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Monday, March 15, 2010
Share your Health Care story with Speaker Pelosi on her new website
Share your Health Care story with Speaker Pelosi on her new website: "Share your Health Care story with Speaker Pelosi on her new website: http://bit.ly/9ObHfD"
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Is abortion your moral bottom line on health reform? - Faith & Reason
Is abortion your moral bottom line on health reform? - Faith & Reason
The conflict over the Catholic church's influence in U.S. health care reform is intense: Will the church's efforts to shut off all access to insurance coverage for abortion, even if people want to pay for it themselves, trump its strong desire to offer more care and better care for the poor and working Americans?
By Carlos Osorio, AP
The conflict over the Catholic church's influence in U.S. health care reform is intense: Will the church's efforts to shut off all access to insurance coverage for abortion, even if people want to pay for it themselves, trump its strong desire to offer more care and better care for the poor and working Americans?
The abortion issue puts it all on the table for Catholic health programs, the leading non-governmental care providers in the USA. Running the table is Richard Doerflinger, lobbyist for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
NPR's Laura Parker's profile of him says,
He and John Carr, who also works for the bishops... helped craft the final wording of the anti-abortion amendment offered by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., that cleared the way for House passage of the health care bill by five votes.
"He's a real smart guy," says Stupak, referring to Doerflinger. "Pretty detailed guy who does his homework ."
Now Stupak is back with an effort to cut off access to individuals to purchase insurance for abortion services, even if they pay for it themselves.
The Christian Science Monitor, looking at the abortion issue, points out:
In sum, when it comes to coverage for abortions, in the House version you'd need two different policies. In the Senate version you'd just need to write two checks and anti-abortion House members think that's getting awfully close to federal funding for the procedure. (Monitor report: House Democrats scramble to find a majority to vote for the Senate's healthcare bill.)
The Senate bill language "basically says that your federal tax subsidies can be used to pay for abortion coverage," said Rep. Stupak in a March 4 interview on National Public Radio (NPR).
Laura Parker goes on to say,...
...critics say it would be a colossal mistake to kill universal health care for an incremental victory on abortion. "The difference between the two bills is pretty thin," says Michael Sean Winters, a liberal Catholic author. "Doerflinger is so dug in, he's missing the point on the Senate bill, which is also pro-life."
Not to Doerflinger. His bottom line, he tells Parker:
If the bill attacks life itself, in our view, it's not health care reform.
Other people have different "bottom lines." What's yours? Do you see a provision in the proposals that you think is essential to see passed or defeated because of your faith or ethical point of view?
'Is God dying?' Questions on morality, evolution and the mind - Faith & Reason
'Is God dying?' Questions on morality, evolution and the mind - Faith & Reason
Are we evolving away from belief in God? Why did thousands of intelligent people let themselves be deceived by investment fraud king Bernie Madoff? Is morality really in decline in the West and can it be reconstructed?
It all starts with questions. Fraser Watts, a professor of theology and science, and Director of Studies, Queens' College set the program off with a wave of his own: What can science tell us about the origin and workings of morality? How did moral capacity arise? Is it all evolutionary? What's the role of neuroscience? What goes on in the brain when we're making moral judgments? Can we use this knowledge to reconstruct morality?Even so, just knowing something has an evolutionary origin "tells you nothing about whether it is valid or useful," Reiss says.
Science Magazine
Are we evolving away from belief in God? Why did thousands of intelligent people let themselves be deceived by investment fraud king Bernie Madoff? Is morality really in decline in the West and can it be reconstructed?
Such questions are in the air at a seminar on science, morality and the mind at Cambridge University, this weekend sponsored by the Templeton Foundation. I've participated in the Templeton-Cambridge Fellowships in Science & Religion since 2005. And for the next few days, I'd like to bring you along for a taste of the lectures and discussions.
By Dr Jose Liht, NONE
Michael Reiss, Professor of Science at the Institute of Education University of London, a specialist in evolutionary biology (and an ordained Anglican priest) walked us through the history of theories on altruism as an evolutionary phenomenon (like vampire bats who support each other by offering up blood if a mate didn't succeed in his own hunting) and the advantages of being good at deception (think Bernie Madoff).
By Martin Redfern
So understanding how the mind can evolve to do mathematics is separate from deciding if a particular theorem is good. Translated to evolution, biology and society, it means it might have been safer in some times and societies if you thought there were gods. "But that doesn't answer the question of whether there actually are Gods."
"Is God actually dying?" mused Barbara Bradley Hagerty of National Public Radio.
"I'm not a prophet," quipped Reiss. "I have absolutely no idea." Still, he observed, human conceptions of the divine are very different today than in the past, different often than their own parents, and that it would not be surprising if they continued to change.
Whose idea of God is the definitive one, the one that can be said to be living, dying or changing?Where do you think God came from and if our idea of God vanishes, does God?
Obama's education law overhaul to focus on college
Honoluluadvertiser - Obama's education law overhaul to focus on college
Obama's education law overhaul to focus on college
| Posted 3/13/2010 1:22 PM ET | E-mail | Save | Print |
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By Dorie Turner, Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA — The Obama administration unveiled its plan Saturday to radically change his predecessor's No Child Left Behind law in hopes of replacing an accountability system that in the last decade has tagged more than a third of schools as failing and created a hodgepodge of sometimes weak academic standards among states.
The changes would dismantle the 2002 law championed by President George W. Bush, moving away from punishing schools that don't meet benchmarks and instead focusing on rewarding schools for progress, particularly with poor and minority students. The blueprint calls for states to adopt standards that ensure students are ready for college or a career rather than grade-level proficiency -- the focus of the current law.
"Unless we take action -- unless we step up -- there are countless children who will never realize their full talent and potential," Obama said during a video address on Saturday. "I don't accept that future for them. And I don't accept that future for the United States of America."
The blueprint also would allow states to use subjects other than reading and mathematics as part of their measurements for meeting federal goals, pleasing many education groups that have said No Child Left Behind encouraged teachers not to focus on history, art, science, social studies and other important subjects.
And, for the first time in the law's 45-year history, the White House is proposing a $4 billion increase in federal education spending, most of which would go to increase the competition among states for grant money and move away from formula-based funding.
The blueprint goes before the House Education and Labor Committee on Wednesday as Obama pushes Congress to reauthorize the education law this year, a time-consuming task that some observers say will be difficult. Committee Chairman George Miller, a Democrat from California, praised Obama's plan.
"This blueprint lays the right markers to help us reset the bar for our students and the nation," Miller said in a prepared statement.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan briefed a handful of governors, lawmakers and education groups on the plan Friday, including Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican.
"The governor is very supportive of the direction the secretary is going," said Perdue's spokesman Chris Schrimpf.
A few other highlights from the blueprint:
_ By 2020, all students graduating from high school would need to be ready for college or a career. That's a shift away from the current law, which calls for all students to be performing at grade level in reading and math by 2014.
_ Give more rewards -- money and flexibility -- to high-poverty schools that are seeing big gains in student achievement and use them as a model for other schools in low-income neighborhoods that struggle with performance.
_ Punish the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools using aggressive measures, such as having the state take over federal funding for poor students, replacing the principal and half the teaching staff or closing the school altogether.
_ Duncan has said the name No Child Left Behind will be dropped because it is associated with a harsh law that punishes schools for not reaching benchmarks even if they've made big gains. He said the administration will work with Congress to come up with a new name.
Amy Wilkins, a vice president with The Education Trust in Washington, D.C., called the blueprint a "culture shift."
"One of the things America has not been clear about is what k-12 is supposed to do," Wilkins said. "In this, we're saying K-12 is supposed to prepare kids for college and meaningful careers."
The nation's first federal education law -- Elementary and Secondary Education Act -- was passed in 1965 as part of Lyndon B. Johnson's war on poverty. The law has been reauthorized several times since, most recently in 2001 under President George W. Bush.
It was criticized by educators for focusing too much on testing and not enough on learning. Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said he is glad to see No Child Left Behind go away.
"We're delighted over that," he said. "We have not been a fan of No Child Left Behind."
___
Associated Press Writer Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.
DON’T FENCE ME IN
DON’T FENCE ME IN
A Post from Andy Parx blog about the dispute at Larsons beach.
WHen I read it, I was wondering just exactly Bruce was talking about when he said he would have 50 Hawaiians down there, and that he was reclaiming the land for the Hawaiians. In that case, me and my kids, both Hawaiians, will be down there real soon to go get a peice of land then. I was unaware thats what was going on down there. Awesome! Now we can get out of Public Housing, and have a nice little house, and a peice of land, and I can grow plants, and fruits, and veggies, and flowers to make leis. I hope thats true! So you beleive its true? If it is, hey Bruce....call me. Dying to get a peice of that land.
A Post from Andy Parx blog about the dispute at Larsons beach.
WHen I read it, I was wondering just exactly Bruce was talking about when he said he would have 50 Hawaiians down there, and that he was reclaiming the land for the Hawaiians. In that case, me and my kids, both Hawaiians, will be down there real soon to go get a peice of land then. I was unaware thats what was going on down there. Awesome! Now we can get out of Public Housing, and have a nice little house, and a peice of land, and I can grow plants, and fruits, and veggies, and flowers to make leis. I hope thats true! So you beleive its true? If it is, hey Bruce....call me. Dying to get a peice of that land.
Honoluluadvertiser - US avoids anti-abortion debate at UN meeting
Honoluluadvertiser - US avoids anti-abortion debate at UN meeting
US avoids anti-abortion debate at UN meeting
US avoids anti-abortion debate at UN meeting
| Posted 3/13/2010 12:58 PM ET | E-mail | Save | Print |
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By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS — A U.N. meeting to assess progress in advancing the fight for women's equality that ended Friday had a dramatically different slant than a similar session held five years ago: This time, the United States was not trying to make an anti-abortion declaration a crucial theme.
Much of the 2005 meeting to take stock of what countries had done to implement the landmark platform of action adopted at the 1995 U.N. women's conference in Beijing was consumed by the Bush administration's demand that the final declaration make clear that women are not guaranteed a right to abortion.
By contrast, abortion was a non-issue during the two-week session that concluded Friday with a rousing speech by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had electrified the 1995 Beijing conference when she was first lady.
Her focus was on galvanizing fresh momentum to promote equal opportunities for women in business and education, to end discrimination under law and in practical reality, and to stop the "global pandemic" of violent attacks on women. She made a single reference to the U.S. increasing support for family planning as part of its Global Health Initiative, which also aims to reduce maternal and child deaths and HIV infections.
At the 2005 review conference, the Bush administration fought to insert language against abortion in the final declaration. But the U.S. faced strong international opposition and near the end of that meeting it backed down and dropped the demand.
In sharp contrast, the final declaration for the 2010 review was adopted with little fanfare during last week's ministerial session. It reaffirmed the Beijing platform, welcomed progress toward implementing it, and pledged more action to overcome the "challenges and obstacles" to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women.
Charlotte Bunch, the founding director of Rutgers University's Center for Women's Global Leadership who attended Beijing and both follow-up meetings, said the biggest difference "is the change in the U.S. government."
The Bush administration questioned the reaffirmation of the Beijing platform because of reproductive rights and the abortion issue, which were "hot issues," she said. But the Obama administration strongly backs the platform, as Clinton stressed Friday.
The Beijing platform calls for governments to end discrimination against women and close the gender gap in critical areas including health, education, employment, political participation and human rights.
At the 1994 U.N. population conference in Cairo, delegates approved a platform recognizing that abortion is a fact that governments must deal with as a public health issue. At Beijing the following year, delegates reaffirmed this and went further, asking governments to review laws that punish women for having abortions.
But attempts to approve stronger language on access to abortions failed at Beijing, and references to sexual rights and sexual orientation were dropped. Nonetheless, the Beijing platform stated for the first time that women have the right to "decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality ... free of coercion, discrimination and violence."
Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition who also attended all three meetings, welcomed the "robust references" to the Cairo and Beijing conferences in resolutions adopted Friday by the Commission on the Status of Women.
She cited important measures on ending female circumcision, combating HIV and AIDS especially in women, and reducing maternal mortality, which has remained high and virtually unchanged since 1995.
Germain praised President Barack Obama and Clinton for understanding that it is impossible to improve women's health without a broader commitment to human rights and equality.
Bunch, now a senior scholar at the Rutgers center, welcomed the commission's adoption of another resolution Friday, introduced by Egypt, endorsing the creation of a single U.N. body to promote the advancement of women, to be headed by an undersecretary-general.
While reproduction health wasn't an issue at this conference, Patricia Licuanan, a former head of the Commission on the Status of Women who chaired the committee responsible for drafting the Beijing platform, said "I don't think it's less of an issue ... because ... the church, religious fundamentalism, is on the upsurge."
"I think it's still very much around," said Licuanan, who is president of Miriam College in Manila, in the Philippines. "That's part of the fear of any type of movement to open up discussions on Beijing. I really would fear that possibly (the platform) might (go) backward."
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Hawaii Gov. Lingle speaks against new taxes, 1st Ld-Writethru, HI
Hawaii Gov. Lingle speaks against new taxes, 1st Ld-Writethru, HI
HAHAHAHAHAHA. The only person making life a living hell for the people of Kauai is THE GOVERNOR
HAHAHAHAHAHA. The only person making life a living hell for the people of Kauai is THE GOVERNOR
Kaua‘i school funds to be used for O‘ahu special election
Kaua‘i school funds to be used for O‘ahu special election
wow what a slimey thing to do linkges boy dukie baby is running against neil for governor. he left early to concentrate on the campaign. so there needs to be a special election, there is supposed to be money in the election fund to cover this, or in the rainy say fund. but lingle siphoned off this money a long time ago so what does she do now? change the accounting ruiles so that any fund can be raided now, so she raids public school funding OF COURSE...from where? THE OUTER ISLANDS her private little trough that the dictator can siphon off any time she chooses. whats more she knows a lot of support from neil comes from the outer islands. so to enrage the citizenry against neil whom she sees as the biggest threat to the dukie she, the heartless queen of no heart she raids already strapped schoiol funding from all of the outer islands to pay for it knowing full well that some people will not know the truth. But most will. We arent stupid lingle. I know you see the unwashed masses as not good enough to exist and to be used at your beck and call whenever you want but not this time. Its time to impeach you. period. Lets the games begin Neil will get a ton more votes now because poeple will know the truth. We are gonna make sure they know.
wow what a slimey thing to do linkges boy dukie baby is running against neil for governor. he left early to concentrate on the campaign. so there needs to be a special election, there is supposed to be money in the election fund to cover this, or in the rainy say fund. but lingle siphoned off this money a long time ago so what does she do now? change the accounting ruiles so that any fund can be raided now, so she raids public school funding OF COURSE...from where? THE OUTER ISLANDS her private little trough that the dictator can siphon off any time she chooses. whats more she knows a lot of support from neil comes from the outer islands. so to enrage the citizenry against neil whom she sees as the biggest threat to the dukie she, the heartless queen of no heart she raids already strapped schoiol funding from all of the outer islands to pay for it knowing full well that some people will not know the truth. But most will. We arent stupid lingle. I know you see the unwashed masses as not good enough to exist and to be used at your beck and call whenever you want but not this time. Its time to impeach you. period. Lets the games begin Neil will get a ton more votes now because poeple will know the truth. We are gonna make sure they know.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
HPHA Agenda 02.18.10 Amended.pdf (application/pdf Object)
HPHA Agenda 02.18.10 Amended.pdf (application/pdf Object)
WHAT ARE THE REPORTS FROM THIS MEETING WE ALL WANT TO KNOW A FED IRDWER TO GET STUFF DONE!! WHAT IS IT? WE WANT TO KNOW!! PUT ALL REPORTS ONLINE MR TANIGUCHI
WHAT ARE THE REPORTS FROM THIS MEETING WE ALL WANT TO KNOW A FED IRDWER TO GET STUFF DONE!! WHAT IS IT? WE WANT TO KNOW!! PUT ALL REPORTS ONLINE MR TANIGUCHI
1 Elig_Selection_Admission_Policy.pdf (application/pdf Object)
1 Elig_Selection_Admission_Policy.pdf (application/pdf Object)
DISCRIMINATORY !! READ THE INCENTIVES FOR HIGHER INCOME LEVELS
NICE LANDSCAPING CLEAN ENVIRONEMNT AND OH YEAH GUESS WHAT"""
THEY WILL PAY FOR YOUR CABLE TELEVISION< YOUR PH(ONE AND PAY FOR YOUR ELECTRIC HOOK UPS TOO
GUESS WHAT POOR GUS HAVE TO PAY FOR THEIRS< LIVE IN TERMITE EATEN BUILDINGS AND FIGHT RAT INVESTATIONS!!
CALL FOR TANIGUCHIS IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION
DISCRIMINATORY !! READ THE INCENTIVES FOR HIGHER INCOME LEVELS
NICE LANDSCAPING CLEAN ENVIRONEMNT AND OH YEAH GUESS WHAT"""
THEY WILL PAY FOR YOUR CABLE TELEVISION< YOUR PH(ONE AND PAY FOR YOUR ELECTRIC HOOK UPS TOO
GUESS WHAT POOR GUS HAVE TO PAY FOR THEIRS< LIVE IN TERMITE EATEN BUILDINGS AND FIGHT RAT INVESTATIONS!!
CALL FOR TANIGUCHIS IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION
Punohu's Politics, Environment and Culture Blog: Notice of Public Hearing 2010 PHA Plan.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Punohu's Politics, Environment and Culture Blog: Notice of Public Hearing 2010 PHA Plan.pdf (application/pdf Object)
TELL TANIGUCHI TO TAKE HIS PLAN AND PUT IT UNDER A ROCK!! READ THE PLAN FOR YOU*RSELF!! GET TO THE MEETING HERE IN KAPAA ON THE 15th at FIVE PM
TELL TANIGUCHI TO TAKE HIS PLAN AND PUT IT UNDER A ROCK!! READ THE PLAN FOR YOU*RSELF!! GET TO THE MEETING HERE IN KAPAA ON THE 15th at FIVE PM
Notice of Public Hearing 2010 PHA Plan.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Notice of Public Hearing 2010 PHA Plan.pdf (application/pdf Object)
MEETING ON THE 15th IN KAPAA PLEASE SHOW UP!! THIS IS VITALLY IMPIORTANT!! NEW RULES UNFAIR AND CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS SYSTEMATICALLY TEARING APART OUR HOUSING< AND PUTTING POEPLE ON THE STREET!! GET TO THIS MEETING NO MATTER WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO
MEETING ON THE 15th IN KAPAA PLEASE SHOW UP!! THIS IS VITALLY IMPIORTANT!! NEW RULES UNFAIR AND CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS SYSTEMATICALLY TEARING APART OUR HOUSING< AND PUTTING POEPLE ON THE STREET!! GET TO THIS MEETING NO MATTER WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO
1 in 6 in Hawaii lacking full-time work | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser
1 in 6 in Hawaii lacking full-time work | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser
THIS IS WHAT LINGLE HAS BROUGHT US UNEMPLYMENT AND THE NEED TO RAISE TAXES WAY TO GO LINGLE!!
THIS IS WHAT LINGLE HAS BROUGHT US UNEMPLYMENT AND THE NEED TO RAISE TAXES WAY TO GO LINGLE!!
The Associated Press: Hawaii jobless rate inches upward, led by tourism
The Associated Press: Hawaii jobless rate inches upward, led by tourism
Just SICK of all of these lies and deceptions by the Lingle administration. A sshe cuts backl on social services and school fundings she causes working class poeple to no longer afford to be able to go to worik, with lack of childcare, childare funding slashed by more than 75 percent, new proposed rules and regulations for housing through the fuve year plan and restructuring of DHS, she has sungle handedly DESTROYED THE LABOR FORCE IN THIS STATE.
so lingle, dont cry when the tourists have NO ONE TO GREET THEM WHEN THEY COME HERE.
tell them cook their own meals, make their own beds cut their own lawns fly their own helicoptors drive their own busses and nurse themselves back to health !!!!!!!!!
STOP LETTING LINGLE PUT THE SCREWS TO HER!! TRUN THAT AROUND TODAY! IMEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH
Just SICK of all of these lies and deceptions by the Lingle administration. A sshe cuts backl on social services and school fundings she causes working class poeple to no longer afford to be able to go to worik, with lack of childcare, childare funding slashed by more than 75 percent, new proposed rules and regulations for housing through the fuve year plan and restructuring of DHS, she has sungle handedly DESTROYED THE LABOR FORCE IN THIS STATE.
so lingle, dont cry when the tourists have NO ONE TO GREET THEM WHEN THEY COME HERE.
tell them cook their own meals, make their own beds cut their own lawns fly their own helicoptors drive their own busses and nurse themselves back to health !!!!!!!!!
STOP LETTING LINGLE PUT THE SCREWS TO HER!! TRUN THAT AROUND TODAY! IMEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH
Budget cuts may be amplifying recession in Hawaii | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser
Budget cuts may be amplifying recession in Hawaii | honoluluadvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser
IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA
IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA DEPORT TO CALIFORNIA
2010 Census touted: Millions of federal dollars are at stake
2010 Census touted: Millions of federal dollars are at stake
THe census may be the real reason we have a budget shortfall in this state. Without an adequate count we have been losing our share for years. In fact, if we actually had an adequate count, we could have more representation in the Senate and the house, and even in congress thus giving Hawaii MORE delegates, and a larger voice in the way government is operated and give more opportunities to people for running for public office.
Further when we do planning, its imperative that we have accurate numbers especially for things such as dumps, where counting those who are in public housing will prevent dumps from being built in areas with high poverty, part of the Environmental Justice Law.
Nor only that, Kauai can get more for social services, highways, and parks and recreation. By not helping poeple to understand what the census is and what it is for everyone does a disservice to their neighborhoods, their communities, their families and the state and the country. If you really care about yourself your family and your community you will fill out the census. Dont wait for someone to come knocking at your door to remind you not to be an ostrich with your head stuck in the sand. IT doesnt take that long to figure out.
And for you fiscally conservative types, when you fill out the form and send it in and poeple dont have to come knocking at your door, you actually save the taxpayers money. SO get a grip, grip a pen, and sign in to the 2010 census.
THe census may be the real reason we have a budget shortfall in this state. Without an adequate count we have been losing our share for years. In fact, if we actually had an adequate count, we could have more representation in the Senate and the house, and even in congress thus giving Hawaii MORE delegates, and a larger voice in the way government is operated and give more opportunities to people for running for public office.
Further when we do planning, its imperative that we have accurate numbers especially for things such as dumps, where counting those who are in public housing will prevent dumps from being built in areas with high poverty, part of the Environmental Justice Law.
Nor only that, Kauai can get more for social services, highways, and parks and recreation. By not helping poeple to understand what the census is and what it is for everyone does a disservice to their neighborhoods, their communities, their families and the state and the country. If you really care about yourself your family and your community you will fill out the census. Dont wait for someone to come knocking at your door to remind you not to be an ostrich with your head stuck in the sand. IT doesnt take that long to figure out.
And for you fiscally conservative types, when you fill out the form and send it in and poeple dont have to come knocking at your door, you actually save the taxpayers money. SO get a grip, grip a pen, and sign in to the 2010 census.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
WATCH CALIFORNIA CUTS DESTROYING THE POOR COME TO OUR MEETING MARCH 19 5-7 30 pm at KCC Cafeteria
A Legislative informational meeting from March 19th 5-7 30 pm at KCC cafeteria in regards to reorganizations of DHS and Public housing. You need to come to this meeting. these organizations will severely effect thousand oif poeple across our state, but will particularly harsh for Kauais people
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Op-Ed Columnist - The Great Tea Party Rip-Off - NYTimes.com
Op-Ed Columnist - The Great Tea Party Rip-Off - NYTimes.com
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 |  Well here we go one of the BEst articles written to date on the cashing in of lackey Steele stealing from the Repubs and bleeding the beast. Probably getting back for all those whip lashiungs his forefathers took on behalf of racists whitesa. good for him take their money, and scare the crap utta them. you may be a lackey but your a smart one you will walk a way rich and laffing at tall those repub and tea [arty bigots. in a few years time you will come out with a scathing expose on what it took to buy you to front for them it will be awesome. Even given the low bar set by America’s bogus conversations about race, the short-lived Harry Reid fracas was a most peculiar nonevent. For all the hyperventilation in cable news land, this supposed racial brawl didn’t seem to generate any controversy whatsoever in what is known as the real world. Readers' CommentsPresident Obama immediately granted Reid absolution. A black columnist at The Daily News in New York, Stanley Crouch, even stood up for the archaic usage of “Negro.” George Will defended Reid from charges of racism as vociferously as Democrats did. Al Sharpton may have accepted Reid’s apology, but for once there’s no evidence that he ever cared enough to ask for one. So who, actually, was the aggrieved party here? What — or who — was really behind this manufactured race war with no victims? It would be easy to dismiss the entire event as a credulous news media’s collaboration with a publisher’s hype for a new tell-all-gossip 2008 campaign book, “Game Change,” which breathlessly broke the Reid “bombshell.” But this is a more interesting tale than that. The true prime mover in this story was not a book publicist but Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican Party and by far the loudest and most prominent Beltway figure demanding that Reid resign as Senate majority leader as punishment for his “racism.” Steele is widely regarded as a clown by observers of all political persuasions, but he is clownish like a fox. His actions in this incident offer some hilarious and instructive insights into what’s going on in the Republican hierarchy right now as it tries to cope not just with our first African-American president but with a restive base embracing right-wing tea-party populism that loathes the establishment in both parties. And though Steele is black, and perhaps the most enthusiastic player of the race card in American politics today, race was a red herring in his Reid vendetta. It threw most everyone off the scent of his real motivation, which had nothing to do with black versus white but everything to do with green, as in money. A profligate spender, Steele had inaugurated his arrival as party chairman by devoting nearly $20,000 to redecorate his office because he found it “way too male” for his sensitive tastes. In the weeks just before “Game Change” emerged, Steele was in more hot water. Over the holidays, G.O.P. elders were shocked to learn that their front man had a side career as a motivational public speaker at up to $20,000 a gig. The party treasury, which contained $22.8 million upon Steele’s arrival at the end of January 2009, was down to $8.7 million by late November, with 2010 campaign expenditures rapidly arriving. “He needs to raise money for the party, not his wallet,” one Republican leader griped to Politico. Then, just after New Year, Steele published an unexpected book of his own, “Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda.” He hadn’t told his employers that the book was in the works, and, to add further insult, he attacks unnamed party leaders in its pages for forsaking conservative principles. Since it hit the stores, Steele has pursued a book tour for fun and personal profit, all the while daring his G.O.P. critics to bring it on. “If you don’t want me in the job, fire me,” he taunted them. “But until then, shut up. Get with the program, or get out of the way.” Fire him? Steele knows better than anyone that his party can’t afford what Clarence Thomas might call a “high-tech lynching” of the only visible black guy it has in even a second-tier office. Steele has said that white Republicans are “scared” of him. They are. He loves to play head games with their racial paranoia and insecurities, whether he’s publicly professing “slum love” for the Indian-American Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal, or starting a blog on the R.N.C. site titled “What Up?,” or announcing that he would use “fried chicken and potato salad” to recruit minority voters. As long as the G.O.P. remains largely a whites-only country club, Steele has job security. But he had real reason to fear some new restraints on the cash box; last year the party was driven to write a rule requiring him to get approval for expenditures over $100,000. On Jan. 9 The Washington Post ran a front-page article headlined “Frustrations With Steele Leaving G.O.P. in a Bind,” reporting, among other embarrassments, that the party had spent $90 million during Steele’s brief reign while raising just $84 million. Enter “Game Change,” right in the nick of time for Steele to pull off his own cunning game change. On Jan. 10 he stormed “Fox News Sunday” and “Meet the Press” to demand Reid’s head. There has been hardly a mention of Steele’s sins since. He can laugh all the way to the bank. His behavior is not anomalous. Steele is representative of a fascinating but little noted development on the right: the rise of buckrakers who are exploiting the party’s anarchic confusion and divisions to cash in for their own private gain. In this cause, Steele is emulating no one if not Sarah Palin, whose hunger for celebrity and money outstrips even his own. As many suspected at the time, her 2008 campaign wardrobe, like the doomed campaign itself, was just a preview of coming attractions: she would surely dump the bother of serving as Alaska’s besieged governor for a lucrative star turn on Fox News. Last week she made it official. Both Steele and Palin claim to be devotees of the tea party movement. “I’m a tea partier, I’m a town-haller, I’m a grass-roots-er” is how Steele put it in a recent radio interview, wet-kissing a market he hopes will buy his book. Palin has far more grandiose ambitions. She recently signed on as a speaker for the first Tea Party Convention, scheduled next month in Nashville — even though she had turned down a speaking invitation from the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, the traditional meet-and-greet for the right. The conservative conference doesn’t pay. The Tea Party Convention does. A blogger at Nashville Scene reported that Palin’s price for the event was $120,000. The entire Tea Party Convention is a profit-seeking affair charging $560 a ticket — plus the cost of a room at the Opryland Hotel. Among the convention’s eight listed sponsors is Tea Party Emporium, which gives as its contact address 444 Madison Avenue in New York, also home to the high-fashion brand Burberry. This emporium’s Web site offers a bejeweled tea bag at $89.99 for those furious at “a government hell bent on the largest redistribution of wealth in history.” This is almost as shameless as Glenn Beck, whose own tea party profiteering has included hawking gold coins merchandised by a sponsor of his radio show. Last week a prominent right-wing blogger, Erick Erickson of RedState.com, finally figured out that the Tea Party Convention “smells scammy,” likening it to one of those Nigerian e-mails promising untold millions. Such rumbling about the movement’s being co-opted by hucksters may explain why Palin used her first paid appearance at Fox last Tuesday to tell Bill O’Reilly that she would recycle her own tea party profits in political contributions. But Erickson had it right: the tea party movement is being exploited — and not just by marketers, lobbyists, political consultants and corporate interests but by the Republican Party, as exemplified by Palin and Steele, its most prominent leaders. Tea partiers hate the G.O.P. establishment and its Wall Street allies, starting with the Bushies who created TARP, almost as much as they do Obama and his Wall Street pals. When Steele and Palin pay lip service to the movement, they are happy to glom on to its anti-tax, anti-Obama, anti-government, anti-big-bank vitriol. But they don’t call for any actual action against the bailed-out perpetrators of the financial crisis. They’d never ask for investments to put ordinary Americans back to work. They have no policies to forestall foreclosures or protect health insurance for the tea partiers who’ve been shafted by hard times. Their only economic principle beside tax cuts is vilification of the stimulus that did save countless jobs for firefighters, police officers and teachers at the state and local level. The Democrats’ efforts to counter the deprivation and bitterness spawned by the Great Recession are indeed timid and imperfect. The right has a point when it says that the Senate health care votes of Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana were bought with pork. But at least their constituents can share the pigout. Hustlers like Steele and Palin take the money and run. All their followers get in exchange is a lousy tea party T-shirt. Or a ghost-written self-promotional book. Or a tepid racial sideshow far beneath the incendiary standards of the party whose history from Strom to “macaca” has driven away nearly every black American except Steele for the past 40 years. | |||
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