August 3, 2011 :: The Editors :: No Comment Yet
Allegations that the so-called Tea Party caucus has degenerated into little more than a lobby for the wealthy interests that back them gain credibility when they support tax hikes on the vulnerable, and which will have a direct negative impact on the middle class. It should be well understood by all: the House Tea Party Republicans have pushed for and supported—the anti-student provisions in the failed Republican-only House bills were far worse—tax hikes that will make college more expensive and eat way at middle class wealth.
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July 11, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: No Comment Yet
The United States of America has been, since its birth 235 years ago, a world leader in promoting universal public education. It has also been a world leader in promoting universal access to higher education and to advanced degrees. That history has made the US a leader in technological innovation and advanced problem solving for two centuries. That legacy is under threat, and national educational aims demand immediate attention.
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February 16, 2011 :: staff :: 4 Comments
Tens of thousands of citizens of the state of Wisconsin joined the sixth consecutive day of mass protests in Madison, to protest extreme budget cuts and a plan to eliminate all collective bargaining rights for state employees. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the right to peaceably assemble, which means government acts to prevent organization for the purpose of protecting rights are prohibited. Today, the protests reached their largest numbers yet, and are reported to be spreading.
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January 26, 2011 :: staff :: Comments Off
The following is an official White House transcript of Pres. Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address, as prepared for delivery in the well of the House of Representatives, 25 January 2011: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans: Tonight I want to begin by congratulating the men and [...]
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January 26, 2011 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
One seat was left vacant, in honor of Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), who is currently recovering from a severe gunshot wound to the head, suffered during an assassination attempt that killed 6 people. Pres. Obama opened his remarks with a tribute to the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner of Ohio, a unifying gesture that won loud applause from the hall. Obama then struck a somber tone and asked everyone to consider the lessons of the tragedy in Tucson.
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November 2, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The United States of America is the “wealthiest country in the history of the world”. We hear this repeated so often, it’s almost as if it has become the national slogan. Economists tend to agree that it’s the truth, but that wealth is relative: tens of millions of Americans live in abject poverty, unable to obtain basic sustenance, medical care, adequate education or even basic public safety. One in five children in the United States now live in poverty. Among African American and Hispanic children, the rate is 30 percent.
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April 13, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
In signing the healthcare reform “fix-it” bill, Pres. Obama also signed a series of reforms that will shift the responsibility for making student loans from commercial banks to the federal government, so that subsidies to those banks can now be saved, and steered toward making student loans more affordable for the students themselves. The reason for the shift is partly to do with banks’ reaction to the credit crisis, where lending fell off sharply and the unraveling of predatory lending practices brought into stark relief the sometimes prohibitive costs of higher education.
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March 30, 2010 :: staff :: Comments Off
I am pleased to say that the reforms in this bill will make a huge difference to those Americans who need it most. The expansions in Pell Grants will provide critical financial support to millions of middle-class Americans who are struggling with the costs of college. The caps on student loan repayments will ensure that our students don’t go broke because they chose to pursue a college education. And I am particularly thrilled that this bill invests in community colleges across our country so that more students can gain the knowledge and technical job skills that they need to compete and succeed.
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March 18, 2010 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The Great Recession has begun to push through to basic public services that affect us all. Education funding has dried up and across the country, cities facing major budget shortfalls are taking the radical step of shutting down schools in order to address the budget crisis.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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October 27, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Healthcare Reform :: Two Senate Democrats have pledged not to aid Republicans in blocking a full Senate vote in healthcare reform legislation. That moves the Democratic majority closer to the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster and bring the bill to a floor vote that will require only 50 votes plus one. This means the public option is now far mor likely to enter into the final legislation, as majorities in both houses support it.
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October 15, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
School taxes are soaring, but schools are losing funding. States are going bankrupt and teachers are being threatened with mass layoffs. Property taxes are high, but property values are falling, and banks won’t refinance and won’t make new loans. The federal government is working to foster economic recovery through targeted investment, lending and community-building projects. But states are dealing with the budget crisis by hiking property taxes and shifting more responsibility to municipalities.
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September 9, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Cornel West: “The child crisis converges with the failure of the American public school system to accomplish a central part of the mission of schools in a democracy: to rescue children from the limitations of class and family situation, giving them access to a world of longer memory, broader imagination and stronger ambition.”
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September 9, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical-thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
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September 8, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Pres. Obama plans to speak to school children in a special televised address, to be available live online, on Tuesday, in order to remind them of the value of hard work and excellence in study. The message is clearly oriented toward encouraging students who might not do so to remain in school, pursue a better education and to take responsibility for choices that will help them make a better future for themselves. But a rash of protest from conservative parents has caused controversy, prompting the White House to release the remarks early.
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September 7, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team. And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
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August 29, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
The United States was the first nation in the world to establish a universal public education system, and has paved the way for many innovations in that area, including mandatory attendance and universal literacy as standards in law and in practice. But in a nation of more than 309 million people, there are countless ways that underfunding, personal and family misfortune, community disintegration, crime and other causes, can impede many millions from accessing the best-quality education our society has to offer.
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July 11, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
At the G8 summit, leaders from nearly thirty nations met to discuss how we will collectively confront the urgent challenges of our time, from managing the global recession to fighting global warming to addressing global hunger and poverty. And in Ghana, I laid out my agenda for supporting democracy and development in Africa and around the world. But even as we make progress on these challenges abroad, my thoughts are on the state of our economy at home. And that’s what I want to talk to you about today.
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July 7, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
In Senator-elect Al Franken’s debut on Capitol Hill, he explained that he sees himself not as the 60th vote for the Democratic majority but as the 2nd senator from the state of Minnesota. He added that “Minnesotans are practical people” and explained why “rational” healthcare, that is available and affordable for all Americans must be a priority, why jobs and an economy that works for working people will be part of his agenda. Franken concluded, saying: “I am going to work day and night to make sure that our kids have a great future and that America’s best days lay ahead. I’m ready to get to work.”
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June 20, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Taking the ability to reason as the basis for a civilization’s deep resilience, we should emphasize reasoning and knowledge as wealth, as the bases for wealth in the life of every individual. Our education policy needs to work toward methods that do the most to stir the creative process of learning in the widest number of young people possible.
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May 31, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
What can we do to impede the erosion of some of our most prized social-intellectual habits of mind, rooted in organic brain structure and in social networking (from campfire to empire, parliament to newsprint, to Twitter and The Hot Spring Network), while taking advantage of the power of the web?
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April 30, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Countless families and communities touched by our auto industry still face tough times ahead. Our projected long-term deficits are still too high, and government is still not as efficient as it needs to be. We still confront threats ranging from terrorism to nuclear proliferation, as well as pandemic flu. And all this means you can expect an unrelenting, unyielding effort from this administration to strengthen our prosperity and our security in the second hundred days, in the third hundred days and all of the days after that.
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April 25, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
There are few things as fundamental to the American Dream or as essential for America’s success as a good education. This has never been more true than it is today. At a time when our children are competing with kids in China and India, the best job qualification you can have is a college degree or advanced training. If you do have that kind of education, then you’re well prepared for the future — because half of the fastest growing jobs in America require a Bachelor’s degree or more. And if you don’t have a college degree, you’re more than twice as likely to be unemployed as somebody who does. So the stakes could not be higher for young people like Stephanie.
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April 14, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: 8 Comments
Pres. Obama today gave an address at Georgetown University, in which he explained his economic policies and how his budget and recovery plan will achieve not only better healthcare for more Americans and a green energy agenda, but real substantive entitlement reform, new financial regulations intended to both curb abuses and spur sustainable investments in future prosperity, and protect against long-term decline stemming from mass under-education.
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March 27, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Well, it is great to see all of you. And I am thrilled that all of you here in the White House and everybody who is viewing this online is participating in this experiment that we’re trying out. When I was running for President, I promised to open up the White House to the American people. And this event, which is being streamed live over the Internet, marks an important step towards achieving that goal. And I’m looking forward to taking your questions and hearing your thoughts and concerns — because what matters to you and your families, and what people here in Washington are focused on, aren’t always one and the same thing.
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February 27, 2009 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Brookdale Community College sold out its Collins Arena, Wednesday night, for ‘An Evening with Maya Angelou’, bringing three thousand people to see the poet, activist and educator speak. She moved the crowd to tears and laughter with personal stories, philosophical messages and a call to take pride and passion in the humanizing capability of learning. The caged bird sings, and beats its wings against the painful limitations of its situation, because it is deprived of opportunities to see, to learn, to explore.
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February 25, 2009 :: Severino Villalonso :: Comments Off
Last night, Pres. Barack Obama made his first address on the state of the nation to a joint session of Congress, though not officially classed as a ‘State of the Union’ address. Obama sought to reassure the public that economic recovery was in its beginning stages and the future was full of hope and possibility, proclaiming: “We will rebuild, we will recover and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”
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February 25, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
As Prepared for Delivery, Tuesday, 24 February 2009 Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States: I’ve come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us [...]
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January 23, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
Pres. Obama will issue executive orders to restore funding to family planning organizations that provide information about or assist in abortions, restoring funding that was banned by Pres. Bush, depriving NGOs across the developing world of millions of dollars in needed aid… Obama will also act to enable government funding of research that relates to [...]
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January 10, 2009 :: staff :: Comments Off
We start this new year in the midst of an economic crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime. We learned yesterday that in the past month alone, we lost more than half a million jobs – a total of nearly 2.6 million in the year 2008. Another 3.4 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. And families across America are feeling the pinch as they watch debts mount, bills pile up and savings disappear.
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January 8, 2009 :: staff :: One Comment
Obama decries “imprudent and dangerous decisions” as mistakes that led to current economic crisis, calls for end to “culture of anything goes” in business and in economic policy: “We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime – a crisis that has only deepened over the last few weeks. Nearly two million jobs have now been lost, and on Friday we are likely to learn that we lost more jobs last year than at any time since World War II. Just in the past year, another 2.8 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. Manufacturing has hit a twenty-eight year low. Many businesses cannot borrow or make payroll. Many families cannot pay their bills or their mortgage. Many workers are watching their life savings disappear. And many, many Americans are both anxious and uncertain of what the future will hold.”
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January 4, 2009 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
As the economic downturn deepens, and job losses continue, with the Treasury moving tens of billions of dollars in “bridge loans” into Chrysler, GM and GMAC, in hopes of preventing the collapse of American manufacturing and the loss of millions more jobs, with banks desperate enough to “deal over debt” that credit-card holders can no longer pay, President-elect Barack Obama is reported to be planning an expansion of unemployment assistance.
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December 16, 2008 :: Denver Lessing :: Comments Off
President-elect Barack Obama today announced his choice for secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, chief executive officer for the Chicago Public Schools system. “Arne is the most hands-on” of public schools reformers, according to the president-elect, who said that “when faced with tough decisions, Arne doesn’t blink; he’s not beholden to any one ideology”, that he takes action and achieves significant systemic improvements. Duncan has been superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools for 7 years, in which time, he has achieved a number of surprising statistical improvements in a troubled system.
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December 7, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
[W]e need action — and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars. We won’t do it the old Washington way. We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve — by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.
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November 10, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Knowledge is wealth in its purest form, fully possessed by and inseparable from the individual. As noted in previous sections of this essay, the application of deliberately obtained knowledge to complex situations establishes the sovereignty of the individual. Variety is wealth insofar as it offers an array of options which may be combined in countless ways to confront the problems of living in the world. Variety in knowledge offers adaptability, and adaptability is the key to survival and prosperity at all levels. Ultimately, resilience, rooted in such flexibility, is the real meaning or value of wealth, of any kind.
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October 17, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
Sen. John McCain brought back to life the question of whether or not the “No Child Left Behind” law was a good or a bad idea. He claims it was a good start, but foolishly glossed over the fact that the bill’s punitive “accountability” measures target the poor directly. Schools that most need funding are deprived of it, by the No Child Left Behind law, guaranteeing failure in schools that would otherwise be forced to struggle continually with scarce funding.
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October 12, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: One Comment
American schools have been many things over the centuries: the world’s first true universal public education system, a decentralized municipal forum for sincere ambition and hopeful good efforts, indoctrination channels, oases of political correctness, the envy of the world in science and math, edge-leaders in social progress, the root-structure of the most vibrant university culture in the world, and now, largely insufficient, as competing with the world’s best.
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September 5, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
My heartfelt thanks to all of you who helped me win this nomination and stood by me when the odds were long. I won’t let you down. To Americans who have yet to decide who to vote for, thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to win your trust. I intend to earn it.
Finally, a word to Sen. Obama and his supporters. We’ll go at it over the next two months. That’s the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. We’re dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. No country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn’t be an American worthy of the name if I didn’t honor Sen. Obama and his supporters for their achievement.
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August 29, 2008 :: J.E. Robertson :: Comments Off
Over the 4 days of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, media analysts have repeatedly asked where the real ‘red meat’ was? Who would throw the red meat to the delegates hungry for an affirmation of the party’s cause and will to fight? Who will blitz John McCain with attacks and insults. There was, apparently, a resistance to believing that Barack Obama’s message might be real, that he could defend his ideas and take the fight to his opponent without demeaning or smearing him. The speech Obama delivered last night demonstrated with astonishing clarity that the red meat he’s throwing to his audience is not insults or attacks, but a vision of possibility and a call to action in common values.
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August 29, 2008 :: staff :: One Comment
We meet at one of those defining moments – a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more. Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach.
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August 26, 2008 :: staff :: Comments Off
What is that abridgment and selection we observe in all spiritual activity, but itself the creative impulse? for it is the inlet of that higher illumination which teaches to convey a larger sense by simpler symbols. What is a man but nature’s finer success in self-explication? What is a man but a finer and compacter landscape than the horizon figures, — nature’s eclecticism? and what is his speech, his love of painting, love of nature, but a still finer success? all the weary miles and tons of space and bulk left out, and the spirit or moral of it contracted into a musical word, or the most cunning stroke of the pencil?
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March 13, 2008 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
TheHotSpring.com :: The emergence of ecological economic trends, methods and industries, means that a wave of job creation could be the stabilizing factor which helps American industry recover both momentum and public appeal, potentially helping to ease pricing pressures and banks’ concerns about lending to individuals and small and medium-sized businesses. An industry-environmentalist joint conference [...]
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March 13, 2008 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
13 March :: The Environmental Protection Agency plans to tighten standards for ground-level ozone pollution, reducing the maximum allowable from 84 parts-per-billion to 75 ppb over an 8-hour period; critics say “implementation could be decades away”, depending on regulatory procedure and court review; last year, an official review suggested maximum allowable ozone levels of 60 [...]
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February 29, 2008 :: The Editors :: One Comment
For the first time in the nation’s history, 1 in every 100 adults in the United States is behind bars. Fully 1% of the adult population is in prison. The US incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world, including Communist China, with a population more than 4 times the size. The US [...]
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November 14, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
14 November :: Pres. Bush has vetoed a spending bill for education, healthcare and job training, while signing record Pentagon budget; IHT reports “President George W. Bush vetoed a major spending measure on Tuesday that would have funded education, health care and job training programs, saying it contained too many special projects, even as he [...]
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September 13, 2007 :: The Editors :: Comments Off
The Crisis Policy Forum is an online community project with a view to fomenting open debate and discourse on humanitarian, political and economic crises across the world. CPF aims to highlight and bring about new research and policy-proposals, to produce viable, locally-relevant solutions to pervasive crises such as fresh-water scarcity, chronic poverty, access to technology [...]
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May 25, 2006 :: J.E. Robertson :: 3 Comments
Is the United States an “English-speaking nation”, or a place where all cultures are welcome to converge, mix and evolve? To answer this question, we must consider that there is a natural human tendency to fear what is perceived as the definite and invasive “other”, that which is different and which we feel can be categorized in a way that fits our worries.
The push to establish a single national language can only be sustained on the basis of a number of false premises. We will explore seven such lies and misperceptions here, all of a particular sort, having to do with a way of rationalizing one’s aversion to difference or to change. And, in each case, it is fairly easy to illustrate how the lie works against the interests of both a democratic society and American tradition itself.
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