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Will the Real Terror Threat Please Stand Up?

Written by: Eric Weis on Oct 5, 2008 11:03 AM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Friends,

Gosh-darn-it-all, by golly, gee willikers, Sarah Palin has struck again!  

She is showing her mettle with right-up-to-the-minute original thinking, demonstrating her unquestionable ability to preside over the United States Senate and to step in, should events require, to be the next leader of the Free World.  Well, whatever that term means these days, because who is to say that we are really free, and many would dispute that America leads anything anymore.

To what am I referring?  On Saturday, Governor Palin accused Senator Obama of "palling around with" terrorists (this is not to be confused with Palining around with wolf hunters). And by inference, if one has pals who are terrorists, then you must be a creator of terror yourself.  She said this of Obama at rallies in Colorado and Los Angeles . There is only one fly in the ointment.  It isn't a new charge.  And it did not stick when it first emerged this summer.  Go to the following link:
http://billayers.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/reactionary-wing-nut-sends-national-media-on-witch-hunt/
The story relates to Bill Ayers and the Weather Underground.  Friends, what happened 40 years ago was a time when the United States National Guard was KILLING students on a university campus. Remember Kent State?  I do.  I would call that terror.  It was a time of cold war terror, when we illegally invaded Cambodia without telling anyone and were napalming the heck out of anything that moved on the Southeast Asian landscape.  It was a time of terror, when we feared nuclear retaliation from China if we invaded North Vietnam.  It was a time of terror, when the Soviet Union appeared to have a monolithic stranglehold on all of its satellites in the Warsaw Pact.

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NeoCon Geography and Demographics - Are We Incan?

Written by: Eric Weis on Sep 26, 2008 2:55 PM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

I write this post today, in honor of my old friend Peter Ndiege, the brother of Tom Mboya, both of the Luo tribe from Kenya.  The same ethnic background as Barack Obama Sr. and his ancestors.

Peter was a bright young man in 1968, over here on an exchange program, attending the University of Pennsylvania.  Among other things, he taught me a word or two in Swahili.  One which sticks in my mind is "kwaheri".  He told me it was a way of saying goodbye with wishes of peace and tranquility.  Not too far from shalom, salaam etc.  But it sure doesn't sound the same as the Judeo-Arabic versions, doesn't it?  Nevertheless, the meaning is the same.

40 years later, Google and the internet allow us to figure out nearly anything.  Kwaheri is indeed the Swahili word for goodbye.  It is used in sub-Saharan Africa but not in the north, where the Arabic salaam, French or other indigenous languages are spoken by Berbers and so forth.

Now why do I mention this right now?  Because this week, Rush Limbaugh called Barack Obama an Arab in so many words. Go to the following link (which is also a fundraising appeal) and click on the video.

https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5339/t/2489/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=437

In his appearance, Limbaugh said, "Do you know he has not one shred of African-American blood?" Limbaugh continued: "He's Arab. You know, he's from Africa. He's from Arab parts of Africa. ... [H]e's not African-American. The last thing that he is is African-American."

The Arab parts of Africa.  Hmmmm.   So, according to Rush, Kenya (in East Africa, located on the Indian Ocean) is part of the Arab parts of Africa.  This means that Rush thinks Arabs come from latitudes below the Sahara.  Funny, but that is not what I learned in school.  When I was young, I was taught that camels, date palms, oases and Arabs are in the sandy part of the dark continent, and that elephants, gorillas, lions, hippos, Tarzan and black people come from the jungles much further to the south.  Guess I got it wrong.

I must also have a gross misunderstanding of what is going on in Darfur, the Sudan.  They must all be Arabs, and rumors of genocide are probably false.  Why would people of the same ethnicity wish to murder each other?

I will now have to revise my view of the world and get things rightside up. The white Europeans settled in South America, and up here in North America, we must all be Incan.

This is all very confusing.  But there is one simple explanation.  Limbaugh never really went through rehab and his brain continues to be addled by years of continuing drug use.  Somebody please, go help Rush.  Send him to Alaska so that he can meet some Peruvians and penguins.  (There aren't any penguins near the north pole, but maybe he can claim a new scientific find up there).

And Rush, may we all wish you a long and permanent kwaheri!

- "ArcticEric"

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Your Local Candidates

Written by: Travis Todd on Sep 23, 2008 4:35 AM EDT

Linked to groups: DFA Anne Arundel, DFA/Greater Bowie DEMOCRATS, Democracy for Howard County, Baltimore for Barack, DEMOCRACY for Baltimore, NJ for Democracy, Democracy for Maryland, Democracy for Virginia, Democracy for Montgomery County, DC for Democracy, Montgomery County Progressive Alliance, Prince George's - Democracy for America, North Baltimore County DFA, DEMOCRACY for America in Frederick, Progressive Cheverly, Health Care Maryland, Democracy for Carroll County, Marylanders for Al Gore , DFA County Committee Project, NJ-7th Congressional District - The Linda Stender Team, Hudson DFA, Essex County, NJ, DFA, Framing Committee, Morris County DFA, Bergen Grassroots, BlueWaveNJ, Hoboken Progressives, Middlesex County DFA, Hunterdon DFA, Progressive Democracy South Jersey, Union County for Democracy, Ocean County DFA/PDA, Somerset for Democracy, Passaic County DFA, Essex Freeholder Watch, Monmouth for Democracy/PDA, Mercer County Democracy for America, NJ for Obama, NWNJ for Democracy, Jersey Shore DFA, Pequannock DFA, Democracy for Gloucester County , South Jersey for Democracy, Jersey City DFA, Cumberland for Democracy, Atlantic County DFA

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Grassroots change starts at the bottom. We need ot be informed voters and make sure the candidates we're voting into local office (the offices that affect us most directly) share the progressive values we champion.

When you get to the voting booth on November 4, will you know which State Representatives, School Board Members, State Auditors, Dog-catchers shere your values. Will you even know their names?

Growvotes.org is trying to close this gap in voter ignorance through the same social networking tactics that have helped communities like DFA. Come check us out, find out who's running in your local elections and help us build a community based around the local politics that get things done close to home. Write an inactive candidate and ask them to share their views with the community. Create a ballot for election day so you know beforehand who'll you'll vote for.

We're focusing our beta efforts on New Jersey and Maryland and are looking for local associates who can help us add candidates that are not lsited yet. Espcially those at the city and county level. For more information contact us:

the_helpful_people@growvotes.org

http://www.growvotes.org

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Flip Flopping, Regulation, The Public Good and Money

Written by: Eric Weis on Sep 18, 2008 10:50 AM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

  1. Friends

Caveat - this will be a long one.  That is partly payback for all those days and nights spent studying the economics of public regulation. It seemed dry at the time.  But after 900 points of Dow freefall, a little re-education may not be a bad thing.  So with my hat doffed to Professor William Shipman (now long gone), I sally forth into the land of economics again.

For starters...

Here is some "required reading", if you want to see what John McCain used to think about regulation, and if you want to appreciate how his tune has changed in the last day or so.  In other words, it is a colossal flip flop, the action of a chameleon, trying to blend in with its new surroundings.  The only trouble is that the chameleon's appearance is only skin deep.  You cannot know what lies below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/16/AR2008091603732.html?nav=rss_print

So what about this ugly word regulation?  Who wants to be regulated?

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Greed, Wall Street, Pennsylvania Avenue and TR

Written by: Eric Weis on Sep 16, 2008 6:09 PM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Friends

Ever hear of Thorstein Veblen?  He was an economist at the turn of the century, noted for his brilliant critique of American competition and its shortcomings.

Veblen's most famous book was "The Theory of the Leisure Class".  He coined terms such as "conspicuous consumption" and the theory of "pecuniary emulation".  The latter is more widely known as keeping up with the Jones.  We all do it to a greater or lesser extent.  Greed (founded on the desire to eliminate want) is engrained in our nature.

Veblen wrote at a time when the industrialized robber barons had reached their greatest excess (go visit one of the Newport summer cottages to get the sense of their largesse).  The trust busting movement started at the same time, and was taken up by none other than Theodore Roosevelt, that icon of Republican and McCainsian ideology.

Wait a minute.  A Republican who busted trusts?  Can such a thing be true?  Yes indeed.  TR recognized that competition thrived with a modicum of regulation.  He saw that unrestrained capitalism brought with it the seeds of discord and economic disintegration.

So, today we have two Presidential candidates.  One blames the current disintegration on simple greed (pointing a finger at Wall Street).  The other cites greed coupled with a climate of deregulation which allowed distortions to occur in the capital markets.

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Energy Fact Checks - The Alaskan Hockey Mom Fortune Teller Strikes Again

Written by: Eric Weis on Sep 15, 2008 12:44 AM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Friends

Lost in all the reporting, I hope you caught this tidbit over the weekend.

During the ABC interview, Sarah Palin claimed that Alaska produces 20% of all home grown American energy.

Factcheck.org places this figure as low as 3.5%. Since I don't trust much of anything I read in the papers, I decided to go to an industry trade group, the American Petroleum Institute (API).  I know about API since I used to sell process equipment into that industry.  I know a fluid cat cracker from a fractionating column.

API data for August 2008 puts the Alaska production figure at 13%.  Alaska delivered 665,000 bbl per day compared to total US output of 5.1 million bpd.  In the same period, we imported 13.5 Mbpd, equal to 67% of total oil products delivered.  Here is the link:

http://www.api.org/Newsroom/upload/08_August_Petroleum_Facts_at_a_Glance.pdf

So, 20% vs 13%.  What's a percent here and there?  But I wonder - shouldn't the governor of a major oil producing state have these basic facts down cold?  The day before the interview, John McCain said that she "knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America."  Oh really?

I suppose that it is possible, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, that Alaska will be providing more of domestic energy needs.  Hmmmm...are we dealing with someone who is clairvoyant here?  Let's give Sarah a deck of Tarot cards and see what happens.  Surely an excellent qualification for Vice President; if she really can tell the future, we will be able to downsize or maybe even eliminate the CIA and save real money.

So let's ask Sarah where to drill.  She must be able to predict where the biggest gushers will come on line.  That kind of future-telling PALES in comparison to predicting the effects of an entire hurricane.  And you thought the X-Files was a stretch. Just wait for Sarah to arrive in Washington DC.  Maybe she will be able to find all those missing WMDs. Let's not forget to get her on the case of bin Laden.  He won't stand a chance.

- ArcticEric
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Palin, Mavericks and the Wild West

Written by: Eric Weis on Sep 14, 2008 6:05 PM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Friends, 

Someone asked me if I had seen the NYT article on Sarah Palin today.  Since I do not like to kill trees, I refuse delivery of the Sunday Times.  But content is available on the internet, and here it is.


Reading it makes me cringe at the prospect of a Palin Vice Presidency (or worse yet, the prospect that she would succeed to the Presidency). 

So for the moment, let us just take away the opinion held by some, that McCain is the more serious Presidential candidate.  Even if one believes that, can we at least dispense with the fiction that Mrs. Palin is ready to govern the United States of America?  

How about we admit, after so many elections, that Ed Muskie was more qualified than Spiro Agnew, that Lloyd Bentsen was more qualified than Dan Quayle and that Joe Biden is incomparably more qualified than Sarah Palin?

How about we look at John McCain's pick for what it is - a brilliant political ploy, but a lousy call when it comes to the national interest.

And how about we now focus on the differences between McCain and Obama?  As far as the VP pick is concerned - Obama wins on national interest, and McCain wins on political cleverness.  Which assumes of course, that it was John McCain who made the decision to bring Sarah Palin onto the ticket (and the jury is out on that one, most think that he wanted Romney or Lieberman but was voted down by the Republican/Rovian puppet masters).
.

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Slogans: Victory Within Our Grasp, Reach For the Gasoline!

Written by: Eric Weis on Sep 13, 2008 12:39 AM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

The latest Palin interview includes a brief mission statement couched in two simple terms. Reform and Victory.  Simple, but are they true?  Are they right?  What's the real story here?

 

We've heard the former over and over again, usually coupled with the word maverick, as a mantra of John McCain's record in the US Senate.  It rings hollow on the facts.  One has only to inspect the voting record of the past eight years.  Voting against party 10% of the time is hardly a mark of true independence.  Compare his record to the likes of Bernie Sanders or Joe Lieberman who really did break from their parties, and have differing views of reformation.  Some walk the walk and others only talk the talk.
 
Then there is the missing term, experience.  It was the Republican unique selling proposition until very recently.  But with Sarah Palin's nomination, that arrow had to be put back in the quiver.
 
So we are now being fed a new slogan, the repug's continued insistence on achieving VICTORY.  It has meat to it, juicy, positive and assertive.  It's worked before.  But slow down a minute, just what in hell does the V-word really mean in 2008?  Who or what are the enemy?

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Experience Counts: 30,000 Sandbags and $230 Million Shows Why

Written by: Eric Weis on Sep 11, 2008 5:27 PM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Friends

The blogosphere is at work.  Shown below is one from an attorney in Cherry Hill NJ.  One of the items he writes about took me by surprise, regarding the size of the Alaska National Guard.  This is the basis (some say) of Sarah Palin's demonstrated military and foreign policy expertise.  So I googled it. What I found was truly mind-boggling.

In 2007, according to an annual report published by the state, Alaska spent about $80 million on its National Guard - Army and Air NG units.  It obtained about $120 million in Federal assistance, and the combined budget was about $230 million (some money comes from other sources, but who cares about a paltry $30 million?)

The number of service people working in the ANG is 1900 (Army) and 1946 (Air).  That's a total of 3846 honorable souls.  The budget per person is therefore $59,800 per employee.  I don't know how this compares to the rest of the US National Guard, or to the regular army, but it sure sounds like a real great job to me. 

The Los Angeles Times has reported on this aspect of Palin's career.  The link can be found at:

 http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-guard6-2008sep06,0,6887188.story

 Included in the story is the report of her single National Guard executive decision as governor. Faced with flooding, Mrs. Palin declared an emergency and dispatched two water tanks and 30,000 sandbags to the distressed area.

 I now take it all back.  Clearly, Sarah Palin is qualified to oversee the $515 billion dollar budget of the US Department of Defense (just in case John McCain does not know what to do with all that money, Sarah has shown that she has the experience and knows how to dole out the pork).  We all can rest assured.  Our country will be in safe and experienced hands.  Halleluyah.

- Eric

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Economic Legerdemain: Who Can You Trust?

Written by: Eric Weis on Sep 10, 2008 4:42 PM EDT

Linked to groups: The Passaic County Green Party, Pequannock DFA, Passaic County DFA, BlueWaveNJ, DFA County Committee Project, NJ for Democracy

Linked to campaigns: Obama for America

Friends, get this...

"Obama is proposing one of the greatest tax increases in world history, entirely on the wealthiest 40% of the U.S. population -- who already contribute more than 100% (yes, you read that correctly) of the U.S. government's personal income tax revenue."


This claim came to me today from a friend who forwarded an article from The National Post, authored by none other than its publisher himself, Conrad Black.  Mr. Black established NP as an answer to the "liberal" media in Canada.  He is a convicted felon, awaiting prison pending appeals.  So, right off the bat, the claim is a little suspect.  Even so, it is so preposterous that it forced me to blink.  To evaluate, you have to know (A) the current status of US tax brackets and who pays how much and (B) the elements of the Obama tax plan.

As my degree is in economics, I decided to take a lunchtime crack at this. I am NOT an economist, but I can use common sense.  In the interest of full disclosure, I read Paul Krugman and generally agree that he is a clear thinker.  I am not a mercantilist in the style of Adam Smith. Given a choice of lunching with Milton Friedman, or John Maynard-Keynes, I would take the latter (but lunch is not possible since both are as dead as Adam Smith).  In other words, I do have an opinion on economics.

So what about (A). Is Black's claim correct?  No.  How can income tax revenues from any segment of the population exceed 100% of total revenues?  The Tax Foundation (a fairly middle of the road, if not CONSERVATIVE think tank) publishes statistics on this.

According to TF, the top 50% of the population (in terms of their Adjusted Gross Income) pay 97% of all personal income taxes. The top 25% pay 86%.  So, on the surface, Black's claim is not too far off the mark, just a bit of an exaggeration. But let's dig a little further and compare 1999 to 2006 to see the effect of the Bush tax cuts.

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