Monday, April 25, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
President Obama and the African American Community | The White House
President Obama and the African American Community | The White House: "Since his first day in office, President Obama has been working to secure the future prosperity of the African American Community through efforts such as increasing access to health care, creating jobs, revitalizing schools, and the development of targeted job creating investments in underserved communities. While much more needs to be done, we are making progress. This site is a tool for you to learn about how the President’s Agenda is helping to win the future among African-American Communities."
FACTBOX: Obama's positions on energy issues | Reuters
FACTBOX: Obama's positions on energy issues | Reuters: "(Reuters) - Energy was a major issue in the U.S. presidential campaign after high gasoline prices added to consumer woes this year and candidates pledged to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil.
Here is a look at the energy plan of President-elect Barack Obama.
ENERGY RESEARCH
Obama wants to invest $150 billion over 10 years on low-carbon energy sources that will help create 5 million jobs, double research and development spending on biomass, solar and wind resources; accelerate commercialization of plug-in hybrid cars, invest in low-emission coal plants."
Here is a look at the energy plan of President-elect Barack Obama.
ENERGY RESEARCH
Obama wants to invest $150 billion over 10 years on low-carbon energy sources that will help create 5 million jobs, double research and development spending on biomass, solar and wind resources; accelerate commercialization of plug-in hybrid cars, invest in low-emission coal plants."
Obama Signs Bill Setting Aside Another $1.15 Billion to Pay Discrimination Compensation to Tens of Thousands of Black Farmers
CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the Claims Settlement Act of 2010, a bill awarding $1.15 billion to African American farmers to settle claims that the U.S. Agriculture Department discriminated against them. This is on top of earlier legislation awarding black farmers $100 million.
In 1999, the federal government paid out about $1 billion to 15,640 black farmers who claimed USDA had discriminated against them be refusing to provide them with federally subsidized farm loans in the years 1981-1996. The compensation was the result of a settlement in a class action lawsuit known as the Pigford case.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-signs-bill-settling-black-farmers
In 1999, the federal government paid out about $1 billion to 15,640 black farmers who claimed USDA had discriminated against them be refusing to provide them with federally subsidized farm loans in the years 1981-1996. The compensation was the result of a settlement in a class action lawsuit known as the Pigford case.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-signs-bill-settling-black-farmers
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
2011 Budget Details: Spending Cuts or Fuzzy Math?
Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com
Gov. Brewer Lost the battle. Will She Win the War?
Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com
More ‘birther’ nonsense from Donald Trump and Sarah Palin
The controversy over the circumstances of President Obama’s birth has erupted once again, courtesy of Donald Trump’s sudden desire to test the presidential waters. He has appeared on numerous television shows and written a letter to the editor of the New York Times, spouting all sorts of Four-Pinocchio innuendo that had long ago been debunked by my colleagues at PolitiFact and FactCheck.org. Their fine work does not need to be repeated, and below we provide links to their articles to address many of the issues Trump has raised.
The charge that Obama has spent $2 million to keep this issue quiet is a relatively new one. (Trump has also said Obama spent “millions of dollars trying to get away from this.”) Sarah Palin also echoed the claim over the weekend when she congratulated Trump for hiring investigators to look into this issue.
(Note to the former governor: The Fact Checker dealt with The Donald in a previous life as a financial reporter for New York Newsday. We wouldn’t bet he has actually hired anyone unless he presented us with the canceled check.)
Let’s examine this latest claim about Obama and his circumstances of his birth.
The Facts
Barack Hussein Obama II was born on Aug. 4, 1961, at 7:24 p.m. in Honolulu. His parents were Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Hussein Obama. The birth was reported by the state’s two main newspapers about a week or so later, based on information received from the State Department of Health., as thus: “Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Highway, son, Aug. 4.”
The above information is extremely controversial to some people, though it requires a highly imagined sense of conspiracy to believe fake birth notices would be placed in newspapers decades ago on the extremely unlikely possibility that the baby would become president of the United States.
Although the Obama presidential campaign posted on its Web site a copy of the birth certificate that would be good enough for him to get a passport (it includes an embosed seal and official signature), the myth persists that he has never produced the actual birth certificate — i.e., the original document held in the state’s files. Generally, however, you don’t get that kind of document when you request a copy of your birth certificate, since birth certificates evolve over time.
A state official has stated that such a document exists, and Obama appears to believe that there is no need to give in to conspiracy theorists by requesting its release. (A more cynical view might be that the president thinks the controversy helps rev up his base and has the added benefit of tying the Republican Party to an extreme right-wing fringe that would never be satisfied with any document that was released.)
So the basic premise of Trump’s question is absurd. Obama has produced a birth certificate — one that would be accepted by the State Department and any court in the land. No legal entity would require the actual original certificate as proof of citizenship. But where does the claim of $2 million come from?
Trump’s office provided this e-mailed answer from The Donald: “It is well known in legal circles that this is the kind of time they are spending on the issue. Isn’t it a shame when all he has to do is produce his birth certificate, which he has not done.”
(Palin’s office did not respond to two requests asking where she got the $2 million figure.)
We don’t think The Donald actually heard this in “legal circles.” Instead, $2 million is a figure that has been promoted by World Net Daily, a conservative Web site that has tried its best to fan the flames of the birther movement. In a number of articles, it has speculated that all of the legal fees spent by the Obama campaign since the election have been devoted to defending the president against a series of lawsuits concerning the certificate — all of which have been ultimately dismissed as frivolous.
According to Federal Election Commission filings, since January 2009 those legal fees total $2 million.
The filings do not break out exactly how much was spent on the lawsuits and Obama campaign officials decline to engage in “birther” questions. But it’s pretty clear that the bulk of the legal spending was devoted to other matters, such as winding down the campaign and defending against FEC investigations into the financing of Obama’s presidential bid. John McCain’s campaign, which did not raise nearly as much money as Obama, has spent $1.3 million on legal fees since the election, according to an article last month in Roll Call.
Also, it seems a bit strange to criticize Obama for spending money to defend himself against lawsuits that have no legal merit. Palin should have sympathy for his position. She said she resigned her governorship because she ran up $500,000 in debt defending herself against what she called frivolous claims.
“You can file a frivolous ethics charge, and many were filed against me, and I won all of them, but it doesn’t cost the person who is filing them anything. They can just make something up, and in fact they did make a lot of things up,” she said on Mark Levin’s syndicated tadio show in 2009. “So it was over half a million dollars in legal fees that I was accumulating to defend against frivolous lawsuits that were getting thrown out one by one.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/more-birther-nonsense-from-donald-trump-and-sarah-palin/2011/04/11/AFrme2MD_blog.html?hpid=z2
The charge that Obama has spent $2 million to keep this issue quiet is a relatively new one. (Trump has also said Obama spent “millions of dollars trying to get away from this.”) Sarah Palin also echoed the claim over the weekend when she congratulated Trump for hiring investigators to look into this issue.
(Note to the former governor: The Fact Checker dealt with The Donald in a previous life as a financial reporter for New York Newsday. We wouldn’t bet he has actually hired anyone unless he presented us with the canceled check.)
Let’s examine this latest claim about Obama and his circumstances of his birth.
The Facts
Barack Hussein Obama II was born on Aug. 4, 1961, at 7:24 p.m. in Honolulu. His parents were Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Hussein Obama. The birth was reported by the state’s two main newspapers about a week or so later, based on information received from the State Department of Health., as thus: “Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Highway, son, Aug. 4.”
The above information is extremely controversial to some people, though it requires a highly imagined sense of conspiracy to believe fake birth notices would be placed in newspapers decades ago on the extremely unlikely possibility that the baby would become president of the United States.
Although the Obama presidential campaign posted on its Web site a copy of the birth certificate that would be good enough for him to get a passport (it includes an embosed seal and official signature), the myth persists that he has never produced the actual birth certificate — i.e., the original document held in the state’s files. Generally, however, you don’t get that kind of document when you request a copy of your birth certificate, since birth certificates evolve over time.
A state official has stated that such a document exists, and Obama appears to believe that there is no need to give in to conspiracy theorists by requesting its release. (A more cynical view might be that the president thinks the controversy helps rev up his base and has the added benefit of tying the Republican Party to an extreme right-wing fringe that would never be satisfied with any document that was released.)
So the basic premise of Trump’s question is absurd. Obama has produced a birth certificate — one that would be accepted by the State Department and any court in the land. No legal entity would require the actual original certificate as proof of citizenship. But where does the claim of $2 million come from?
Trump’s office provided this e-mailed answer from The Donald: “It is well known in legal circles that this is the kind of time they are spending on the issue. Isn’t it a shame when all he has to do is produce his birth certificate, which he has not done.”
(Palin’s office did not respond to two requests asking where she got the $2 million figure.)
We don’t think The Donald actually heard this in “legal circles.” Instead, $2 million is a figure that has been promoted by World Net Daily, a conservative Web site that has tried its best to fan the flames of the birther movement. In a number of articles, it has speculated that all of the legal fees spent by the Obama campaign since the election have been devoted to defending the president against a series of lawsuits concerning the certificate — all of which have been ultimately dismissed as frivolous.
According to Federal Election Commission filings, since January 2009 those legal fees total $2 million.
The filings do not break out exactly how much was spent on the lawsuits and Obama campaign officials decline to engage in “birther” questions. But it’s pretty clear that the bulk of the legal spending was devoted to other matters, such as winding down the campaign and defending against FEC investigations into the financing of Obama’s presidential bid. John McCain’s campaign, which did not raise nearly as much money as Obama, has spent $1.3 million on legal fees since the election, according to an article last month in Roll Call.
Also, it seems a bit strange to criticize Obama for spending money to defend himself against lawsuits that have no legal merit. Palin should have sympathy for his position. She said she resigned her governorship because she ran up $500,000 in debt defending herself against what she called frivolous claims.
“You can file a frivolous ethics charge, and many were filed against me, and I won all of them, but it doesn’t cost the person who is filing them anything. They can just make something up, and in fact they did make a lot of things up,” she said on Mark Levin’s syndicated tadio show in 2009. “So it was over half a million dollars in legal fees that I was accumulating to defend against frivolous lawsuits that were getting thrown out one by one.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/more-birther-nonsense-from-donald-trump-and-sarah-palin/2011/04/11/AFrme2MD_blog.html?hpid=z2
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism By Dr. Lawrence Britt. Are We There Yet?
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
From Liberty Forum
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
From Liberty Forum
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