http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/group_rss/1stProtestinTheStreetOrg Mission: Empower and assist others in participating in and creating effective new public issue visibility events and help to perform them safely by sharing ideas, experience and information sources. All ideas welcome. Current projects: AngryVoters.Org , Past projects: the Impeach Colorado Coalition http://ImpeachCO.com During 2007 and 2008 we performed over 180 impeachment vigils, protests and rallys At a press conference on Monday, Armey acknowledged that Democrats "will most likely pass health care reform legislation that has been debated for the last year and is expected to come to a vote this week." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/march-16-tea-party-protes_n_500591.html Once HCR is passed and signed into law by President Obama then the heavy lifting will really begin to pass the public option, defeat the Stupak/Nelson amendments, and work on single payer. This is not the time to rest a la once Obama is elected then everything will be "sweetness and light" because as we have seen that policies that Bush implemented like extraordinary rendition and indefinite detentions have continued under the Obama administration. For progressives and liberals- Never give up and never surrender! http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZpH http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZpH/commentary#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:57:58 EDT http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZpH Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CZpH/ Digby says it all : Stupak and Nelson have finally given the liberals in the House a serious, principled reason to walk away. The dynamics still argue that they won't do it for this or any other reason, and that they will simply allow women to get shafted. (There is apparently no limit to the amount of shit the left must be forced to eat to get this bill passed.) But the stakes are now higher for liberals than they have been. Voting to restrict a woman's ability to exercize her right to abortion in half the country is as much of a gut check as voting for a bill that doesn't contain a public option. Some might actually calculate that it's a bridge too far. And those who were already leaning toward voting against the bill for all those other reasons will now feel much more secure that they are standing up for liberal principles when they do it. There is such a thing as the straw that broke the camel's back, even for liberals who desperately want to pass health care reform. This might be it. Diana DeGette and Louise Slaughter are not on the bandwagon to eliminate a fundamental right for women. They say the new compromise is possibly unconstitutional, and that they and other pro-choice House members could still reject it. Big, bad Kent Conrad rattled the Senate sword: The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee says the House must stick close to the Senate's version of health care reform or risk losing the 60 votes needed to pass it in the Senate . I agree with Howard Dean that this version of HCR should be DOA. http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZhv http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZhv/commentary#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:47:29 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZhv Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CZhv/ You had the best chance in decades to make a difference in all of our lives, and you chose to blow it. You don't deserve our praise. Or our votes. http://www.americablog.com/2009/12/this-isnt-what-we-were-promised.html http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZht http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZht/commentary#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:26:44 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZht Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CZht/ Just a reminder that the Impeach Colorado Coalition morphed into the ANGRYVOTERS.ORG We believe that in order to pass on the full measure of our Constitutional freedoms to our children and grandchildren, we voters Must insist that our Congress and Justice Department Enforce Our Federal Anti-Torture Laws against those in the Bush-Cheney Administration that appear to have violated these laws. Bush, Cheney and their Torture Memo Lawyers have admitted working to get around our Anti-Torture Laws. Their WMD Lies to Congress sent over 4,200 US Soldiers to their deaths and caused over 30,000 to be maimed. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION Today: ANGRYVOTERS.ORG http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CZhN http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CZhN/commentary#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:27:42 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CZhN John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/profile_picture/12e758207391a9b236_ggimv2s5d.gif John H Kennedy 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CZhN/ This is bad for democracy because it gives ESS monopoly power for controlling elections in the US. The voting irregularities in past elections concerning equipment manufactured by ESS and Diebold should be ample warning that giving monopoly power to one electronic voting machines manufacturer should never be tolerated in a democracy. McClatchy News' Washington Bureau scoop of the day: " WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Camden, N.J., agreed late Friday to hear a request for an emergency injuction that could halt Election Systems & Software's announced acquisition of Diebold Inc.'s Premier Election Solutions. The quietly arranged shotgun wedding between the two voting-machine giants would give ES&S control of election systems in use in almost 70 percent of the nation's voting precincts. Federal Judge Robert Kugler agreed to hear Tuesday the request for immediate injunction brought by a small competitorm, Hart InterCivic Inc...." http://www.mcclatchydc.com/politics/story/76093.html http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZS2 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZS2/commentary#comments Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:48:21 EDT http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZS2 Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CZS2/ There are national Petitions in process to ask Obama to appoint a Special Prosecutor to lead US Department Of Justice enforcement actions against the Bush appointee Lawyers that advocated felony violations of our Federal Laws on Torture, and Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Who have addmitted Ordering felony Click on the Image to Sign it Today. This website is a quick way to sign the Petition to have them Indicted and to ask Obama to appoint a Special Prosecutor Thanks for your assistance. http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CZg7 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CZg7/commentary#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:45:06 EDT http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CZg7 John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/profile_picture/12e758207391a9b236_ggimv2s5d.gif John H Kennedy 2 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CZg7/ Bloomberg reports : The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have spent, lent or guaranteed $12.8 trillion, an amount that approaches the value of everything produced in the country last year, to stem the longest recession since the 1930s...  The money works out to $42,105 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. and 14 times the $899.8 billion of currency in circulation. The nation’s gross domestic product was $14.2 trillion in 2008.  Look at the table: =========================================================== --- Amounts (Billions)--- Limit Current =========================================================== Total $12,798.14 $4,169.71 ----------------------------------------------------------- Federal Reserve Total $7,765.64 $1,678.71 Primary Credit Discount $110.74 $61.31 Secondary Credit $0.19 $1.00 Primary dealer and others $147.00 $20.18 ABCP Liquidity $152.11 $6.85 AIG Credit $60.00 $43.19 Net Portfolio CP Funding $1,800.00 $241.31 Maiden Lane (Bear Stearns) $29.50 $28.82 Maiden Lane II (AIG) $22.50 $18.54 Maiden Lane III (AIG) $30.00 $24.04 Term Securities Lending $250.00 $88.55 Term Auction Facility $900.00 $468.59 Securities lending overnight $10.00 $4.41 Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility $900.00 $4.71 Currency Swaps/Other Assets $606.00 $377.87 MMIFF $540.00 $0.00 GSE Debt Purchases $600.00 $50.39 GSE Mortgage-Backed Securities $1,000.00 $236.16 Citigroup Bailout Fed Portion $220.40 $0.00 Bank of America Bailout $87.20 $0.00 Commitment to Buy Treasuries $300.00 $7.50 ----------------------------------------------------------- FDIC Total $2,038.50 $357.50 Public-Private Investment* $500.00 0.00 FDIC Liquidity Guarantees $1,400.00 $316.50 GE $126.00 $41.00 Citigroup Bailout FDIC $10.00 $0.00 Bank of America Bailout FDIC $2.50 $0.00 ----------------------------------------------------------- Treasury Total $2,694.00 $1,833.50 TARP $700.00 $599.50 Tax Break for Banks $29.00 $29.00 Stimulus Package (Bush) $168.00 $168.00 Stimulus II (Obama) $787.00 $787.00 Treasury Exchange Stabilization $50.00 $50.00 Student Loan Purchases $60.00 $0.00 Support for Fannie/Freddie $400.00 $200.00 Line of Credit for FDIC* $500.00 $0.00 ----------------------------------------------------------- HUD Total $300.00 $300.00 Hope for Homeowners FHA $300.00 $300.00 ----------------------------------------------------------- he FDIC’s commitment to guarantee lending under the Legacy Loan Program and the Legacy Asset Program includes a $500 billion line of credit from the U.S. Treasury.Makes you proud? Or does it make you think...what a rip off?Remember the canary in the coal mine? Welcome to the future : MENDOTA, Calif. — The customer seemed interested in a black blouse offered for $1 at the thrift store. But instead of buying it, she set it on the front counter. Maybe tomorrow, she told the cashier, she would have the money. Or the next day. But not now. "That is the way people are now," said the cashier, Alicia Reyes, as she watched the middle-aged woman walk out of the store. "They just come in here and look. They just come in here to kill the time. And then they take off." Welcome to life in Mendota — the unemployment capital of California. With a 41 percent jobless rate, the town's social fabric is tearing at the seams. Alcoholism and crime are on the rise. To save money, some mothers wash and re-use disposable diapers. Unemployed men with nothing to do wander the streets and sit on benches.... The national Katrina is here and now.     http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZg8 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZg8/commentary#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:59:17 EDT http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CZg8 Ken Ken 1 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CZg8/ I caught this off Huffingtonpost.com about Jim Cramer and his boasting of what he did as a hedge fund manager: -On manipulating the market: "A lot of times when I was short at my hedge fund, and I was positioned short, meaning I needed it down, I would create a level of activity before hand that could drive the futures," -On falsely creating the impression a stock is down (what he calls "fomenting"): "You can't foment. That's a violation... But you do it anyway because the SEC doesn't understand it." He adds, "When you have six days and your company may be in doubt because you are down, I think it is really important to foment." Check it out     http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQst http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQst/commentary#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:48:24 EDT http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQst Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQst/ Josh Marshall, Talkingpointsmemo.com, found this little backgrounder about Tim Geithner: ...Sandy Weill, the guy who in the 1990s built Citi into the mammoth systemic risk Death Star it is today wanted the job [CEO] to go to Tim Geithner. So if Geithner is ousted from Sec. of Treasury then he could simply jump on the Citigroup ship?   This is what Felix Salmon, Portfolio.com, thinks .  What a marvelous stinking revolving door.  While we the taxpayers are stuck with people like Geithner who still talk of "free market" and "private companies" as being the be all and end all for the American economy. BTW- Meanwhile, President Obama thinks of the netroots and bloggers in this light: And part of the reason we don’t spend a lot of time looking at blogs is because if you haven’t looked at it very carefully then you may be under the impression that somehow there’s a clean answer one way or another – well, you just nationalize all the banks, or you just leave them alone and they’ll be fine, or this or that or the other.  Duncan Black, Eschaton blog, writes : I find it more amusing than annoying that Obama has joined with many others in employing the rhetorical trick of attributing any views you wish to marginalize as coming from bloggers. I guess we, the netroots and bloggers, are just too darn new, still!   Perhaps Obama is still an intermediary step in the new political landscape and political process; i.e., Dean for America as version 1.0 then MyBarackObama as version 2.0 but what will version 3.0 look like? http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQsR http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQsR/commentary#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:06:46 EDT http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQsR Ken Ken 1 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQsR/ Isn't it about time to have our government start a new financial system?  Bloomberg News has estimated that we are now in debt to the tune of over 11 trillion dollars for bailing out grifters.  The biggest rip off in history. Sign this to tell Congress no more bailout money for con men.  It is time to start a new financial system. Firedoglake.com has a petition to sign .  The Fed's Vice Chair Donald Kohn has refused to comply with requests from both the House and the Senate for the names of banks receiving federal funds, angering Republicans and Democrats alike. Bloomberg estimates that the government has spent more than $11.7 trillion to save the financial system since the crisis began, but Fed has refused to comply with Bloomberg's requests for details under the Freedom of Information Act. We know now that $80 billion of the $162 billion used to bailout AIG went to pay off its derivative trading partners at the full value of their contracts, despite the fact that values had tumbled. Economist Nouriel Roubini calls it "a nontransparent, opaque and shady bailout of the AIG counterparties: Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and other domestic and foreign financial institutions. The House passed the TARP Reform and Accountability Act on January 16, which would provide increased conditions, transparency and accountability for Wall Street bailout funds. The Senate is refusing to take up the legislation." http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQsN http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQsN/commentary#comments Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:56:42 EDT http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQsN Ken Ken 2 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQsN/ If this is true then we, progressives and liberals, have our work cut out for us. Progressive Breakfast: Light Up The Phones "Here in Washington, D.C., the word on the street is that the Right is killing us with phone calls to Congress. One congressperson said the calls are running 100 to 1 against the Obama economic recovery plan. Now is the time to call Senator Udall and Bennet or visit your local Senate office to let them know that we stand for economic recovery by investing in America's future and not the failed economic policy of the past- tax cuts for the corporations and rich. http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTZ http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTZ/commentary#comments Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:03:55 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTZ Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQTZ/ Well, well it is with the dead-enders like Generals Patraeous and Odinero and Secretary Gates that Obama has to deal with on the issue of keeping a promise to the people or siding with them on Iraq.  Inter Press Service (h/t to Huffingtonpost.com) reports : Petraeus, Gates and Odierno had hoped to sell Obama on a plan that they formulated in the final months of the Bush administration that aimed at getting around a key provision of the U.S.-Iraqi withdrawal agreement signed envisioned re-categorising large numbers of combat troops as support troops. That subterfuge was by the United States last November while ostensibly allowing Obama to deliver on his campaign promise. There is only one president as Obama told the nation when he was president-elect.  There is only one commander-in-chief and his name is Barack Obama not George W. Bush.  What we, the people, have to do now is to call or write the White House in support of Obama's command to the nation's top military to have a withdrawl plan for 16 months of military forces from Iraq.   The nation's military commanders and dead ender Gates should not be doing this: There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy. A network of senior military officers is also reported to be preparing to support Petraeus and Odierno by mobilising public opinion against Obama's decision. If the military and civilian commanders cannot follow an order then they should resign.   From the report: A White House staffer present at the meeting was quoted by the source as saying, "Petraeus made the mistake of thinking he was still dealing with George Bush instead of with Barack Obama." Those commanders should remember a past general and president:  President Truman and General MacArthur.   http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTt http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTt/commentary#comments Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:52:31 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTt Ken Ken 3 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQTt/ One great hidden story that should see the light of day is the increasing use of tasers.  The humor of "Don't tase me, bro" had shed a tiny bit of light on this weapon, which should be categorized as deadly force.  Digby has been relentless in highlighting tasers and the use of those weapons on children and adults.  To wit, Digby writes this :   ...Police said at the time that Margaret Hiebing was "kicking and screaming" when officers tried to handcuff her. "That's when one of the officers discharged a Taser weapon on her," said UW Police Sgt. Jason Whitney. This 54 year old woman was a threat to the seven officers who were trying to subdue her and so she had to be repeatedly tortured with electricity. Sure, I'll buy that. This is actually quite interesting. It's one thing when police tase mental patients, protesters and alleged criminals. Most Americans figure they probably deserve it. But when they start torturing white, middle aged, female pillars of the community at football games, things could get sticky. Or this medical report by Digby on in-custody sudden deaths in California. Or the use of tasers on youth by Digby: Here are two stories about the torture of teenagers by police, one of whom died. In the first case , you can see perfectly how the government now views the use of electrical shock as a benign tool to force compliance: Salt Lake City police used a stun gun on a 14-year-old boy after they say he refused to leave the Gateway Mall and resisted arrest on Saturday night.  It's time for these leathal weapons to classified as such. http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTh http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTh/commentary#comments Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:57:15 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTh Ken Ken 3 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQTh/ Joe Sudbay, AmericaBlog.com, states it : The Republicans, under the leadership of George Bush, destroyed the American economy. We're on the precipice -- facing a depression. But, the House Republicans are being petulant - they got 33% of the House stimulus bill devoted to questionable tax cuts, but that's not enough. Obama tried... Bi-partisanship only works when both sides come to the table. The GOP leaders are like little children. If they don't get their way 100%, they won't play. They don't seem to understand the precarious situation we're in. Or, maybe they don't care. The message from today should be pretty simple: A "NO" vote is a vote for a depression. Simple, huh? What me panic or fearful?  Well, where I work, which is a nonprofit, there has been jobs eliminated, jobs consolidated and some positions going from full time to part time, with 401k contributions cut (not eliminated yet) on the employer side.   http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTS http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTS/commentary#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:04:37 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQTS Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQTS/ Will some of Obama's picks turn out to be moles for the previous discredited and criminal Bush administration? Glenn Greenwald writes about the suspension of the kangaroo court called military commissions at GitMo: This is only a first step and a temporary one at that.  Subsequent actions that the Obama administration is clearly considering could severely undermine both the symbolic and substantive value of this act, particularly if they go and create new "national security courts" of the kind aggressively advocated by newly-appointed Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal, which would likely enable coerced evidence to be used in order to obtain convictions of accused Terrorists.  Even with Obama's order yesterday, many of the most vital questions surrounding the closing of Guantanamo remain unanswered. Why do I say criminal because the laws against torture were broken.  Furthermore it is not a matter of choice for President Obama to not investigate.  He has a legal obligation to investigate. Glenn writes: Harper 's Scott Horton notes that the leading U.N. official in charge of torture conventions, such as the Convention Against Torture  (signed by Ronald Reagan and ratified by the U.S. Senate), just stated that the Obama administration is obligated by that treaty and by international law to criminally investigate Bush officials for torture.... Rachel Maddow interviews law professor Johnathon Turley: Rachel Maddow :  If the administration has confirmed that they tortured people -- and they have, they have used the "t" word; they have described what they have done, which is recognized as torture, it is something for which we have prosecuted people -- are we literally looking at the possibility where administration officials from this administration cannot travel abroad to the other 145 countries that have signed the torture treaties because they might get arrested? Jonathan Turley :  Most certainly.  The status of George Bush is not that different from Augusto Pinochet. They've both been accused of running a torture program.  Outside of this country, there is not this ambiguity about what to do about a war crime.   There are four treaties that make this an international violation.  So if you go abroad, and try to travel, most people abroad are going to view you not as "former President George Bush" -- they're going to view you as a current war criminal. Rachel Maddow:   And they're going to view us as an outlaw regime for not arresting him on our own soil. I have argued that Bush like Pinochet will become a wanted man throughout the world. http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQkk http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQkk/commentary#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:32:25 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQkk Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQkk/ The problem with the NYT's report, "Intelligence Court Rules Wiretapping Legal", is that it is about the legality of international wiretapping which was never in question.  The problem is that the NYT gives the impression that the domestic wiretapping program(s) authorized by Mr. Bush as being constitutional which they are expressly not. NYT reporter Eric Lichtblau writes : In validating the government’s wide authority to collect foreign intelligence, it may offer legal credence to the Bush administration’s repeated assertions that the president has constitutional authority to act without specific court approval in ordering national security eavesdropping. The appeals court is expected to uphold a secret ruling issued last year by the intelligence court that it oversees, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, court. In that initial opinion, the secret court found that Congress had acted within its authority in August of 2007 when it passed a hotly debated law known as the Protect America Act, which gave the executive branch broad power to eavesdrop on international communications [my emphasis], according to the person familiar with the ruling. There never was any constitutional or legal question on tapping international calls. The problem is that Mr. Bush authorized programs that allowed to tap domestic calls on a "dragnet" or "driftnet" basis; i.e., hardware installed on telecom switches allowed for capture of millions of telephone calls- both land line and mobile- by citizens without any probably cause by a court order from a judge.  This is the crux of the illegal spying programs that are the basis of class action lawsuits against the telecom giants like AT&T. For a quick background go here or here .       http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQf5 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQf5/commentary#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:32:34 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQf5 Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQf5/ One last effort to Stop The Pardons. Won't you help? http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CQfn http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CQfn/commentary#comments Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:51:35 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennedyjohn/CQfn John H Kennedy http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/profile_picture/12e758207391a9b236_ggimv2s5d.gif John H Kennedy 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQfn/ Now is the time to strike for a progressive "shock and awe" to remake the economic landscape that is balanced and fair for all parties.  This means a wholesale rejection of the policies of the Republicans that created this economic nightmare of "free market" pirates. Josh Marshall gets it : ...a couple centuries of our history and you'll see that there are just no examples of administrations that started small and did big things in year 2 or 4 or 6. That doesn't happen. Look at Roosevelt, Johnson, Reagan, presidents pack their biggest punch on day one. And even though many big things can happen in subsequent years, the presidencies are almost always defined at the beginning. Later triumphs and reforms grow from the changed political terrain created at the outset. The time is now to remake this nation into a nation for all.  The Republicans is the party of old ideas and old men who cling to the racist past for their success. BTW- I will point out this incisive critique of "IOUSA" documentary that aired on CNN over the weekend. The Center for Economic and Policy Research shows clearly that one of the root enconomic problems is health care costs. http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQfS http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQfS/commentary#comments Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:52:30 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQfS Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQfS/ The Republican led investigation in Bill Clinton's sex life was tagged by the DOJ at 40+ million dollars . Elana Schor, Talkingpointsmemo.com, writes : H.R. 104, a bill introduced on Tuesday by House judiciary committee chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and nine other lawmakers. The measure would set up a National Commission on Presidential War Powers and Civil Liberties, with subpoena power and a reported budget of around $3 million , to investigate issues ranging from detainee treatment to waterboarding to extraordinary rendition. The panel's members would hail from outside the government and be appointed by the president and congressional leaders of both parties. Now tell me that there is a grave wrong in which a sitting President and his administration has committed egregious crimes against the Constitution, U.S. statutory laws, and international conventions that the United States of America are signatories to but the new Congress may only allocate 3 million dollars to investigate those crimes?  I am outraged that those policies by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet (and supported by illegal theories promulgated by Yoo and Bybee) led directly to the interrogations and wrongful deaths of many human beings in my name as a citizen of the United States of America.   Call our Colorado representatives- DeGette, Perlmutter, Salazar, Polis, and Markey and tell them that they need to become a co-sponsors of this important legislation to get to the bottom of what Mr. Bush and his cohort were actually doing in our name.   Write to Barack Obama's www.change.gov website and tell him that the past sets precedent for the future:  Prosecute the torturers .   This will be the the clearest and strongest action for all of the world to see that America can repudiate the horrors of Mr. Bush and his actions. http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQfV http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQfV/commentary#comments Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:16:30 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQfV Ken Ken 0 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQfV/ What does this trial balloon mean?  The is longstanding precedent for a barrier between NASA and Department of Defense is due in part to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty .  Bloomberg.com news reports : President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the U.S.’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China... The potential change comes as Pentagon concerns are rising over China’s space ambitions because of what is perceived as an eventual threat to U.S. defense satellites, the lofty battlefield eyes of the military. The article then describes that launch vehicles would be shared and emphasizes the rivalry between Chinese deep space goals and US fears for its state of the art, real time battlefield command, control and communications systems. However what is being left out of the equation of rivalry is "why not cooperation in space" like the International Space Station project.  Are we, as a people, still stuck in the old 20th Century way of aggression and war making for a nation state to behave?   http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQfB http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQfB/commentary#comments Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:53:22 EST http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/post/kennethdebacker/CQfB Ken Ken 1 http://www.progressnowcolorado.org/page/community/comment_rss/CQfB/