The hallmark of our democracy is the smooth transition of one administration and Congress to the next, and we will be privileged enough to witness this great contribution to humanity once again on January 20th. Elections in the United States hold our government accountable to the people. But what holds us accountable? A democracy is ultimately in the hands of the people. If people behave irresponsibly, there is no government that can save them.   Read More »

Welcome to my blog! First of all I want to thank the organizers of this project for the opportunity to share my views and to learn from your views and comments to my posts.
I am a 60 y/o science professor, born and raised in Mexico with very progressive ideas. In a way I see myself as a citizen of the world, very patriotic in the good sense of the world as I think this is a great nation and a beacon for the rest of the world.
This is nation formed by ideals, and it will be again the frontrunner in development and in social justice around the world. So here I am doing what ever I can to help in this regard!

I just had to note what CNN's Fareed Zakaria said to Obama on his weekly GPS show
(Global Public Square) this last Sunday(11/16/08) at 1 PM: "GO BIG!"

After that: two Russia experts debated what our policy toward that country should look like.

Then one of the "architects" of the surge in Iraq debated another NYU expert whether
to put more troops in Afghanistan, what a surge there could look like,
and how it would be a lot more difficult to unify Afghanistan.

You can catch some of this on YouTube.

A new report contains convincing evidence that Gulf War Syndrome is real, affects around 175,000 soldiers, and was caused by anti-nerve gas treatments and pesticides that soldiers were exposed to by the U.S. military during the 1990-91 Gulf War.

The LA times reported this news today:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-gulfwar18-2008nov18,0,7557540.story

The government has been denying that the syndrome, which causes neurological problems, is real since the early 90s. I guess it's more important to deny incompetence than to help veterans get the health care they need.

Americans can decide for themselves what type of vehicles they wish to license for road use. It is high time we stopped listening to those that seek to rob us for foreign interests. All we will ever get from them is more death caused by pollution, and strife caused by their actions. These men claiming religon have made a hell for millions here on earth. This includes the favored religons too. It is high time we did away with this thorn in our side. We can restrict licenses for road use to automobiles that utilize certain fuels. Such as hydrogen, natural gas, or electricity. Alcohol can also be used as a fuel. Domestic sugar producers are selling tons of produce to foreign interests to be used as fuel for automobiles. We need to stop supporting the oil exporting countries especially since they are largely divided into Royal or socialist camps. The situation politically is a no win. We can do this with a stroke of a pen so to speak demonstrating again that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Senators,

If you keep this man in the caucus then you are telling the world and in particular other Dem. Senators who might have ambitions of going ROGUE, the way Sen. Lieberman and Zell Miller did, that they can do so with impunity. I don't believe Sen. Lieberman would have had the guts to do what he did had you publicly punished Zell Miller for his similar actions. Your allowing Sen. Lieberman to remain in the caucus will have a disastrous effect on the whole party caucus cohesion, I believe. Thank you.

Best Regards

The automakers are in a bind for one reason: they can not predict the long term conditions of their market. And how could they? When oil prices are down, no one buys green, and when they are up, no one has any money to buy anything.

So why should they retool at a cost of tens of millions, to create products that are unlikely to be competitive in the free market? Is anyone is really surprised that gasoline prices are down now that we have a reformer President, _even_ as OPEC slashes production?

Detroit cannot be reformed without reforming our relationship with OPEC, and that cannot happen if OPEC and Exxon can pull the price string whenever they want. Here's the game in a nutshell:

1. high national debt? OK, gas prices are now going up, we are crashing your economy, have a nice day.

2. Working on becoming energy independent? OK, gas prices are down, your investments are now chasing false markets, have a nice day.

3. Repeat step 1. until bankruptcy.

OPEC is at war with the United States, and the citizen army is ignorant of the invasion. The only way to solve this is to stop the loop, and as much as no one wants to admit it, the ONLY way to do that is to price regulate fuel with a floating tarrif.

Gas needs to stay hovering around $3.25 a gallon domestically, regardless of production levels. Why? Because that is the only way that Detroit will successfully retool. Oh sure, they'll be happy to build new factories with government money.

But if the products those factories make are not going to permit them to remain solvent, they will simply build unproductive factories and then sell off those factories as scrap. Why? Because that is that the customer (the federal government) asked them to do with the money.

Detroits bottom line does not care whether bailout money is used to create jobs, or loot the taxpayers. They make their money off the labor, and so their bottom lines improve either way. You can not solve this problem by throwing money at it. You have to incentivize the market. Water will no flow uphill no matter how much you wish it to be so.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Monday, November 17, 2008 – We can’t afford to waste another minute watching the Bush Administration, the House of Representatives, and the United States Senate waste their time and our money with the absurd, nonsensical political gamesmanship that has defined the state of this government’s so-called efforts to ‘fix’ the economy.

Isn’t it time we told those geniuses what to do, how to do it, and when to do it?

Where do we start?

We’d be wasting our time trying to tell George Bush or Dick Cheney to get to work, so we have to get after Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

We have to tell them to get to work and stay at work until the economy is headed in the right direction . . . if that means no more recesses or holidays for the House and the Senate . . . so what?

Hey, Harry and Nancy . . . if you want to take off Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day . . . okay, but that’s it!

You and all your colleagues have been paid big bucks by taxpayers for years; we’ve paid your office expenses; we’ve paid for your health insurance; we’ve paid for your security; we’ve supported your staff; we’ve supported your cushy lifestyle for too long and, now, it’s time for you to earn your keep.

It’s time for you to fix the economy.

How?

You do two simple things.

1. You stop handing out billions of taxpayer dollars to financial institutions . . . it ain’t working.

2. You create jobs . . . because if you want people to spend, they need to work.

And, to make sure people work, you gotta create jobs.

By the way, if you want to keep your paychecks from bouncing, you need to create some tax revenue.

To generate tax revenue, you gotta create . . . yep, you got it . . . jobs!

Okay . . . now that the concept is clear, where do you start?

Simple . . . convene a joint session of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate to write legislation necessary to:

1.      Implement Job Retention and Job Creation Strategy – Short-Term – 30 to 60 days from start to job creation

a.       Convene a Small Business conference in each Congressional District to determine how best to use private and public funds to prevent layoffs and create new jobs

b.      Provide private and public funding, technologies, and information to assist Small businesses to generate sales revenues, cash flow, and profitability required to retain employees and create new jobs as they develop, build, and  rebuild community assets and infrastructure utilizing Green technologies and products

c.       Provide fast-track contract bid processes for qualified Small Businesses to win contracts and retain employees and create new jobs as they build, rebuild, and repair infrastructure assets

2.      Implement a Job Retention and Job Creation Strategy – Long-Term – 61 to 180 days from start to job creation

a.       Convene General Business regional conferences in ten standard Federal Regions to determine how best to invest institutional, private, and public resources to increase Medium and Large business participation in product and service job-intensive, inclusive, and innovative markets

b.      Assess occupational mobility to help Medium and Large businesses retain employees and create new employment opportunities as they develop, build, and  rebuild community assets and infrastructure utilizing Green technologies and products

c.       Provide contract bid opportunities for Medium and Large businesses to retain employees and create new jobs by rebuilding, repairing, and building infrastructure assets

3.      Keys to Ensure Success

a.       Create jobs that not only produce products and deliver services, but also provide pathways to meaningful, secure, upwardly mobile, long-term employment

b.      Build-in the training necessary to prepare workers to perform job functions as required

c.       Provide flexible, efficient, and proactive public service support for each Private and/or Public project

  LIKE IT OR NOT, FOLKS, we’re in uncharted economic waters these days. The old saw about how government should allow markets to seek their own levels is as obsolete today as white wall tires.             The only entity that can solve the massive economic mess the Bush Administration left us is the Federal Government.             Who else has the resources?             Who else can borrow or print the trillions of dollars it’s going to take to get us back on our economic feet?             It ain’t Chrysler, GM, or Ford; it ain’t Bank of America, Citigroup, or Wells Fargo; it ain’t even Microsoft or Oprah!             It’s the government.             Don’t like it? I don’t. But what choice do we have?             As he said so often in the campaign, President-elect Obama understands that the only way to move consumers back into malls, restaurants, car dealerships, RV dealers, and realtors’ offices, is to put them back to work. American workers need to keep the jobs they have or replace the jobs they’ve lost . . . NOW! We have to create a new economy that continually expands its capacity to absorb more and more jobs; an economy that continues to create jobs as we shift from the initial, ‘rebuild-the-long-neglected-infrastructure’ phase to the production of high value products, services, and technologies. I’m not talking about ‘make-work’ jobs . . . I’m talking about creating jobs that challenge workers to learn new capabilities and skills; I’m talking about jobs that provide a living wage; jobs that give workers and their families the security of knowing they’re covered by adequate health insurance; jobs that provide meaningful retirement benefits; jobs that generate significant local, state, and federal tax revenues. I’m also talking about productive jobs that make businesses healthy by generating consistent revenues, cash flow, and profits.   Additional points to ponder include:   ·         Offer tax credits of up to $5,000.00 for each new job created . . . provided the employee is retained for two years ·         Offer additional financial and contractual incentives for businesses that create products and technologies to reduce energy consumption and offer contract extensions for companies that cut costs, improve quality, and reduce delivery times ·         Create mutually profitable training partnerships between private enterprise and public education to train workers to produce and deliver Green products and technologies (design, development, and production of high-efficiency wind generators, etc.) ·         Create joint Public/Private partnerships to leverage investment in core business enterprises (infrastructure and transportation innovations) ·         Establish electronically connected local Public/Private service centers to coordinate, manage, and monitor individual and joint projects ·         Coordinate, manage, and monitor the delivery of funding for each project to maximize local economic development ·         Invite union participation in training and job placement wherever and whenever possible   EPILOGUE: Come on, folks . . . we need to take a stand here! We can’t let Washington throw away the future of the nation because our Representatives and Senators are too busy with petty self-interest, obsolete ideologies, and foolish power plays to take care of the people’s business. It’s time for Congress to look at this crisis for what it is, not for how each party can twist it to gain some stupid political advantage.             They can’t work their usual 3-day weeks any more. They can’t take all their little ‘recesses’ and holidays. It is time for each of the 535 Representatives and Senators to finally stand up and do their jobs by creating jobs. It’s time for them to work as hard as we do! Anything less – at this critical moment in time – would be shameful. Isn’t it time to contact your Representative and your Senator and tell them what you want them to do? If not now, when . . . ?

Copyright © 2008 by LTD Associates West, Ltd. All rights reserved.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns, Email me at ltdassociates@msn.com (goes right to my desk) and since I personally answer every Email, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

             Want to go to a Blog that listens to you and speaks for you as well?

               GO TO bothsidesnowbiz.blogspot.com/ AND SPEAK UP . . .

America is a violent place with a violent culture and a violent history. Given this, it's hard to work for non-violent solutions to problems in this country. Too many people assume that peaceful solutions are not solutions, that they are "weak".

Look at where violence has gotten us in 8 years. Nowhere.

We aren't safer.
Hundreds of thousands of people have died.
We are going broke.
But at least we can feel tough.

It's time to grow up. Politicians love to talk about violence as a last resort, but they don't really mean it. They turn to it whenever it can distract people from their real problems or please their corporate masters, who make a killing off the killing. You want a change? Have the courage to stand up for peace.

See how quickly you get shouted down by angry ignorance. Finally, to all you so-called Christians out there: who would Jesus bomb?

...in the short-run. In the long-run we can certainly let them sink if they choose to not innovate. Link

Hi,
I have started a group on facebook and myspace to encourage interation with the new administration. The facebook group has begun to build up and I would like to encourage a Democratic base in the group. May I ask that you take a moment to check it out and if it is interesting to you please consider joining?
It is a bottom up group and the membership that votes in the weekly votes will set the agenda for the group.
It might also require giving your opinions on the issues.

The group is called Political Interaction and can currently be found on facebook and at



or myspace at

http://groups.myspace.com/PoliticalInteraction   Read More » http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=58474123272

The republicans claimed that unless they were in charge that we would get hit again by terrorists and allegedly because Bush is president we haven't gotten hit inside the U.S. since 9/11 (Of course they forget it was Bush who deliberately ignored the warnings before 9/11 which helped to ensure the terrorists would succeed).

Oddly enough the republicans have not blamed Bush for failing to get Osama Bin Laden and still want to blame Clinton for not taking Bin Laden out when he allegedly had the chance. It's amazing how when Clinton was commander-in-chief he was supposed to have taken out Bin Laden with a few cruise missiles and a handful of Green Berets while Bush has had 7 years with the entire U.S. military at his disposal.

One major difference between Bush and Obama's approach to dealing with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda is that Obama plans on making getting Bin Laden a top priority while Bush has joked about not knowing or even caring where Bin Laden is. So much for the claim by Bush that Bin Laden can run but he can't hide.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igtJIqM3RT55BSIEgUfabiUuO6CgD94GUR000

Admirals, generals: Repeal 'don't ask, don't tell'

By BRIAN WITTE â€" 1 hour ago

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) â€" More than 100 retired generals and admirals called Monday for repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays so they can serve openly, according to a statement obtained by The Associated Press.

The move by the military veterans confronts the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama with a thorny political and cultural issue that dogged former President Bill Clinton early in his administration.

Interesting viewpoints:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chip-collis/obama-will-run-foreign-po_b_144015.html

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/11/hbc-90003860

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/13/hillary-clinton-secretary_n_143735.html

What do you think?

Why? Because senators from southern states with factories owned by Asian and European car manufacturers oppose a bailout of U.S. automakers, saying the industry can thrive without General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20081117/pl_bloomberg/alx04tw8dum;_ylt=AsYQoN_.LFC8OT_tapRNG.2s0NUE

The Gay movement with all of its violence and hatred proves that there is a racist part in their movement. The gays should study more about MLK Jr. and non-violence protest(turn the other cheek), otherwise, the gays will never win the hearts and minds of the American people.

This is one of the saddest thing I've ever read. Our government is so well organized!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/17/fbi.grenade/index.html

"...according to the indictment, many of the defective grenades the military was using were relabeled and then sold to the FBI and other local law enforcement agencies."

Check out this story Al Jazeera just broke:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2008/11/20081117143940228385.html

The Taliban refuses to negotiate peace while foreign troops are in the country. Gee, maybe we should leave. Finding Bin Laden is police work. We don't need to take over whole countries to do it, and doing so makes us more enemies.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was just talking with Andrea Mitchell about bailing out the Big three. She talked about how they have restructured and any new hires will only make $14.00 an hour to start. She also stated she does not think strings should be attached to any further loans from the Federal Government.

Why are the working people taking the cuts? What about the white collars, the CEOs? They are the one's getting millions in bonuses? What cuts did they sacrifice?

I'm a Michigander and I do not agree with the Governor. There must be accountability. There must be strings, there must be MORE restructuring in the white collar sections of these companies. Why should they be allowed to further control companies they have allowed to go belly up?

I know there will be over 3 million people without jobs, most from Michigan. Michigan cannot afford to lose anymore jobs but the auto companies need to wake up and realize they need to make deep cuts starting from the top and do much, much, more reorganizing.

PRESIDENT ELECT OBAMA, JOB NUMBER ONE IS REALITY
After eight years of Republican ideology and incompetence, it’s imperative our President comes clean with America and tells us the sad, unvarnished truth about how deep our problems really are.

After eight years under a regime that believed Americans were best served by keeping them in the dark, Obama must turn on the lights and share the whole story about our economy, our debt, our infrastructure, army, educational system, health care and energy policies. These are the pillars of our future and they’re in a sorry state.

The one opportunity Obama has, are the golden weeks right after the inauguration, before politically driven imperatives return to the process. That is his one window of opportunity to connect with the American people and drive a national consensus about the sacrifices in store for all of us

We need a war footing alright but it isn’t about social issues, political preferences or even Al Qaeda. This is a war to protect the underpinnings of this great house, our country. If we fail to unite, to take these issues head on, if we fail to join together as a people to take the extraordinary measures and cutbacks needed on a personal and national level then we will all be too busy paying the piper for the next decade to have the luxury of discussing Roe V Wade. The current bailout may or may not alleviate the immediate pain, but the most dangerous mistake we could make as a country is to once again kick the can down the road and imagine that when the pain is gone, the disease is vanquished.

President Elect Obama told us something very important in his victory speech on November 4rth. He told us the road ahead is hard. Our task is not only to cheer that speech but to reply to it. We, the citizens of America, regardless of political preferences, must demand that our national starting point be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. How else can we help the President and help ourselves, our neighbors, cities and states to join up, take heart and inspire a unified national effort, unlike anything seen here since the World War?

I believe that Americans are more exhausted and frightened today by our paralyzed political system than the prospect of cutting back. I believe we are ready to step forward now with energy and commitment. I believe Americans are ready willing and able to participate in our own revival, not sit on the sidelines while the government does it for us.

Obama keeps his cards close and that’s a very smart tactic because the long knives are always out to drive one misstep into a firestorm. But we are in the middle of a national drama greater than anything we have faced since the Depression and WW2. If we fail to convince our President Elect that we can accept the awesome magnitude of the problems we have ignored for decades, then it is we who will have failed him.