The election will take place six months from today. I don't know about you, but personally speaking, we are in much better shape than we were when Bush left office.

I am so glad that McCain didn't win the election. President Obama proved that he can lead our country. I wish that he would have taken a harder stance against the Republicans on many fronts, but he did what he could to keep his promises.

We are doing better financially. Our 401K is at an all time high, giving us hope for a happy retirement some day and the hope of leaving something for our children when we are gone. My husbands job is secure and the company that he works for is bringing back benefits that they haven't offered since the Bush years. We are able to pay our bills, even though we lost thousands by opening a small business during Bush's second term. It will take years to pay back the money that we borrowed, but I'm not going to take the easy way out and declare bankruptcy on my business. That's not the way I was brought up. I didn't have those parents that Romney talks about. You know, the ones that can fork over tens of thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat. I am not going to take advantage of the system like Donald Trump and make others pay for my losses.

I will never forget one of the things that Obama said during one of his speeches. He said that Americans always pull themselves up by the bootstraps, but they first have to have bootstraps to PULL UP!

The answer to my poll.....YES! Our family IS much better off than they were when Bush left office.

Please vote in the poll and tell us why you are (or are not) doing better than you were during the last years of the Bush administration. Thank you!

Outstanding  UK-based Australian journalist John Pilger contrasts Obama's sudden conversion to same-sex marriage with his failure to support the human rights of Bradley Manning, the Iraqis, the Palestinians, the Afghans etc etc.

Republican Mississippi state Rep. Bubba Carpenter recently gave a callous assessment of a state anti-abortion law that critics have cautioned could close down the state's only abortion clinic.

Abortion rights advocates have protested the measure, claiming that the shuttering of the facility -- brought on by potentially overwhelming certification requirements for practicing physicians -- could force women to turn to dangerous alternatives. This prospect didn't seem to concern Carpenter.

Many folks on the Vine are comfortable with the claim that the likely Republican candidate will be working hard and furiously for the 1%.  It doesn't take a lot to realize that the same is also true of the Obama Administration.   While one can make excuses for Obama, the fact is that he continued the tax cuts for the rich, has done what he could do to keep the military-industrial complex producing weapons and profits, bailed out the banksters, failed to push for a serious jobs program, did not push for the public option (inexpensive medical insurance for all Americans), did insist that health care be funded through private corporations, escalated the Afghan war, did not want to pull all US troops out of Iraq, and has overseen three years that gave the wealthy greater profits than they secured during all either years of Bush II.

My point is not to criticize Obama: he's doing a great job at duping a lot of people into thinking he offers a meaningful and substantial alternative to the Republicans when, in fact, he doesn't.

My point is only to show that our so-called democracy is dominated by two-parties that in fact represent, work for, and provide cover for the 1%.  It is the 1% that benefits--not the rest of us in the 99%.  This explains the OWS movement and its amazing energy.  Despite the fact that police, undercover agents, and the media are doing what they can to undermine and mischaracterize that movement, the OWS movement is alive and well.  For this all Americans should be grateful. This is, in the US today, the only grassroots movement that can capture the public imagination and force a dialogue about the welfare of the 99%.   Obama pretends he's for the 99% and Romney will do the same.  

For those who are uncertain about the term 'duopoly' here's a definition and its application to American politics:

A true duopoly (from Greek duo δύο (two) + polein πωλεῖν (to sell)) is a specific type of oligopoly where only two producers exist in one market. In reality, this definition is generally used where only two firms have dominant control over a market. In American politics, the Republican and Democratic parties have dominated and framed policy debate as well as the public discourse on matters of national concern for about a century and a half.  Both parties have manipulated and governed on behalf of the 1%.  Whether the president is a Republican like Bush I, Bush II, or possibly Romney--or a Democrat like Clinton or Obama--the policies of these presidents and their cabinets and staffs further the interests, wealth, and power of the 1%.  These two parties, and their various figureheads, are like the necks and heads of a multi-headed serpent and  the two parties basically run our so-called "democracy."  

I welcome anyone who wants to argue that this is not a Duopoly.  Meanwhile, for those who do see the reality of this characterization of American politics, and even for those who do not, I invite you to join the Duopoly group.

Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "Black South Africans and others around the world have seen the 2010 Human Rights Watch report which "describes the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations in areas in the West Bank under its exclusive control, which provide preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians." This, in my book, is apartheid. It is untenable. And we are in desperate need of more rabbis joining the brave rabbis of Jewish Voice for Peace in speaking forthrightly about the corrupting decadeslong Israeli domination over Palestinians."

WASHINGTON -- The House Republican version of the new Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) would dramatically rollback confidentiality protections for abused immigrant women, make it more difficult for undocumented witnesses to work with law enforcement officials, and eliminate a pathway to citizenship for witnesses who cooperate with police on criminal cases.

The provisions are tucked into a bill that reauthorizes the act, and have received scant media attention. But the legislation is picking up steam in the House. The bill, officially sponsored by freshman Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.), has the backing of the full House leadership, and is headed for a vote in the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is typically a bipartisan affair lacking in contention. This year, however, Republicans are pressing for significant changes that would weaken protections for victims of domestic violence, arguing that the current law is being taken advantage of by undocumented immigrants looking for legal citizenship.

Dr Vacy Vlazna analyses Israeli military research links with  Australian universities which are accordingly tarred with the brush of illegal Israeli Occupation and horrendous Israeli human rights abuses.

We all are concerned about the upcoming presidential election contest between President Barack Obama and Challenger Willard Mitt Romney. We are already arguing issues. How are we going to approach the taxation issues, immigration, foreign policy, education, and rights issues.  Democrats and republicans are fiercely arguing their policy differences. They argue over the oval office, the senate, the house of representatives. They argue over the state houses and the governor's mansions. They are fighting on every issue and location down to the township level. At every level, they differ. They can't agree on anything. The campaign is raging.

What we're seeing is a campaign that is missing one of the key issues that will effect every American. A president affects a country through his presidency and in the years immediately following. Senators and congresspersons hold shorter, less complete sway over the direction of the country. Yet they are the people we look at as being the most important in our governing system. What we aren't all thinking about is the Supreme Court. All we have to do is look at the major decisions of the court in the 21st century.

In 2000, people would be hard-pressed to argue that the Supreme Court was the prime force behind the election of George Bush. Their interpretations of constitutional law became the basis for the making of a president. It wasn't a slam dunk based purely on the votes that either candidate received. The Supreme Court shaped this country's future. The court has moved toward a more conservative bent with the addition of Chief Justice Roberts and Samuel Alito. President Obama has had the opportunity to maintain the 5-4 conservative majority with the appointments of Justices Sotomayor and Kagan.

Through the Obama first time, however, we clearly saw the rightward bent of the court. The interpretation of the court in Citizen's United was a prime example of the influence of long term ideology on the court on the future of the country. We are seeing that happening again in the court's deliberation on the Affordable Care Act. Ideology will have a long term effect on the nation.

This brings us to the presidential election. We never know when an opening on the court is going to occur and there is no guarantee that the next presidential term will have the opportunity to appoint new justices.  There is an important point to remember. At the beginning of the next president's term of office, there will be four justices who will be in their mid to upper 70s. Ruth Bader Ginsberg was born in 1933, Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy were born in 1936, and Stephen Breyer was born in 1938. That would mean that by the end of the next presidential term there will be three justices who will be over 80 years old and another who is close to 79. If history is of any real meaning, there is a chance that anywhere from 1 to 3 judges will retire or otherwise leave the court, opening up the Supreme Court for an ideological direction that could last for twenty years.

For some reason, we as a nation tend to underplay the importance of the Supreme Court in the presidential race. This is the area of lasting presidential legacy and the manner by which policy is influenced for generations. We have to think long and hard about who we want to be making Supreme Court appointments. Will it be a Mitt Romney who has already said that his appointments would reflect the judicial philosophies of Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia or President Obama who would continue to bring the court into the 21st century and appoint justices that will uphold Roe v. Wade and revisit American's United? That may, actually, be the most important issue that faces us in the upcoming election.

NS Leader writes that the most shocking thing about anti-Muslim mass murderer Anders Breivik is that so many people agree with his Islamophobic, xenophobic and racist opinions.

I read yesterday that Pastor Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church appeared on television and offered his reasoning for why evangelical and orthodox Christians have difficulty with Mitt Romney's Morman religion. Reading this was extremely disturbing to me. Here we are on April 9th and there is a growing movement to frame the upcoming presidential election in terms of the religion of the candidate.

Now, I am no supporter of Mitt Romney. I find his turn to the right to be wrong headed and a violation of any principles that he may have had during his term of governor of Massachusetts. On the issues, from tax policy, to women's issues, to foreign policy, to health care, etc., Romney long ago lost any consideration of my vote. But that is the topic for another post. This one is on the one area that we, as Americans, should not be choosing a president on. The religion of the candidate.

Most of our national political figures have been able to effectively separate their religion from their ability to govern all Americans. John F. Kennedy was widely thought to be an agent of the papacy when he first announced for the presidency back in 1960. It took a memorable speech to convince Americans that his would be an American political presidency and not a theocratic dictatorship. Since that time, our House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Governorships of our states have had representation by Evangelical Christians, Liberal Christians, Mormons, Catholics, Jews, Atheists, and recently we elected a representative who happened to practice Islam. In every case, we sent these people to govern with the expectation that they would govern 337 million people and not one religious viewpoint. For the most part, they have done that.

For some arcane reason, there appears to be an exceptional amount of animosity targeting three groups. Atheists, Muslims, and Mormans are the last bastions of those who some would not vote for. It is the same type of bias we saw prior to 1960 when a Catholic or a Jew would run for national office. It is the same type of bias that we once had when women attempted to move through the positions of power in this country. We have overcome those, but our biases against Mormans, Muslims, and Atheists are still firmly ingrained in our culture.

I, for one, would like to see President Obama get 70% of the vote in November. What I don't want to see is that a significant percentage of people who vote for him, do so because they are voting against a person who belongs to the LDS Church. Those of us who are supporting the president should be as vehemently against this as we are against someone who would vote against the president on the basis of his skin color. Elections are too important to be decided by petty religious biases. There are plenty of major issues where the candidates will differ. It won't take a brain surgeon to determine which candidate best serves the interests of the voter making a decision.

Let's keep religion out of the 2012 elections. It is time for us to demonstrate that in the 21st century, what your relationship with your god is or isn't should be and will be a private affair. The governance of this country, however, is a public trust. That trust should be decided on where the candidate stands on the issues, not what pew he sits in.

Atheist humanist Dick Gross comments on the departure of Rowan Williams from the position of Archbishop of Canterbury (leading cleric of the Anglican Church).

The evil Toulouse Massacre in which 7 people, 3 of them children, were murdered in France, has shocked all decent people. However reason must prevail over emotion and must determine how the chances of a recurrence of this atrocity can be minimized. Compelling conclusions are that, in addition to having better security,  anti-Arab anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and the racist Zionist-backed War on Muslims (12 million dead since 1990) must be halted and that the genocidal racist Zionists must be sidelined from public life as has already happened to like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK.

Rational risk management, that is crucial for societal safety, successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis, this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses, and (c) science- informed systemic change to minimize recurrence of adverse events. Unfortunately,  inevitably corrupt societies typically adopt a dangerously incorrect converse approach that involves (a) lying by omission and commission, propaganda, censorship and intimidation of reportage, (b) anti-science spin involving the selective use of asserted facts to support a partisan position, and (c) resort to violent blame and shame with rejection of sensible systemic change, this further preventing crucially requisite primary reportage. A rational risk management approach to the Toulouse Massacre is outlined below.  

1. There will always be a very small proportion of people who cross the line into the insanity of homicide - indeed criminologists inform us that 90% of  violence and homicide is against people personally known to the perpetrators including family members i.e. people they know or indeed love.

2. The perpetrator of the Toulouse Massacre was killed by the authorities rather than being subdued chemically, but before being killed the mass murderer  reportedly adduced the large-scale killing of Palestinians and Afghans by the Zionists  and the US Alliance as the reason for these appalling crimes (in contrast Norwegian mass murderer Breivik was a self-confessed  virulent Islamophobe and a genocidal pro-Zionist).

3. The mass murder by the West of ethnically or culturally Arab Semitic people  (Arabs and Muslims) has reached holocaust and genocidal  proportions. Thus  in the Zionist-backed US War on Muslims violent deaths plus avoidable deaths from war-imposed deprivation total 12 million since 1990, the breakdown being  4.6 million (Iraq, 1990-2012), 5.6 million (Afghanistan, 2001-2012), 2.2 million (Somalia, 1992-2012), and 0.1 million (Libya, 2011-2012). These estimates are consonant with UN-reported under-5 infant deaths in this period totalling 2.0 million (Iraq), 2.9 million (Afghanistan ) and 1.3 million (Somalia), 90% avoidable and due to Occupier war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention - evidence of an Iraqi Genocide, an Afghan Genocide and a Somali Genocide (Google the terms “Muslim Holocaust” and  “Muslim Genocide”).

4.   A key part of this genocidal madness has been played by the racist Zionists who collaborated with the Nazis before and during the war (notoriously persuading  Churchill to veto the Brand Plan to save 0.7 million Hungarian Jews of whom 0.4 million subsequently perished including all but a dozen of my family). Since 1936  about 100,000 Palestinians have been violently killed as a result of racist Zionist colonization of their country (as compared to 3,700 Jews killed by Palestinians since 1920 according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs) .  A further 1.9 million Palestinians have died avoidably from war-, expulsion- and occupation-imposed deprivation. Inspection of the latest UNICEF data reveals that race-based, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel deliberately murders over 2,000 Palestinian infants each year by imposed deprivation.

5. What should decent people do? Decent people - as exampled by anti-racist Jews (e.g. Google "Jews Against Racist Zionism") - must (a) demand that media inform everyone they can about the ongoing Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide; (b) apply and urge sanctions against all those people, parties, countries and corporations involved in the Muslim Holocaust, the Muslim Genocide and race-based, genocidal Apartheid Israel  (e.g. Google "Boycott Apartheid  Israel"); and (c) demand arraignment before the International Criminal Court of those involved in the Muslim Holocaust (e.g. Bush, Obama, Blair, Brown, Cameron, Sarkozy,  Merkel, Harper, Howard, Rudd, Gillard and their subordinates) and the sidelining of racist Zionists from public life as has already happened to like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK.

So it has come to this. Everyone who knows me here on the vine knows that I support President Obama and that I want him to be re-elected in 2012. Quite often I will show my support by typing Obama 2012 at the end of a comment. I don't do this every time I post a comment but I do type it often when I am responding to negative comments about the president. Apparently, I have been reported to the the "authorities" here on the vine for putting Obama 2012 in some of my posts. Would any of you get bent out of shape if someone typed Romney 2012 or Santorum 2012 at the end of their posts? Do you think that my freedom of speech is being denied? I am asking you to vote in my poll and to comment. Thank you.

For the most part I find myself in agreement with Bill Maher most of the time. I am not always in agreement with how he gets his points across although for the most part I do agree with the premise of his beliefs. I have no issue with being religious only religions, I believe the Democratic party has moved to far right, I believe much of the food we eat is irresponsible, and I believe the Republican party preys on fears and has no real solutions.

This week, Bill came out in defense of Rush Limbaugh and the comments he made against Ms. Fluke. I understand his concerns over free speech, I understand that he has personally been persecuted for his comments and suffered from it, and I understand that we must be vigilant in not creating artificial crusades against those that we disagree with.

On this issue however, I find myself in disagreement with him and many others. I fully believe that what Rush Limbaugh did with his comments goes beyond free speech and entered the realm of incitement. I am all for free speech and would never take on a fight against anyone just because I disagreed with them. What Rush did to Sandra Fluke is the same as putting a target on this young lady or yelling FIRE in a theatre in my opinion. This goes beyond free speech to incitement. No one is really talking about this but if you yell fire in a theatre it is a crime. Rush has a specific audience and what he did was deliberate and was giving all his listeners a license to them to treat anyone they felt were like this how ever they wished. Remember he was not satisfied with his original comments and came back for the next two days specifically calling her out in specific ways. If Bill Maher yells fire in a theatre during his show, it is somewhat expected, and it is not an issue because of the context in which it is was delivered. If you or I do so during a movie we go to with our kids, it becomes a crime. Context does matter.

If Rush Limbaugh had throughout his career described himself strictly as an entertainer as Bill Maher has done, I would be willing to accept the premise that it was just a distasteful comment. He has not. He has portrayed himself as the conservative savior of America. So once again, context matters.

Many followers of Rush Limbaugh look to him as a prophet and take his words as a license to act. Everyone in the public realm must be held to higher standard and they must have a responsibility for their actions. Bill has graciously given Rush a pass on this one as far as I am concerned. I believe that Rush put this young lady and many other women in danger through incitement.

What is your opinion? Am I giving Rush too much credit and being petty or was this a crime?

T1Truth

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Professor Martin Sevior (Physics Deoartment, University of Melbourne) : "Now Iran, of course, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – unlike many other Middle East nations – and thus far the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found no direct proof of nuclear weapons development in Iran. I don’t know whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons – or, if it is, why."

This is a call for action to all of my friends, colleagues, and even those that do not have the same views as I hold. I think we can all agree that over time and especially in the last few days Rush Limbaugh has used sensationalism over ethics. It is also time to have the GOP stand up and be counted in regards to how they personally feel about Rush Limbaugh. This is a very simple thing that we can do. We have all seen how many people could be reached with the article "Green Stars For Everyone". Multiply that by everyone on our Twitter account, Face-book pages, and the other social media's that we subscribe to.

There are lines that have gotten blurred in this campaign when it comes to ethics but calling an American a slut for speaking her mind is reprehensible. This is a violation of free speach when it comes from an individual that wields as much influence as Rush. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with Ms. Fluke, there is however something wrong in threatening her for her beliefs. Make not mistake about it, the comments by Rush were a direct threat on her and all women.

It is not enough to get a general statement from the speaker or the party. We want each and every member to on record. Who is owned by Rush and who is not is what we wish to know.

This call to action is to have Speaker Boehner request all members of the House of Representatives go on record to if they beleive Rush Limbaugh should be denounced for his remarks regarding Sandra Fluke.

Below is Mr. Bohner's twitter address and Face-book wall. Send a loud and clear message. If you have a Facebook page, twitter account or blog as I do, you may wish to add comments, polls, or other indicators of support for this movement. If we can gain critical mass we could force each and every member of the house to go on record for this.

@SpeakerBoehner

http://www.facebook.com/OfficeofSpeakerBoehner?sk=wall

Please send me all results so they may be compiled. I have been in the process of starting a blog this week and have made this the first poll to be published on it.

Boehner said: House Speaker John Boehner distanced himself on Friday from Rush Limbaugh, calling the conservative radio host's words toward a women's rights advocate "inappropriate." - NOT GOOD ENOUGH -

Go to work America and bring this clown and his GOP supporters to their knees! Do not let this just slide to back page of the news. Keep the pressure on everyday until every member of congress must commit!!! Do not let this be diminished or mimimized. Demand an accounting!!!

Updated: 03.02.2012 8:34PM EST - Bill O'Riley back Rush! Guess we know who owns Billy Boy!!!

T1Truth

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Relishing a political victory, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Congress "did the right thing" by extending payroll tax cuts for millions of Americans. He urged lawmakers to push forward on more measures, from assistance to struggling homeowners to increased taxes on the wealthy, saying the looming election was no excuse for inaction in Washington.

"Don't stop here. Keep going,'" Obama said during a White House event marking the passage of the tax cuts.

"Keep taking the action that people are calling for to keep this economy growing. This may be an election year, but the American people have no patience for gridlock," he said.

Obama was celebrating a tax cut that is already in place, but due to expire at month's end. He said the extension of the tax cut for the rest of the year will have a spillover effect: More people will spend money and more businesses in turn will be prodded to hire workers, and so "the entire economy" gets a boost.

Congress overwhelmingly passed the $143 billion measure on Friday. The bill extends both a 2 percentage point reduction in the tax that funds Social Security and extends jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. The measure also averts a big cut in the reimbursements doctors get for treating Medicare patients.

But Tuesday's event was not a bill-signing because the bill is not yet in Obama's hands. Not knowing when the legislation will come down from Capitol Hill, the White House decided to go ahead and hold its event now, while the victory is still fresh in people's minds. No major event is planned for the actual bill-signing.

The payroll tax cut was a centerpiece of the jobs plan Obama unveiled last year — and of a re-election strategy that seeks to cast his GOP foes as protectors of the rich out of touch with the worries of working families.

Obama never mentioned that a real driver of the deal Congress approved Friday was the political fallout on Republicans if they didn't give ground. Having endured a debacle in December, when they were seen as holding up the tax cut before caving, Republicans this time went along, and without demanding that the cost be paid for, either.

The White House said the average family would have lost $40 per paycheck had the tax cut not been extended. Throughout the payroll tax debate, the White House encouraged people to write in on social networking sites about how losing that money would affect their lives.

Several members of the public who submitted their thoughts were invited to join Obama at events promoting the tax cuts, including his remarks Tuesday.

"This got done because of you," Obama said. "Because you called, you emailed, you tweeted your representatives and you demanded action. You made it clear that you wanted to see some common sense in Washington."

White House officials have called the payroll tax cut the last "must-do" legislation Obama has to work with Congress on ahead of the November presidential election. Still, Obama made a push Tuesday for several other priorities outlined in his jobs bill and last month's State of the Union address, including legislation to assist small business owners and struggling homeowners.

Obama earlier this month proposed a vast expansion of government assistance to homeowners that would make lower lending rates a possibility for millions of borrowers who have not been able to get out from under burdensome mortgages. The proposal has special resonance in election battlegrounds such as Nevada and Florida that have faced record foreclosures.

Obama wants Congress to pass legislation that would make it easier for more borrowers to refinance their loans, creating a new program through the Federal Housing Administration that would have the government assume the risk for the new mortgages. The proposal faces a difficult path in Congress.

Obama also said he wants Congress to pass the so-called Buffett rule, which seeks to ensure that people making more than $1 million a year pay at least 30 percent of their incomes in taxes.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Feller and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

John Pilger: "The warmongering and human rights abuses of the New Labour years seem forgotten by all but the likes of Gareth Peirce. Yet Blair’s legacy lingers on in Afghanistan and Iraq and is re-emerging in Syria and Iran."

Report: "Nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with lack of health insurance, according to a new study published online today by the American Journal of Public Health. That figure is about two and a half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2002. The study, conducted at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from a 25 percent excess
death rate found in 1993."

The Obama Administration has vowed to retain close military ties to its European allies after revealing  plans to withdraw more than 11,000 troops from Germany and Italy as part of a strategic shift to Asia.

Doctoral scholar Farid Farid: "Last week in Baghdad, 17 men were executed. Nothing special to note here in the conflict ridden, post-US withdrawal landscape of Iraq, except that this time they were executed by an Iraqi court... the death penalty has been in process in the fragile Iraqi judicial system since 2004, and more notoriously before during Saddam’s iron-fisted rule. It was briefly suspended during 2003 only... Christian Iraqis, once a vibrant minority community in Iraq now represent more than 40% of forced migrants and refugees. This has also become a trend with Arab uprisings last year, particularly in Egypt..."

"

Catriona Menzies-Pike (managing editor of progressive Australian web magazine New Matilda): "Is it sexist anytime anyone ever criticises any woman? Can anything any female politician ever does be shielded from criticism on the grounds that to do so is sexist? If a female politician who happens to be a Prime Minister screws up royally and appears to make a habit of doing so, can she ignore all the slings and arrows that come her way because they’ve all been hurled by sexist bastards who want nothing more than to see a good woman fall? The answer to all of these questions should obviously be "no".

Former Australian Democrats MP Cheryl Kernot re sexism allegations over treatment of Australian  PM Julia Gillard: "The first thing I’d say is none of those other countries [Germany, US, New Zealand] has the “gotcha” media syndrome. We seem to have perfected that. American presidential campaigns have it, but the wider political discourse doesn’t have it as much as we do. We are the masters of it. The second thing I think we need to remark upon is that Angela Merkel, Julia Gillard and Helen Clark all have no children. That has been used against Julia Gillard. There have been occasional insinuations against Helen Clark [implying] her husband is a homosexual. I haven’t heard anything much about Angela Merkel. Hillary Clinton has one child, and both Clintons are power players."

Mehdi Hasan: "

How do we stop the ongoing killings in Syria? It is an urgent and important question but one that defies a simple or easy answer.

Let's be clear: Syria is a human rights disaster. The revolution's death toll now exceeds 6,000 and thousands of others have been "disappeared" into the country's mini-gulags, to be tortured and starved. Syria's third-biggest city, Homs, is under daily bombardment from shells, mortars and machine-gun fire."

"

British Zionists responding to Ben White and claiming that race-based Israel is "democratic": "BICOM has recently published articles by four experts to raise the level of discussion in the UK about the state of Israeli democracy. We are starting from a position of caring about Israel's future as both a state expressing the Jewish right to national self-determination, and a democracy for all its citizens. On that basis, we wanted to stimulate a more nuanced conversation about Israel"

Australian ABC Radio National Late Night Live presenter Phillip Adams presents a tribute to "Late Night Live's longest and most outstanding contributor, the late Christopher Hitchens, journalist, author and contrarian" (and pro-Iraq War war atheist).

Ben White: "Firstly, foundational to Israel's legal framework as a Jewish state is legislation passed in the first few years, specifically the Law of Return, the Absentee Property Law, and the Citizenship Law. These laws shaped an institutionalised regime of ethno-religious discrimination by extending Israel's 'frontiers' to include every Jew in the world (as a potential citizen), at the same time as explicitly excluding expelled Palestinians."

Dr David Slucki (Monash University, Melbourne): "Questions arise when the homeland — be it Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, or Sri Lanka — becomes mired in ongoing conflict. What part do their diasporas play? How do they align themselves? And how do they continue to operate in democratic third countries, to which they may or may not also feel an attachment? What happens when those third countries back the other side?"

Michael Short (a senior Age editor): "We have a duty to lead and inspire our young people, in particular. What are they, and indeed all of us, to make of a prime minister who judges it acceptable to blatantly, blithely break a written pledge in the name of base politics? This is what Julia Gillard has done by abandoning her poker-machines promise to Andrew Wilkie" [as well as her election pledge that "there will be no carbon tax under a government I lead']

Rick Santorum is lying ... again ... about President Obama.  This time it's his bogus claim that the President is undermining the institution of marriage.

As he campaigns in South Carolina, Rick Santorum keeps accusing the Obama administration of subverting marriage and family. “This administration is doing things to undermine the very structure of society,” he said at a Faith and Freedom Coalition rally on Monday. His primary example of this has been regulations ostensibly imposed on a marriage promotion program run by Elayne Bennett, wife of Reagan administration official and religious right favorite Bill Bennett.

Oops, Rick, but you've been called out for lying - by Elayne Bennett herself!

On Tuesday, Elayne Bennett was finally forced to correct the record. In fact, Bennett’s foundation is currently getting federal funds through the government’s Healthy Marriage grant program to teach about, well, healthy marriage. “Marriage and the benefits of marriage continued to be an integral part of the curriculum,” she said in a statement to Factcheck.org. Students in the program, she wrote, are taught “Conflict Resolution skills, Communication skills, Abuse Prevention skills, Budgeting and Financial skills.”

Professor Robert Manne (Professor of politics at La Trobe University, Melbourne ): "There is probably no alternative to some form of offshore processing. Public opinion is opposed to the spontaneous arrival of asylum seeker boats. We now know that onshore processing will not stop the boats. We now also know that boats sailing from Indonesia to Australia will never be safe."

The Conversation: "Last weekend, an overcrowded fishing boat sank off the coast of Indonesia with more than 200 asylum seekers on board...

As we begin to come to terms with the second major refugee boat disaster in less than 12 months, The Conversation asked key experts to take a considered look at the problem of refugees who risk the journey to Australia by boat. We had two simple questions – what is the problem? And, most importantly, how can we do better?This is what they told us... "

Australian Catholic University adjunct professor and top lawyer Julian Burnside SC: "If we took 10,000 refugees each year from Indonesia, and took them in order of lodging an application in Indonesia for protection, the incentive to get on a boat would disappear. We would save many lives. But we would have to accept a larger number of refugees than we do now."

Professor Hugh White (professor of strategic studies at ANU and a visiting fellow at the Lowy Institute): "Barack Obama explained when he visited last month how America is today turning its back on its mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan and pivoting instead to Asia. Here America is launching a new military initiative to confront and contain China. Our leaders are eagerly agreeing to join in, just as their predecessors did nine years ago over Iraq. Like them, our leaders and their advisers today are only too happy to assume that Washington knows best. Like them, they can hardly imagine saying no. But there is a difference. When our mistakes go bad in Iraq or Afghanistan we can simply give up and come home, as we have done. If we make the same mistakes this time, here in Asia, we will live with the consequences for a very long time."

As always, our politicians continue to give all of us reasons to welcome this season. They insist on providing us with the fodder that will drive our political discussions for the next year. Some of the arguments are profound, some are candidates for the silly season. No matter what are political persuasion, the issues that are raised will affect us all. The last 6 sense of the vine polls have been very interesting. Though they often demonstrate the somewhat democratic trending of the newsvine, many of the questions have elicited answers that have surprised many of us.

Today's poll has the same caveat as all my other polls. I am not a professional pollster. My wording may be wrong, or it may be a little bit biased toward where my politics lie. I want everyone to vote and to comment. The more discussion we have, the stronger our democracy is for everyone.

To everyone on the vine, have a happy set of holidays and have a wonderful new year.

Mehdi Hasan: "We can't afford the hawks to use withdrawal as an opportunity to airbrush the blood-drenched history of the invasion and occupation" (comment: 4.6 million war-related deaths, 1990-2011)

George Eaton on Hitchens: "He was wrong, badly wrong about Iraq, but for the best of reasons... It was not an attempt to ingratiate himself with the neoconservatives, whom Hitchens had fought and continued to fight with on issues from gay rights to the death penalty to Israel. But he was too casual in dismissing the civilian casualties (estimated at anything between 100,000 and a million) that resulted directly or indirectly from the invasion of the Iraq."

Report: "Australia will raise concerns with Israel about its juvenile military court system, which is accused of jailing and torturing Palestinian children as young as 12. Following a report in The Weekend Australian Magazine three weeks ago, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has instructed Australian diplomats to visit the juvenile military court."

Dr Anthony Billingsley (University iof NSW): "The Iraq fiasco has led to a decline in US influence across the region and to increased instability. Saudi-Iranian rivalry is sharper, communal tensions in Lebanon have increased and fear of Shiite influence throughout the region is dominating governments’ thinking. Perhaps the most hopeful aspect of the Iraqi condition is that it will be some time before Iraq is able to threaten any of its neighbours and that economic rebuilding will be at the top of the government’s priorities."

Professor Stephan Lewandowsky : "Hierarchical-individualistic people (HI from here on) believe rights, duties, goods, and offices should be distributed differentially and on the basis of people’s own decisions without collective interference or assistance. Egalitarian-communitarian (EC) people, by contrast, believe rights and goods should be distributed more equally and society should bear partial responsibility for securing the conditions of individual flourishing... Perhaps not surprisingly, HI individuals are more likely to resist acceptance of climate science than EC individuals."

John Armstrong (philosopher at the University of Melbourne): "

Hard though it may be to believe, there has been a long-term, very significant decline in all kinds of violence around the world. In his most recent book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Harvard evolutionary psychologist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, enforces this conclusion with a battery of statistic evidence."

"

Report on German university research study findings: "During childhood and adolescence, about half of all women are molested sexually by adults, according to the findings, but even when they grow up, the abuse doesn't stop. About 30 percent of women with disabilities so severe that they must live in institutions have been abused by other adults,"

Virginia Haussegger (ABC News presenter & member of the UN Women National Committee) concludes after presenting horrific statistics that : "If Australia - and now the US - is truly serious about the Pacific, we have to get serious about ending the culture of silence and impunity that has allowed the abuse and degradation of women to go largely ignored. After all, what gives us the right to talk to China about human rights when the rights of women to be protected from violence - in our own neighbourhood - are so badly abused?"

Professor Gerry Simpson (international law, Melbourne Law School, London School of Economics): "government in Tripoli may not get the opportunity to decide whether to send Saif al-Islam to The Hague at all. His captors in Zintan, in the western mountains, are reportedly reluctant to give him up. The leader of the Zintan council was quoted as saying: "We can try him. It will not take too long; we don't need new laws."  It is a long way from Zintan to The Hague for Saif al-Islam and Senussi, and for international criminal justice."

Ben White (UK freelance journalist and author): "An analysis that makes the links between what is happening in the hills of the West Bank and the Negev desert is a necessary part of imagining a future solution "that protects the rights of both the Palestinian people and Jewish Israelis", a redefining of self-determination whereby both groups share a common homeland based on equality. It is the alternative to the separation and "ethnic purity" that disturbs even the honest among its advocates." 

I had to turn the liars off today. I just couldn't take another lie from the mouths of Limbaugh and Hannity. It's unending. Today's commentary from Limbaugh repeated the ultimate lie. That is, that Obama hates the United States and wants our country to fail. It's so ridiculous. They actually think that Obama wanted to become president because he hates his own country. They keep saying this over and over, as if they say it enough times, it will become true. Utter lunacy is what it is. It's an insult, not only to the president of OUR country, but to the people who support him. It makes me ill.

Here's another doozy. Today a woman was talking to Limbaugh and said something to the affect that (regarding Cain), that the Democrats are saying it's not acceptable to flirt with women. Give me a break. Putting your hand up a woman's dress without her consent is sexual harassment, and in a way, a form of rape. It is NOT FLIRTING. Of course, Limbaugh agreed with this woman. In the words of Cain, the Republicans (and Cain) are comparing apples to oranges. For the Republicans who don't see the difference between what Cain did and what Clinton did, I'll spell it out for you. The word is CONSENTUAL. Get it. There is a HUGE difference. I am not condoning what Clinton did, but please do not compare Clinton and Cain. The other difference is that Clinton was a good president. Cain will never be a good president. In my opinion, he is nothing but a salesman.

I had to get this off my chest. I know that I could avoid hearing the lies, but I think that it is important to listen to the conservative stations to be aware of what they are saying. Anyone else hear any Republican lies today?

Steinem never intended to be so visible a figure in the women's movement – or so she insists. She hated public speaking, and feared conflict. "I know. I'm in the wrong business. But you have no choice, however hard it is. I experience it like this: either I am invisible, or someone I identify with is invisible, and it makes me so angry. It's so wrong, and then I just can't resist. I have to do something." Is she tough? "That's a good question. I don't know. Different things hurt you surprisingly. But I always had the feeling, which makes you tough under duress, that I was a survivor."

According to a letter to MPs from the Ger,man Foreign Affairs and Defence Minisitries, under the drawdown  (which the opposition Green and Left parties said didn’t go far enough) Germany would reduce its contingent of 5,350 soldiers to 4,900 beginning in February. Then, by 2013 the number would reduced by 500 more to 4,400 and thence to 0 in 2014.

Produced by the Channel 4 in Britain, the shocking "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" program forensically investigates allegations that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed as Sri Lankan Government forces moved in to destroy the Tamil Tiger army (Apartheid Israel supplied the aircraft used in bombing hospitals and refugee camps) .

Article quotes leading German weekly Die Zeit : "In Sri Lanka, 40 000 unarmed civilians were killed, which is 80 times My Lai, and five times Srebrenica. We read in 2009 that there was a terrible final battle against the "terrorists" and talk of civilian casualties from cross-fire. Only now the real truth is being revealed by the documentary by Channel-4. The documentary shows mainly mobile phone recordings of eye witnesses, combined with so-called trophy pictures that were taken from offenders. The Government of Sri Lanka was able, for two years to hide their war crimes before the world."

Sarkozy to Obama about Israeli PM Netanyahu: ""I can't stand him anymore, he's a liar".

Obama's reply: "You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day ".

Sarah Burnside: "Politicians regularly invoke an authoritative sounding History-with-a-capital-H in order to legitimise or attack present day positions. Although patriotism retains its status as the first refuge of the scoundrel, history clocks in at perhaps a close second."

Report: "The Wall Street Journal reports today that Black people have been emptied from the City of Tawergha [formerly 30,000 inhabitants] in Libya, their homes razed, and that the words "slaves" and "negroes" are scribbled on their abandoned buildings in the now ghost town  by the NATO-backed rebels.The chilling account of ethnic cleansing  of Black people in Libya, occurring right before our eyes, appears under the headline "Revenge Feeds Instability in Libya."

Seumas Milne (UK Guardian columnist and associate editor): "What is now known, however, is that while the death toll in Libya when Nato intervened was perhaps around 1,000-2,000 (judging by UN estimates), eight months later it is probably more than ten times that figure. Estimates of the numbers of dead over the last eight months – as Nato leaders vetoed ceasefires and negotiations – range from 10,000 up to 50,000. The National Transitional Council puts the losses at 30,000 dead and 50,000 wounded."

Report quote: "Seumas Milne wrote in the October 27 Guardian: “While the death toll in Libya when Nato intervened was perhaps around 1,000-2,000 (judging by UN estimates), eight months later it is probably more than ten times that figure. Estimates of the numbers of dead over the last eight months … range from 10,000 up to 50,000. The National Transitional Council puts the losses at 30,000 dead and 50,000 wounded.Of those, uncounted thousands will be civilians, including those killed by Nato bombing and Nato-backed forces on the ground. These figures dwarf the death tolls in this year’s other most bloody Arab uprisings, in Syria and Yemen” ... About 1 million Sub-Saharan Africans are estimated to have fled Libya since the conflict started."

Cheryl Abbarno was the most excited she's ever been about a presidential election when Barack Obama was on the ballot in 2008, but she isn't sure she'll vote for him again.

"It's discouraging to me that he's not doing what he said he's going to do. When he was campaigning, it was change, change, change, and I don't see any change," she said.

Abbarno is a Walmart mom — women with children under 18 at home who shop at the discount superstore — and two polling firms, one Democratic, one Republican, are following women like her because they believe they'll play a key role in next year's presidential election.

Their No. 1 concern is the economy. They're split fairly evenly by party affiliation, but more important, they are persuadable voters who will decide late in the election cycle whether they'll support Obama or the eventual Republican nominee.

Or, as Neil Newhouse of the Republican polling firm Public Opinion Strategies said, they're the new soccer moms — about 14 percent to 17 percent of the electorate, predominantly white and a key swing group.

In 2008, Walmart moms supported Obama, but in 2010 they voted Republican, though not enthusiastically, according to Public Opinion Strategies and Momentum Analysis, a firm that works with Democratic candidates and groups.

A poll the firms released Wednesday shows 43 percent of Walmart moms approve of Obama's job performance while 54 percent disapprove. That compares to 46 percent of all voters that approve of Obama and 49 percent who disapprove. Yet 57 percent of the moms said they are still hopeful about the president compared to 42 percent who have given up on him. And three times as many of the moms, 22 percent, blame President George W. Bush for the nation's economic problems rather than Obama, who 7 percent of the moms say is to blame.

"There are good lessons from this data for both Democrats and Republicans," said Margie Omero of Momentum Analysis. "The bottom line from these results is that this is a group that can be persuaded either way in the presidential contest."

The Obama campaign wouldn't comment on Walmart moms.

Steve Schale, who ran Obama's Florida operation in 2008, said that the president needs to show the women that his economic plan is better than the alternative.

During the focus groups in Florida, New Hampshire and Iowa, the Walmart moms repeatedly named the economy as the most important issue in the election. Nearly all said they've had to make sacrifices, including opening new credit cards for the no-interest promotions, cutting back on meals out and other activities and cancelling cable television. One woman said she and her son had to move in with her parents. Another told her kids that Santa is poor this year. Many either had gone through layoffs or had husbands who lost jobs. While other jobs were found, often times it was for less money.

While not blaming Obama, many feel like he hasn't shown strong enough leadership to build consensus in Congress on how to help middle-class families.

"These voters have clearly lost their passion for President Obama and there's a sense that he's kind of lost his passion as well. Some of these voters might vote for him again, but boy, there's no enthusiasm," said Newhouse, whose clients include GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. "It does mean these voters are still up for grabs for the 2012 election."

He said Republican candidates are focused first on the primary, but the eventual nominee would be wise to win over Walmart moms and talk about kitchen table issues these women care about.

"Not just jobs, but health and housing issues," Newhouse said, noting that Obama, with the luxury of not having a primary, is already focused on those issues.

Omero said that just because Walmart moms are late deciders, it doesn't mean that candidates shouldn't begin reaching out to them.

"Candidates that wait too long to try to reach out to these voters, whether you're talking about the presidential level or congressional and statewide level, does so at their peril," she said. "These moms are going to need more contact, they're going to need more exposure, they're going to need advertising, even more campaign events."

What Omero saw in the focus groups was sympathy for the president and a willingness to give him another chance. Because they don't directly blame him for the nation's economic woes means he can still persuade them that he cares more about the middle class than his eventual Republican challenger.

"What we heard a lack of is animosity toward Obama, or that he's gone too far or that he's taken the country in the wrong direction," said Omero. "I think it puts Obama at an advantage over other candidates who are offering a different set of policies altogether.'"

Not that it's going to be easy.

"With the economy such that it is and with these voters that are swing to begin with, it is going to be difficult for the president. These were not enthusiastic hardcore Democrats, so they are going to sound a little bit less engaged, but they haven't made up their mind to vote for somebody else, and they're not studying up on the other candidates right now either. There's still plenty of opportunity for the president to solidify this group."

Valerie Herrera, a 30-year-old insurance writer with 1- and 2-year-old daughters, said she is willing to give Obama another chance. She voted for McCain in 2008, but she feels Obama is more focused on helping middle- and lower-class families, and that Republicans tend to be upper middle-class and above and look out for their own interests.

Herrera and her husband, who live in Apopka, Fla. sold one of their cars to save money and now get by on one. She says the economy is her most important issue. But she doesn't blame Obama.

"He is trying. He's trying to do the best that he can with what he was given," Herrera said. "He really is trying to understand what the everyday person is going through."

Professor Noam Chomsky, 2011 Sydney Peace Prize lecture: "pacifist thinker and social activist A.J. Muste: what he called ''revolutionary pacifism''. Muste disdained the search for peace without justice. He urged that ''one must be a revolutionary before one can be a pacifist'', by which he meant that we must deal ''honestly and adequately with this 90 per cent of our problem'' - ''the violence on which the present system is based, and all the evil - material and spiritual - this entails for the masses of men throughout the world''.

Mehdi Hasan: "according to figures released by the Israel Prison Service, there are 164 Palestinian children aged between 12 and 17 incarcerated in Israeli jails, including 35 minors aged between 12 and 15. As many as 700 Palestinian children are prosecuted each year in Israel's military courts; more than 7,000 have been detained since 2000."

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young: "More Australians need to know of an editorial in The Saturday Age, which points out it costs an average $10,400 to assess the claims of asylum seekers while they live in the community. Compare that to the $137,317 it costs to keep someone in immigration detention. Then there are the additional millions of dollars in compensation taxpayers have already forked out for people damaged by their time in a detention centre."

Mehdi Hasan: "For the past decade, western governments have repeatedly claimed that the war in Afghanistan was justified by the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama Bin Laden for trial. This is a lie... A secret plan to put Osama Bin Laden on trial in Pakistan has been blocked after President Musharraf said he could not guarantee his safety, it was disclosed... Suggested by the Taliban's closest allies in Pakistan, it was a last-ditch attempt to satisfy Western demands for Bin Laden's surrender while averting a war and ensuring the fanatical regime's survival."

Irshad Manji,  progressive Muslim and Islamic reformer speaks out on the Palestinian bid for statehood in the U.N. (Video is from 2/26/2011).

Jewish British MP and former UK Foreign Secretary David Milliband: "The people who suffer are those who most need the attention of the world. This is notably true of the 1.5 million people crowded into the Gaza Strip, locked between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean sea... There are houses riddled with bullet holes. The electricity supply cuts out for up to eight hours a day. There are not enough schools or teachers, so there are classes of 50 or 60 and the school day is restricted to a few hours to allow for two or even three shifts... Save the Children, obviously, is most concerned about the 53% of the Gaza population under 18. The statistics say 10% of children are "stunted" – so undernourished before the age of two that they never grow to their full potential."

Dick Gross: "John the Baptist and Jesus didn't deserve to suffer as they did and their pious mothers hardly deserved to suffer the most atrocious fate of any parent, to have their children die before them and in pain." [comment: About 10 million infants die each year today] 

VINEGAR JOE STILLWELL'S LEGACY:

PROVERBIAL WARNING THAT ACTION

IS ALWAYS THE CHALLENGE

General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell's office during his years as America's lead military man in China before and during World War II, according to historian Barbara Tuchman, displayed a framed print of a Chinese proverb:

By doing nothing, all things are done.

The epigram, according to Tuchman, reflected the irascible general's deep disgust with the indirect, slow, and to him indecipherable Chinese approach to many decisions.

Sometimes, in American politics, voters also choose the same path.  Whether out of disgust with politics and politicians (not at all a new phenomenon), apathy, or simple indecision, voters stay away from the ballot boxes in droves.  Let the dedicated, the zealots, the believers make the decisions - for the ones who abstain, by doing nothing, all things are done.

Since the 1960's political campaign consultants have readily sought to sharpen the alienation of large portions of the electorate.  As computer-aided monitoring of public attitudes grew ever more penetrating, consultants learned that violent bickering, dirty mud-slinging, and either outright accusations of, or very smelly innuendos of, outright corruption (or criminality) had the effect of turning voters away from the ballot box.

This strategy has evolved into a mandatory tool for any professional consultant.  Not to use it in a campaign would literally be malpractice.

By doing nothing, all things are done.

So many of us who have been in the political trenches for decades are getting weary.  It's not only that our bodies have decided they won't permit us to behave like 17-year-olds any more.  It's also that we find ourselves waging almost the same conflicts, year after year after year.  Just when we thought at last the ideas had been communicated, the public informed and motivated, the lessons learned, we
look about and discover that the passage of time erased the advances.

What happened to all the old familiar faces in the precinct headquarters room?  Why don't these new people know who had the
best contacts among the preachers and the pastors?  Just how did the story of the deaths of the three young men on a foggy Mississippi side road lose its relevance?

Do you mean to tell me you don't understand how to set up a timed direct mail hit - and even dare to claim using third-class mail would save money (it won't; chances are, the mailer will arrive a week after the election)?

And then someone says something about the future cost of Social Security and Medicare ... oh, gracious, how long will it take over a cup of coffee and a muffin to explain?

By doing nothing, all things are done.

In 1970, a play about the famous anti-war protest led by the Catholic priests, brothers Dan and Philip Berrigan, was performed in theaters around the country.  The Trial of the Catonsville Nine drew large audiences, and often within the crowds the brothers came to watch -
although they were both hiding underground from the FBI at the time.

In the play, at one point the characters portraying the nine persons who had poured blood all over the files of a Maryland draft board, and then stood waiting to be arrested, gathered in an outward-facing circle under the narrowed spotlights.  One of them said
approximately, "Where are the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and sisters, the blue collar workers and the office clerks? Where are the people who will come now and take up the cause of peace and justice in our place? We are tired, now."

Dan Berrigan eventually was imprisoned for his anti-war agitation and protests.  He was arrested again in 2006 for a protest outside the U.N.  Tired he may be, but who has arisen to take the place of this 90-year-old believer in justice, equality, and peace?

By doing nothing, all things are done.

Comes now the moment of reality:  The looming election is, as another 'Vine blogger wrote, "about America's soul."  The President said it differently in recent days, explaining that this is a decisive moment of choice between two visions of America - about literally the basic idea of what the country is to be.

On the right - a long-sought version of America that reflects:

-  a nation before the likes of Upton Sinclair and the regulatory consequences of The Jungle;

-  an America before Jane Addams and her Hull House, her agitation for the rights of women, her Nobel Prize;

-   an America before Jacob Riis documented desperate poverty in the midst of plenty in his magnificent photo essay, How the Other Half Lives;

-   an America of "the roaring 20's" where stockbrokers "bucketed" clients' stock, stock companies issued worthless paper glossed over
by lying advertising, where bankers gleefully financed Florida subdivisions in the middle of swamps;

-   an America where industrialists hired thugs by the thousands to beat pro-union employees into bloody, and deadly, submission;

-   an America where a ghastly toll was counted after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire because supervisors locked the fire escape
doors so women wouldn't waste company time stepping outside for a break, and even inner doors so women wouldn't go to the bathroom too often

-   an America where small children worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week;

-   an America before a rationalized national banking system made possible a stable national currency, and thus almost like clockwork
independent banks' private money collapsed and brought on recessions after recession;

-    an America where the strong ruled and the weak cowered.

On the left – a long-built vision of a country:

-   an America with pure food and drug laws and regulations, however imperfectly administered, increasingly require goods sold to millions to be safe;

-   an America where a public health system which eradicated smallpox and had nearly defeated tuberculosis, still battles to prevent endemic disease and the return of deadly maladies through the land;

-   an America where uniform rules of dignity and compassion for those in need replaced the long-standing local system of favoritism and
indignant denial;

-   an America where those whose long labors built the country, gave great prosperity to a few but broad, more modest benefits to the many are assisted in completing their lives with some small comfort;

-   an America where universal access to health care is seen as a human necessity, rather than a privilege of the fortunate;

-   an America where a laborer's rights are equal to that of the employer's, and "the working man is worthy of his hire;"

-   an America where investment in children's health, well-being, and education is treasured above all other forms of wealth;

-   an America that sees its enduring strength and future potential in a well-maintained, functional and practical public infrastructure;

-   an America in which the view of the future embraces all rather than merely a few.

By doing nothing, all things are done.

Which of those competing visions will be explained to the nation? Which will be offered in terms that attract a voter's desires and
responses, rather than repels?

And which of us is willing, tired and often dispirited, to do the telling?

"Where are the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and sisters, the blue collar workers and the office clerks? Where are the people who will come now and take up the cause of peace and justice in our place? We are tired, now."

The answer is - unless we seek them out, invite them, and convey what this election means to them, we will simply continue, tired or not, to struggle alone.

By doing nothing, all things are done.

Rest in peace, Vinegar Joe, and thanks for your profound insights.

President Obama's reelection team is looking for scouts to report would-be "smears" against the president, urging supporters to submit criticisms they read or see to a new campaign website called Attack Watch. 

"

Operation Fast and Furious -- the Obama administration's lethal gun-running fiasco -- keeps getting uglier and uglier.

+

In a series of hearings, Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley have been systematically dismantling the administration's preposterous claim that no one in the Justice Department -- which oversees the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- knew anything about the so-called gun-tracking operation.

who ever gets the gop nomination will beat Obama = period

Conservatives have maintained their leading position among U.S. ideological groups in the first half of 2010. Gallup finds 42% of Americans describing themselves as either very conservative or conservative. This is up slightly from the 40% seen for all of 2009 and contrasts with the 20% calling themselves liberal or very liberal.

even if Obama gets half the moderates he still can not win.

this is the interesting part...

42% conservative

35% moderate

20% liberal

add the liberals to half of the moderates and ya get Obamas current approval rating of 38%

Julian Burnside AO, QC (prominent Australian barrister and human rights advocate): "Asylum seekers who come by plane outnumber boat arrivals about three to one. Asylum seekers who arrive by boat are, historically, very likely to be assessed as genuine refugees; those who come by plane are, historically, unlikely to be assessed as genuine refugees. However, asylum seekers who come by boat are held in detention, whereas those who come by plane are not."

The last 17 of 33 Australian troops who were guarding the Australian embassy in Iraq have been withdrawn and a Dubai-based private security firm Unity Resources Group (URG) has taken over. URG , with around 60 Chilean military veterans, was involved in the shooting of 72-year-old Australian Professor Kays Juma in March 2006.

Wokkapedia: "Breivik took his rant and shaped it into a grostesquery. Did he hate his victims so much that he had to take their lives? This is the hardest thing. In fact, he didn’t viscerally hate his victims. They died because they were cargo."

"

Gilad Atzmon: "Western intelligence agencies must immediately crackdown on Israeli and Zionist operators in our midst, and regarding the terrible events of the weekend, it must be made absolutely clear who it was that spread such hate and promoted such terror, and for what exact reasons."

Jerusalem Post: "1,500 page manifesto credited to Breivik, accused of killing spree, lays out worldview including extreme screed of Islamophobia, far-right Zionism"

Anthony Browne : "Given Norway's homogenous insularity, the impact of such different cultures has been even bigger than it was in Britain in the 1960s. Casual racism is rife. Only in Norway have I heard someone order a taxi and request that the driver be white. News reports can display an unwitting racism that is shocking to foreign ears."

Carmel Lobello: "Do you want to boycott Murdoch’s media empire but don’t know where to start? There’s an app for that."

Edward Santow (chief executive of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre): "The ADF [Australian Defence Force] and the Australian government have systematically tried to avoid Australia's obligations under the Geneva Conventions and international law in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Cynthia Banham (SMH columnist): "Last week Barack Obama announced the US was withdrawing 10,000 military personnel from Afghanistan by the end of this year and 33,000 by the next northern summer... Australians want out of Afghanistan; a Lowy Institute poll this week found 59 per cent are opposed to our continued involvement."

Professor Gerry Simpson  Melbourne Law School , Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics): "international criminal justice is embedded in a system of governance that forecloses the prosecution of officials of the great powers (in particular the US, Britain, China, Russia and France). Not a single official from one of these states has been indicted before an international criminal court since 1945. From this perspective, the Libyan arrest warrants look like business as usual."

Raoul Heinrichs (doctoral scholar at the Australian National University, former research associate with the Lowy Institute): "Australia should pull out of Afghanistan, a futile war lost long ago."

Dan Oakes (Age and Sydney Morning Herald defence correspondent): "Only the Greens have consistently questioned the need for our troops to be in Afghanistan, and their policy is instinctive and ingrained, not necessarily built on a careful analysis of the issues. Is there not one parliamentarian from the Labor Party or the Coalition who believes the Australian public should be fully informed about our rationale for being in Afghanistan? Surely it is time for somebody to speak up."

Talk Show Host Rush Limbaugh says if he were President Barack Obama he would not want to face a staunch conservative like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin because she carries a frightening message — that he is beatable. Limbaugh also said on Fox News Thursday night that the GOP establishment fears Palin as well.

Fox News’ Greta van Susteren asked Limbaugh whether Palin’s announced bus trip was the beginning of her presidential campaign.

“I think this bus trip — it’s certainly designed to get people speculating that she’s in,” Limbaugh said. “The thing about Sarah Palin to me is that she has now learned to relish and to profit from all the attention — negative or positive — and she certainly knows negative attention.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay: "I come from South Africa and lived under this, and am every way attuned to seeing racial discrimination. There is a racial discriminatory element here [in Australia] which I see as rather inhumane treatment of people, judged by their differences, racial, colour or religions."

In the Kenyan village where she lives, the president's 88-year-old step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, shrugged off death threats against her from an al Qaeda affiliate in East Africa called al Shabaab.

"My life has not been affected in any way," Sarah Obama told ABC News. "It has not restricted my movement."

But President Obama seemed more concerned when asked directly about his grandmother by a Miami Spanish-language television station.

 

More Seeds :: JCAtom

Professor Sandy Gifford, Dr Ignacio Correa-Velez, Dr Celia McMichael (La Trobe Refugee Research Centre) say Australia's "trading in people" asylum seeker swap with Malaysia is shameful. 

Hamza, thought to be the youngest of the Saudi-born warlord's sons, has been described as the “crown prince of terror”. He featured on an extremist website to mark the third anniversary of the July 7 London bombings in which 52 people died. He read a poem called for “destruction” of America, Britain, France and Denmark.

 

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Cynthia Banham: "Some people question whether his assassination without trial is worthy of the values the US has extolled since the end of World War II. And our willingness to countenance torture indicates that September 11 did have a lasting legacy. Today, our values are weaker."

Tisdall: "The no-fly zone has evolved into boots on the ground. Mission creep is here.. UN Security Council resolution 1973, passed last month, does not authorise member states to support the rebels, to defend armed groups, or to oust Gaddafi. Nor does it authorise an Iraq-style ground invasion. But, in reality, much of this is now happening, willy-nilly. Make no mistake: the creep is on."

Professor Salt: "On the basis of precedent, there is no reason whatsoever to support western intervention in Libya. From the French invasion of Egypt in 1798 onwards, every single western attack on an Arab country has ended badly and often appallingly for the local people."

Bill Hayden (Australian federal minister for foreign affairs and trade from 1983 to 1988 and governor-general from 1989 to 1996): "messes like those in the Middle East today will continue and the West, perhaps, will have to recognise, frustratingly, its limitations to do much about them".

Report: "a letter published in March by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network that endorses the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. The letter was issued in response to a February 15 statement by Zionist (pro-Israel) groups that said the BDS campaign was anti-Semitic and "antithetical to freedom of speech"."

Michelle Grattan, political editor of the Age newspaper, "[Defence minister] Smith is marching in to change a culture where other ministers have failed...Why is the defence establishment, especially the military, so hard to bring to heel? "

Elizabeth Broderick i(federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner and an adviser on women's issues to the Australian Chief of the Defence Force): "I urge Defence to accelerate its cultural reforms. Without more women, without an ironclad commitment to respect for women, these unsavoury incidents will continue." .