 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
January 30, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama yesterday attended a first-of-its-kind question and answer session, as part of a Republican Congressional caucus conference in Baltimore. The president took some aggressive questions, classed by media analysts as “grandstanding”, from some Republicans who pushed the party line on the refusal of Democrats to deal with them. Obama adroitly and with a [...]
January 29, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
The Democratic party’s biggest communicational deficit is not about the virtues of its policies, but the nature of its founding ideal: “democrat” means one who favors government of, by, and for the people. The absurd and puerile experiment in linguistic brainwashing in which the Republican party is now uniformly engaged —calling the Democratic party (the party of the Democrats) the “Democrat party” in hopes of making the word sound alien and remote— is nothing more than an attempt to rob ordinary Americans of their access to a government that answers to them: Democrats need to be out there saying so every day.
January 28, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Those of us in public office can respond to this reality by playing it safe and avoid telling hard truths and pointing fingers. We can do what’s necessary to keep our poll numbers high, and get through the next election instead of doing what’s best for the next generation. But I also know this: If people had made that decision 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, or 200 years ago, we wouldn’t be here tonight. The only reason we are here is because generations of Americans were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain; to do what it took to keep the dream of this nation alive for their children and their grandchildren.
January 28, 2010 :: Denver Lessing :: 4 Comments
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito last night revealed how deeply unfit he is to serve on the nation’s highest court. When Pres. Obama made the entirely factual statements that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC reversed a century of precedent on campaign finance regulation and would allow foreign corporations to spend money to influence US elections, Alito was seen shaking his head, grimmacing and mouthing something like “simply not true”. While it’s well documented how widely Obama —a Constitutional law scholar— and Alito differ on legal philosophy, Alito crossed a line with his reaction.
January 28, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
A recent NBC/WSJ poll shows rising frustration among voters with the failure to move major reforms through Congress. But while the media have repeatedly pushed the notion that Pres. Obama may be losing favor, the NBC/WSJ poll shows 48% of people say Republicans in Congress are to blame for the nation’s unsolved problems, for their relentless obstruction of Democratic proposals, while 41% blame the Democrats in Congress, and only 27% blame Pres. Obama.
January 27, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Barack Obama’s first official State of the Union address was an impassioned call to action, and something of a civics lesson. He reprimanded both parties in Congress, admonishing Democrats not to “run for the hills” and reminding Republicans that if they claim a leadership role by obstructing legislation, then they have an obligation to the public to participate in the process. The address artfully positioned Obama’s agenda astride the political center, leaving the Republicans little room in the center from which to attack his policies.
January 27, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Apple’s new tablet computer has finally been unveiled, after years of speculation. The iPad will function as a genuine cross-over between the realm of the iPhone and the laptop computer, in a format smaller than a laptop screen, similar to a netbook, and designed to optimize the experience of reading online or working with files and e-publications. It will be able to run over 140,000 of the apps already made for iPhone and iPod Touch, with a whole new class of iPad-optimized apps to come. Perhaps most important of all, it will retail for a starting price of only $499.
January 26, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Four young men, aged 24 to 25, have been arrested and charged with entering federal property under false pretense, with the purpose of committing a felony. The charges are in connection with an alleged attempt to carry out a plot to wiretap the phones at one of Democratic senator from Louisiana Mary Landrieu’s offices. The charges could result in fines up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison.
January 26, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Apple tablet should be an intensely user-friendly device that achieves a paradigm shift in the way we deal with information. That sounds big, but Apple is well-equipped to do this, even by just making a few key upgrades to what it has already made possible with its laptops and touch-sensitive handhelds.
January 26, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
This video is a talk given by Dr. Eugene McCarraher, at Villanova University, on the subject of corporate personhood. He explores the many problems related to the development of the legal principle that corporations can be granted the actual rights that law assigns only to persons. He reveals the stunning historical roots of corporate personhood in the “legal fiction” of the “metaphysical body” of medieval kings.
January 26, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
This video details the CLEAN campaign finance model, a specific set of principles that allows candidates to receive public funding in exchange for raising a set number of small donations from ordinary people and agreeing not to raise private campaign funds, not to spend more than a fixed amount, and not to spend from their own pocket. This standard has revolutionized the political process in both Maine and Arizona, allowing people not tied to special interests to take control of state and local government.
January 24, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The credit crisis of 2008, and the Great Recession, which began in December 2007 and may or may not still be operational, were both set in motion by a series of risky misrepresentations of value and earning potential that led the world’s wealthiest banks into shoddy investments. By October 2008, George W. Bush’s own “Red October”, the financial system was paralyzed, and only massive government investment would save Wall Street’s most powerful institutions from collapse. The big banks were said to be “too big to fail” (TBTF).
January 23, 2010 :: Webb Tisch :: One Comment
The Republican party is jubilant about the victory of state Senator Scott Brown, in the race to take over the United States Senate seat held for nearly half a century by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA). And they should be jubilant. Kennedy was in many ways the de facto leader of the Democratic party for much of that time, and his untiring defense of liberal principles of social justice and economic fairness were a thorn in the side of Republicans throughout. But the odd thing is that suddenly, the Republicans are arguing that where goes Massachusetts, so goes the nation. Are they kidding?
January 22, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The ONLY way to make any argument of the kind that alleges the economic difficulties of 2009 are Obama’s fault is to operate absolutely and without exception on the premise that George W. Bush left Obama with a perfectly healthy, well-oiled functioning economy and zero debt. In fact, not only is that rosy picture not the case; the polar opposite is true: Barack Obama took office while the United States was experiencing its worst economic decline since the Great Depression, including near total paralysis of the banking system, unprecedented government debt, and an ethically deficient backlog of hidden borrowing that would cause deficits to escalate by as much as 1,000% in just one decade.
January 22, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
The Supreme Court of the United States has taken a special interest in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which regards the claim that campaign finance regulations limiting the amount an entity can donate to a political party are an infringement on freedom of speech. Yesterday, the Court issued a 5-4 ruling against those campaign funding limits that is now expected to unleash a wave of virtually unlimited corporate funding for political campaigns. Numerous observers have claimed the integrity of American elections would be threatened.
January 20, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
We are hearing some of the most long-faced, long-winded, wet-blanket commentary about American politics, the prospects for far-reaching and much-needed reform, and the charisma and talent of Barack Obama. We are hearing so much of it, in fact, it seems to be the latest fashion trend, with conservatives, liberals, moderates and extremists, all apparently gleeful about having a trend to latch onto, if about nothing else. People are reportedly “weary” and “worried”; polls are showing, or claim to show, that “Americans” —we should remember to ask if polls really are able to define the zeitgeist for us all, or if they only pretend to— think Pres. Obama has “tried to do too much”.
January 18, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
[R]ecognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.
January 18, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The bottleneck problem is center stage, as the volume of aid appears to outpace the remaining transport infrastructure for getting it where it needs to go. Today, Haitian authorities have complained there may be too exclusive a focus on the capital Port-au-Prince, causing some heavily devastated population centers to be left unattended, by comparison.
January 18, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Apple has set up a special section of its iTunes Music Store to allow users to donate directly to the Red Cross. The funds are charged through the user’s iTunes account, billed to the same bank account or credit card on file, and use the same process as for buying a song, video or iPhone app. The move is the latest in a series of high-profile actions designed to help expedite the delivery of charitable donations to the Haiti relief effort.
January 16, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
The following is a list of updates on the situation in Haiti, including resources for people searching for missing loved ones: List of Disaster Relief Efforts for Haiti … Haiti plans massive evacuation of quake-hit homeless – Xinhua … Sec. of State Clinton reviews Haiti relief efforts – Washington Post … UN: Haiti quake catastrophe poses unprecedented relief problems – Monsters & Critics … Haiti Earthquake : Photos (Some very graphic images) – CNN … Canada to speed up immigration requests from Haiti – Washington Post … L’aide internationale se déploie dans un climat tendu en Haïti – Le Monde … A l’appel d’Obama, Bush rejoint Clinton pour aider Haïti – Le Monde … Google lance un outil de recherche des victimes – Le Monde … Haïti. J+4 Distribution d’eau potable pour 35000 personnes – Ouest-France … Le Sénégal octroie un soutien de 500.000 dollars à Haïti – Agence de Presse Africaine …
January 15, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Pres. Obama has asked former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to join together to help oversee the administration of the massive relief effort now descending on Haiti. The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund is now online at ClintonBushHaitiFund.org, with a mission to ensure that funds coming in are directed to where they are most needed.
January 15, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Fully three days after the catastrophic earthquake that struck the region of the Haitian capital, the bodies of thousands of dead are reported to be arrayed in the streets and being moved into mass graves, with likely no way to trace who is buried there. While massive amounts of international aid are moving into the disaster zone, and the Haitian government continues to function and is meeting every morning and afternoon to coordinate relief efforts, the sheer scale of the destruction is hampering the delivery of aid to neighborhoods blocked off by rubble and filled with dead and injured.
January 14, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Pres. Obama outlined today a wide array of search and rescue, relief aid and security efforts his administration is sending to Haiti to assist the Haitian people in dealing with the worst recorded earthquake to strike their nation. The US president promised Haiti’s people that the US will not forget the victims of the Haitian quake and that “more search and rescue teams” are on their way. He also said his administration will invest an initial amount of $100 million to support its relief efforts in Haiti, and that this investment will grow.
January 14, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The disaster response for the Haitian earthquake has been swift and coordinated, channeling massive international resources to the affected area. But the logistics of deploying the resources, personnel and technology needed to deliver comprehensive disaster assistance, are beyond complicated, with roads and transport overwhelmed, and means of contacting the wounded almost non-existent.
January 14, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti two days ago has left an unknown number of thousands of people dead or missing, destroyed the service infrastructure in the capital and left a precarious situation for millions of survivors. The disaster response effort has been swift and international, with rescue and relief teams scrambling from across the world to get to Haiti.
January 14, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Red Cross (ICRC) relief & rescue efforts in Haiti
Haïti : le CICR intensifie ses efforts pour venir en aide aux victimes du séisme
UNICEF Emergency Relief Effort for Haiti
L’UNICEF déploie son aide d’urgence après le tremblement de terre
Doctors without Borders: Setting up clinics to serve the wounded
MSF: Haïti: des centaines de blessés reçoivent les premiers soins
USAID Haiti Earthquake Disaster Response …
January 13, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives. The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble, and to deliver the humanitarian relief — the food, water and medicine — that Haitians will need in the coming days. In that effort, our government, especially USAID and the Departments of State and Defense are working closely together and with our partners in Haiti, the region, and around the world.
January 13, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
The president of the island nation of Haiti, René Preval, has told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta in an interview conducted on the streets of the capital Port-au-Prince that the situation on the ground is “incredible”, adding that “you have to see it to believe it”. The destruction is widespread and the human suffering inestimable. Small health clinics are overwhelmed by massive numbers of casualties, as public health infrastructure has collapsed.
January 12, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, is described tonight as in a state of disaster, with some reports suggesting there are more buildings destroyed than left standing, after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake at 4:53 this afternoon. The epicenter of the quake is reported to have been just 10 miles away from Port-au-Prince, with the most severe tremors and violent shaking felt across an area 70 miles in diameter. There are no reliable estimates so far of loss of life, but thousands are feared killed.
January 11, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Despite the widespread debate in the US, China and other heavily coal-burning countries, about the degree to which “clean coal” can be a solution to the daunting challenge of how to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to global warming and climate destabilization, the technology does not yet exist. There are no clean coal plants in the US.
January 9, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
It is a serious question whether distance learning holds virtues that are ignored due to a prejudice that holds that physical presence of the instructor is necessary for learning. Clearly, in some cases, this is entirely untrue, and there may be an over-emphasis in some circles on the idea of physical presence as the metaphysical prerequisite to consider that learning is occurring. However, it is not clear that physical presence and phonocentrism —emphasis on the spoken word as the more effective mode of instruction— amount to the same “fixation”, when it comes to the question of how best to communicate knowledge.
January 9, 2010 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been a relentless defender of the most aggressive tacts used during the Bush era to combat terrorism. The word aggressive applies to the attitude, of course, not the thoroughgoing nature or effectiveness of those policies. He is now attacking Pres. Obama for his response to the alleged terror plot that involved a Christmas Day bombing over Detroit, which was foiled. Yet Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee, has called Cheney’s criticism unfair, and says Obama’s response has been “strong” and “decisive”.
January 8, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
After decades of environmental scientists seeking to raise awareness about the detrimental impacts of burning ever more carbon-based fuels, the Copenhagen Accord shows a global willingness to recognize the gravity of the issue and to take concrete —if as yet unnamed— policy actions to address the challenges of coming decades.
January 8, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
There is a fundamental difference between the logic of military tribunals for battlefield captures and the Constitutional order of criminal prosecution and due process: the Constitutional criminal justice system is designed to deal with people who violate laws; military tribunals are meant to be an ad-hoc legal variation of that standard, reserved for representatives of enemy states that violate the laws of war in a battlefield setting. By inveighing against the US criminal justice system’s ability to handle terror prosecutions, the Republican party is not only actively promoting lies, but working to elevate Al Qaeda to the status of a legitimate, sovereign government.
January 7, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In a year when political and economic reporting has focused on ideology, obstruction, recession and unemployment, the administration of Pres. Barack Obama has been hard at work on major reforms that are designed to not only speed recovery but to secure the economy against future threats. One of the most vital areas of policy reform, as noted by Obama himself just yesterday, is the focus on promoting and expanding opportunity in education. The president’s proposal to reform the system for organizing and distributing student loans may be one of the most significant pro-education policy reforms in a generation.
January 7, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
[T]oday, I’m directing that the Department of Homeland Security take additional steps, including: strengthening our international partnerships to improve aviation screening and security around the world; greater use of the advanced explosive detection technologies that we already have, including imaging technology; and working aggressively, in cooperation with the Department of Energy and our National Labs, to develop and deploy the next generation of screening technologies.
January 7, 2010 :: staff :: One Comment
Our future is on the line. The nation that out-educates us today is going to out-compete us tomorrow. To continue to cede our leadership in education is to cede our position in the world. That’s not acceptable to me and I know it’s not acceptable to any of you. And that’s why my administration has set a clear goal: to move from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math education over the next decade. To reach this goal, we’ve paid particular attention to how we can better prepare and support, reward and retain, good teachers. So the Recovery Act included the largest investment in education by the federal government in history while preventing more than 300,000 teachers and school workers from being fired because of state budget shortfalls.
January 6, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Democratic senators Chris Dodd (CT) and Byron Dorgan (ND) have announced they will not run for re-election after their current term is up, later this year. The Democratic governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter, Jr., has also announced he will not seek a second term, opening up the Democratic field in the race for the party’s 2010 nomination. The lieutenant governor of Michigan, John Cherry, has also withdrawn from the race to replace Democratic governor Jennifer Granholm.
January 5, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
At the end of Barack Obama’s first year in office, there is controversy over the nature and extent of his accomplishments, and even some allies and supporters appear to have forgotten the atmosphere of multidirectional crisis in which Obama took office. What’s more, the steady decline in Obama’s approval ratings appears to follow very closely a shift in media reporting away from reporting facts and back to the hyper-commentary style of the run-up to the Iraq war, an atmosphere in which conservative political propaganda fares better than the facts of deliberative action.
January 4, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
En mesa redonda, en el programa 59 segundos de la TVE, un panel de periodistas y analistas políticos debaten los méritos y desafíos del primer año del mandato de Barack Obama, presidente de Estados Unidos. Entre las complicaciones, debaten las expectativas, tal vez más globales y desafiantes que las que encontró ningún otro presidente al llegar al poder, y la agresiva resistencia de sus contrincantes políticos a la ética del diálogo y de la política colaborativa.
January 4, 2010 :: Carmen Visna :: Comments Off
La luna se aleja, no veo el camino; estoy lista, medito, pero el futuro no me pertenece. Por lo tanto, no duermo. Busco en las tinieblas, hacia las cuatro, mi nombre; ya no existe. Esta experiencia desconcertante me gusta, porque ayuda a definir los límites; sé hasta dónde tengo que limitarme en sociedad. Imagino que el yo, en general, es un fenómeno menos comprobado que lo que pensamos.
January 3, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Continuing our series on the evolutions that can be expected over the coming decade, we look at new directions in particle physics, media technologies that are enabling not only greater freedom, but a new communicative paradigm which will, in part, help steer us to the great discoveries of this moment in history, and a vital new understanding of global economic patterns, which will revolutionize the way governments around the world plan for domestic spending and trade policy.
January 2, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
Because three issues alone will not adequately describe the breakthroughs we will experience in the coming decade, a second installment of the 2nd decade prognosis is necessary. While denuclearization pacts and a verification process for limiting the threat of nuclear weapons is likely to be key to international relations, and the green technology revolution will spur economic development around the world, international cooperation must also be directed toward issues relating to basic resources, like water and the food supply. Gender equality will be key to peacemaking efforts, and counter-extremism will be a leading aspect of collaborative development efforts.
January 1, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: 2 Comments
As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, we find ourselves part of a global human civilization undergoing major change at an unprecedented rate, and how we adjust to those changes will determine what quality of life and how much real democracy there is, even who lives and who dies, across the global village. For decades, postmodern philosophical theory has examined the problem of atomization of the fabric of human society, but new trends suggest there is concurrent with spreading individualism a swell of interdependence among individuals, communities and nation-states.
|
 |
 |
CafeSentido.com, a Casavaria project Powered by Wordpress and ShinRa House
All Excerpts & Reprints © 2000-10 Listed Contributors :: Original, Graphic Content © 2000-10 Cafe Sentido
About Cafe Sentido ::
Contact Us / Submit Content ::
Site Map ::
rss
CafeSentido Partner Sites: The Hot Spring Network :: Truth-First.com :: Words Against Chaos :: ThoughtPossible.com :: Elindulnék.com :: Naufragios :: Casavaria.com
