course the Republicans control the House of Representatives so what do they want to do? Well in the face of our largest budget deficit ever - massive spending cuts across the board.

The Federal Budget Office said we will have the largest deficit and the number one contributor to that - the renewal of the Bush tax cuts which Republicans INSISTED on. Tax cuts for Billionaires one day and then the next - oh we are so broke we need to cut spending on things like medical care for seniors and social security and ...how about more tax breaks for the oil industry. The Republicans talk about Americans 'tightening their belts' and 'watching their spending' so the government should do the same. First of all the top 1% are earning more money than ever before - there is no belt tightening for them. Second of all if everyone tightens their belts then the government better spend some money and get it out there.

The Republicans argue that government spending has never fostered innovation or helped the economy. That is ridiculous. They mentioned that our federal spending has not been so high since WWII. Wasn't the spending of WWII what finally shook us of the Great Depression - that is what they argue when they want to spend money on wars - 'its good for the economy'. Others argue that the economy was recovering before WWII, thanks to government investment here at home.

Austerity will only lead to a shrinking of the economy. DUH. Cuts will lay people off, increase the number of homeless, increase the number without medical care, these all become burdens on the system - costing more in the end. 'Obamacare" which Republicans want to repeal will REDUCE the deficit. Most budget cuts mean people lose their jobs, how does this help the economy recover?

Of course the Republicans DO NOT WANT THE ECONOMY TO RECOVER!!! A recovering economy will mean Obama gets reelected and a tanking or still stagnant economy may very well mean Republicans can take back the White House. Which is the only thing they want. Then they can further deregulate, cut taxes for the rich even more, and put people on the supreme court that will further entrench the rights of corporations to control this democracy or should I say Plutocracy.

The congressional Financial Crisis Inquiry determined that the recession could have been prevented and that is was caused by a failure of our government to regulate the banks and by risky and irresponsible actions by Wall Street. But of course the Republicans want less regulations and tax breaks for the bankers who are making hundreds of millions of dollars in profit while families lose their homes and small businesses go under.

I hope the American people see how much the next two years are going to suck thanks to the Republicans and get rid of them the next time around. For that to happen Obama has to stand up and take a stand for Democratic principles and not continue with this bipartisanship crap. The Republicans are going to fight Obama's agenda to the bitter end (we saw this in their UNANIMOUS vote to repeal 'Obamacare') Obama better stand up as an alternative to the Republicans or he will most likely be a one term President.

Well maybe it was a little long winded - medium winded - but once I get started you know how it goes. It feels good to get it off my chest so I can get back to educating these students to save the world.

During our current unit on Climate Change we had a nice discussion about the new Republican controlled House getting rid of the committee on Energy Security and Climate Change. Why if they did something like, that they must have good reason! So we looked at those reasons - and I let the students, of course, make up their own minds. Do they choose to believe the National Academy of Sciences, NOAA, and NASA or do they believe the Republican politicians, it is up to them to decide what they believe (and who they will vote for when they are old enough).

I am sure some of their parents loved that lesson. But hey when you have national politicians talking about the very subject you are studying in class, how can you not check out what they are saying.