ANS -- The Soul Is Dead, But the Spirit Lives On

Here's an interesting article about the source of morality.  It's from a column called

Ed Searl's Journal: In My Estimation

Posted on this site are current events that relate to contemporary religion, especially of the American experience.

Find it here:  http://edsearl.blogspot.com/2011/05/soul-is-dead-but-spirit-lives-on.html   
--Kim

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Soul Is Dead, But the Spirit Lives On

I always read David Brooks's op-ed pieces in the New York Times. His politics are too right of center for my own point of view; however, he's always well-reasoned and even more importantly draws upon much of the scientific research that I find authoritative, regarding the human condition. Brooks has an interest in morality, as do I. He often cites evolutionary biologists and psychologists, as well as neuroscientists who explore the landscape of the mind.

I've long been convinced that these areas of science have successfully challenged traditional philosophy, ethics, and theology. The popular writer Tom Wolfe, relatively early on, recognized the impact the new sciences, neuroscience, in particular, would have in a 1996 article "Sorry Your Soul Just Died."In it he wrote, "Thereupon, in the year 2006 or 2026, some new Nietzsche will step forward to announce: 'The self is dead'­except that being prone to the poetic, like Nietzsche I, he will probably say: 'The soul is dead.' He will say that he is merely bringing the news, the news of the greatest event of the millennium: 'The soul, that last refuge of values, is dead, because educated people no longer believe it exists.'"

Today, Brooks has an article "Nice Guys Finish Last" in which he makes a case, based on recent scientific thought that human beings are intrinsically moral, though programmed by evolution to be selfish. Is this an oxymoron? No. Because evolution also involves complex equations to be cooperative and part of a community.If the group benefits, so the individual benefits, reasons Brooks.

He writes, "In his book, 'The Righteous Mind,' to be published early next year, Jonathan Haidt joins Edward O. Wilson, David Sloan Wilson, and others who argue that natural selection takes place not only when individuals compete with other individuals, but also when groups compete with other groups. Both competitions are examples of the survival of the fittest, but when groups compete, it's the cohesive, cooperative, internally altruistic groups that win and pass on their genes. The idea of 'group selection' was heresy a few years ago, but there is momentum behind it now.

In the end, Brooks makes a conservative pitch for religion ethics, saying, "[T]he big upshot is this: For decades, people tried to devise a rigorous 'scientific' system to analyze behavior that would be divorced from morality. But if cooperation permeates our nature, then so does morality, and there is no escaping ethics, emotion and religion in our quest to understand who we are and how we got this way.

If I could question David Brooks, I'd ask him to name the "people" who sought a scientific system divorced from morality. Sounds a bit like a straw man to me. I've never seen science (scientists) wanting to diminish morality­or religion or God. Such a judgment comes from the religionists or traditionalists who become defensive.

My bottom line maintains that we human beings, by virtue of millions of years of creaturely evolution are hardwired to be moral. A few years ago Jonathan Haidt, a leading evolutionary psychologist, described five moral colors, which he describes on his web site's home page as

1) Harm/care, related to our long evolution as mammals with attachment systems and an ability to feel (and dislike) the pain of others. This foundation underlies virtues of kindness, gentleness, and nurturance.

2) Fairness/reciprocity, related to the evolutionary process of reciprocal altruism. This foundation generates ideas of justice, rights, and autonomy. [Note: In our original conception, Fairness included concerns about equality, which are more strongly endorsed by political liberals. However, as we reformulate the theory in 2010 based on new data, we are likely to include several forms of fairness, and to emphasize proportionality, which is more strongly endorsed by conservatives]

3) Ingroup/loyalty, related to our long history as tribal creatures able to form shifting coalitions. This foundation underlies virtues of patriotism and self-sacrifice for the group. It is active anytime people feel that it's "one for all, and all for one."

4) Authority/respect, shaped by our long primate history of hierarchical social interactions. This foundation underlies virtues of leadership and followership, including deference to legitimate authority and respect for traditions.

5) Purity/sanctity, shaped by the psychology of disgust and contamination. This foundation underlies religious notions of striving to live in an elevated, less carnal, more noble way. It underlies the widespread idea that the body is a temple which can be desecrated by immoral activities and contaminants (an idea not unique to religious traditions).

Remarks in the previous blog regarding First Nature and Second Nature have relevance here. I'm thinking Second Nature is the rationalization and application of First Nature instincts, including the five moral colors. To these five instincts, I certainly add the mammalian bonding instinct which has resulted in a cornucopia of the various fruits of love.

To return to Wolfe and the soul, the soul may be dead, but the human spirit is more vibrant than ever­a source of awe and wonder.

ANS -- A GAY DAY IN THE USA!

I am sending you this article about divergent groups working together and not defeating themselves by their infighting, as a warning to the six different types of Progressives, who have been defeating each other for years.  Thank Chip Shirley for the article.
Find it here: http://chipshirley.blogspot.com/2011/06/gay-day-in-usa-anyone-who-wants-to.html#comments
--Kim



A GAY DAY IN THE USA!


Anyone who wants to learn how dreams come true instead of simply being wished for needs to read this New York Times story, The Road to Gay Marriage in New York.

The story gets to the gist of how a unified sense of purpose had to take control over and supplant the naked idealism which had previously fractured the cause of Gay Marriage equality in New York state.
Sadly the ink from Governor Cuomo's pen had hardly dried on the bill before some gay idealists (like Rachael Maddow) returned to the backbiting and bloodletting that had truly made them part of the problem and not the solution.

When President Obama repeats his old saw of wisdom 'Let not the perfect become the enemy of the good' he might henceforth be tempted to add the afterthought 'the way Rachael Maddow and Jon Stewart do'. For it is an undeniable fact that their childish and relentless self righteous snickering has consistently worked against their stated objectives. Whenever the president puts forth a goal that is clearly for the common good they harshly critisize him for not adding the words 'RIGHT NOW!'

History will show that no one did more to set the stage for the passage of this groundbreaking civil rights bill than President Obama did when he successfully fulfilled his campaign promise to end the discriminatory Don't Ask Don't Tell policy in the military. President Truman's decision to desegregate our armed forces destined that change in society. President Obama's signing of legislation ending discrimination based on sexuality in the military has done the same.

'Right Now Rachael' proved her ineptness as a liberal leader to me with her 'My version of the State of the Union' earlier this year, in which she snarkily delivered a rebuttal to President Obama's SOTU. She essentially promised that in the next year of a 'Maddow presidency' every problem on the face of the earth would be solved, not another drop of oil ever burned and we would all ride to work on pink ponies, where we would be paid to have pillow fights.

And while I'm balancing the books here, hey Jon Stewart, when President Obama was on your show he asked you a question you have yet to answer, 'why didn't you have your rally to restore sanity in August of 2008 instead of 2010?

I'll end with an excerpt from the NYT story that the link and picture above are from...
-Mr. Cuomo was diplomatic but candid with gay-rights advocates in early March when he summoned them to the Capitol's Red Room, a ceremonial chamber with stained-glass windows and wood-paneled walls.

The advocates had contributed to the defeat of same-sex marriage in 2009, he told them, with their rampant infighting and disorganization. He had seen it firsthand, as attorney general, when organizers had given him wildly divergent advice about which senators to lobby and when, sometimes in bewildering back-to-back telephone calls.
"You can either focus on the goal, or we can spend a lot of time competing and destroying ourselves," the governor said.
This time around, the lobbying had to be done the Cuomo way: with meticulous, top-down coordination. "I will be personally involved," he said.
The gay-rights advocates agreed, or at least acquiesced. Five groups pushing for same-sex marriage merged into a single coalition, hired a prominent lobbying firm with ties to Mr. Cuomo's office and gave themselves a new name: New Yorkers United for Marriage.

Those who veered from the script faced swift reprimand. When Assemblyman Daniel J. O'Donnell, an openly gay Democrat from Manhattan, introduced a same-sex marriage bill in May without first alerting the governor's office, he was upbraided by Mr. Cohen. "What do you think you're doing?" the governor's aide barked over the phone.-

Rachael Maddow, Jon Stewart, consider yourselves reprimanded.
Posted by CHIP at 1:52 PM 0 comments Links to this post

email the WhiteHouse

go to this page:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Fwd: ANS replies -- US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report

Readers:  I got a couple of replies on this one that I thought you should see.  Here's the first one:

What do you think of this? It starts getting a little questionable half way through also referring to the Obama regime, but interesting if it's true.    --M

And here's the second one:

This sounds like bullshit to me.  It might be true, but we have only the word of the Russians, who are notoriously lax about safety regulations.  And all the nonsense in the middle about the "war" on the coal industry makes me doubt anything this writer says.  And a 35% increase in infant mortality?  What?   --J

Here's a third one: 

There is a very reputable (moderately liberal side) news magazine in the U. S. named "The Nation".  But I trust you didn't confuse this story with that source.  This "The Nation" is a Pakistani newspaper and I wouldn't necessarily trust what they say without a lot of further checking.

The only area of the Western U. S. that could conceivably have a quake/tsunami like Japan's (given current knowledge) is off the coast of Washington State, where there is a subduction zone offshore.  The Missouri River valley--e.g. Omaha area-- does not have a history of earthquakes--the Central Mississippi area has the New Madrid (mad' rid) fault, which is an uprising Magma "pimple" in the center of the North American Continental Plate. (Some shaking might get to Omaha--I can't remember).  Google that for when it has shaken and may again.  (If I were building something in St. Louis, I would design for it going within the life of the building).

Googling the name of this plant might be interesting--I am eager to see any nuclear plant have any kind of difficulty that is not a total disaster and enhances distrust of the technology!!!

PRC

And a fourth: 

here's the NYT article for today

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/us/21flood.html 

--PRC

and a fifth: 

I'm definitely against nuclear power Kim, but this article from the Nation doesn't jibe with other stories I've seen and heard. With all this coverage I don't see how they justify the claim of a news blackout. Maybe a Russian official did say that, but this is from today's front page in the Omaha World Herald...

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110621/NEWS01/706209922/0#cooper-was-near-flood-shutdown

Cooper was near flood shutdown

By Kevin Cole

World-Herald staff writer

Operators of the Cooper Nuclear Station near Brownville said they are optimistic that floodwaters will not force the plant to shut down â€" at least in the next few days.

The southeast Nebraska nuclear station came within about 18 inches of shutting down early Monday, when the Missouri River level at the plant rose to 43.8 feet.

The Missouri River must reach 45.5 feet (902 feet above sea level) before officials will shut down the plant, which sits at 903 feet.

The plant is operated by the Nebraska Public Power District. NPPD spokesman Mark Becker said the river dropped to 43.1 feet by mid-day Monday and was expected to continue to ebb.

Becker said a problem with the National Weather Service gauge at Brownville led some to conclude that the plant was within 3 inches of a forced shut down.

“We're operating at full capacity,” Becker said. “What we're seeing is the river leveling itself off, but we continue to watch and add protection around the plant.”

The Columbus-based utility sent a “Notification of Unusual Event” to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when the river reached 42.5 feet about 4 a.m. Sunday. The declaration is the least serious of four emergency notifications established by the NRC.

Becker said workers have been preparing the station for flood conditions by filling sandbags, constructing barricades, stocking materials and supplies, and reinforcing the access road plant staff use to get to the station.

More that 5,000 tons of sand was brought in for constructing barricades, such as Hesco barriers, around the station's switchyard of transformers and other electrical equipment.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the river at Brownville had surged about 2 feet from Saturday morning to Sunday due to a combination of factors, including heavy rain over a Missouri River tributary, the Nishnabotna River in southwest Iowa.

It was the second time that a Nebraska nuclear power plant has posted a notice of an unusual event with the NRC due to flooding in the past two weeks.

The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant, operated by the Omaha Public Power District, posted such a notification on June 6. The Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, 20 miles north of Omaha, has been shut down since April for refueling. It has not been restarted because of the flooding.

The river has risen at least 1.5 feet higher than Fort Calhoun's 1,004-foot elevation above sea level. The plant can handle water up to 1,014 feet, according to OPPD.

In northern Missouri on Sunday, water was flowing over two levees choking off two more routes for people attempting to cross the Missouri River.

The surging water closed U.S. Highways 159 and 136 in western Missouri, which means drivers could no longer cross bridges at Brownville and Rulo, Neb. A spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Transportation said Sunday that the bridges are expected to be closed for the foreseeable future.

A third crossing, at Nebraska City, was closed when Iowa officials closed Highway 2 from the river to Interstate 29 due to rising water. All Missouri River bridges between Plattsmouth, Neb., and St. Joseph, Mo., are now closed.

At Omaha on Monday, city officials said the Nebraska National Guard has a Black Hawk helicopter is staged at Eppley Airfield if needed for flood emergencies. The helicopter can deploy sandbags weighing 1,500 pounds each in the event of a levee breach, officials said.

Sunday evening, officials at Lake Waconda near Plattsmouth advised all remaining residents to evacuate because of the appearance of several “sand boils” near the levee there. Sand boils occur when water under pressure wells up through a bed of sand and can contribute to levee failure.

Lisa Hathaway at the Lake Waconda caretaker's officer said engineers from the Corps of Engineers were en route to the levee Monday to try to determine its condition. Hathaway estimated that only a half dozen of the 200 lake residents were still there when the evacuation was advised.

In Missouri, authorities said water ­ some from recent rain ­â€" began pouring over levees Saturday night and Sunday morning in Holt and Atchison counties, flooding farmland and numerous homes and cabins.

A hole in the side of a Holt County levee continued to grow Sunday, deluging the state park and recreational area of Big Lake, a community of fewer than 200 people located 78 miles north of Kansas City and just across the river from Rulo.

Holt County Commissioner Mark Sitherwood said U.S. 159 was closed south of Big Lake because water was pouring over the road, and most of the west side of the community was flooded.

“It's going through in one place that we know of and overtopped in numerous places, and there is seepage everywhere,” Sitherwood said.

World-Herald staff writer Rick Ruggles and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1272, kevin.cole@owh.com

I apologize, I didn't read it carefully enough, I was hasty.  I hope this clears it up.  I'm really impressed with you readers who don't take things on face value and reply about them.
Thanks for correcting me.
--Kim

 a news blackout.  What will they think of next?  This is crazy. 
Are we going to have a disaster like Japan?  Let's hope there's no earthquake/tsunami before they get this cleared up....
Find it here:  http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/18-Jun-2011/US-orders-news-blackout-over-crippled-Nebraska-Nuclear-Plant-report    
--Kim

US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report

Submitted 2 days 18 hrs ago

 

A shocking report prepared by Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a "total and complete" news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska.
According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a "catastrophic loss of cooling" to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a "no-fly ban" over the area.
Located about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant is owned by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) who on their website denies their plant is at a "Level 4" emergency by stating: "This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified."
Russian atomic scientists in this FAAE report, however, say that this OPPD statement is an "outright falsehood" as all nuclear plants in the world operate under the guidelines of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) which clearly states the "events" occurring at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant do, indeed, put it in the "Level 4" emergency category of an "accident with local consequences" thus making this one of the worst nuclear accidents in US history.
Though this report confirms independent readings in the United States of "negligible release of nuclear gasses" related to this accident it warns that by the Obama regimes censoring of this event for "political purposes" it risks a "serious blowback" from the American public should they gain knowledge of this being hidden from them.
Interesting to note about this event was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chief, Gregory B. Jaczko, blasting the Obama regime just days before the near meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant by declaring that "the policy of not enforcing most fire code violations at dozens of nuclear plants is "unacceptable" and has tied the hands of NRC inspectors."
This report further notes that the "cover-up" of this nuclear disaster by President Obama is being based on his "fantasy" of creating so-called green jobs which he (strangely) includes nuclear power into as his efforts to bankrupt the US coal industry proceed at a record breaking pace.
Unknown to the American people about Obama's "war" on the US coal industry is it's estimated to cost them over a 60% increase in their electricity bills by 2014 and cause over 250,000 jobs to be lost in an already beleaguered economy.
More ominous for those American people whose lives depend on the coal industry that is being deliberately destroyed is the Obama regime's massive "security exercise" currently ongoing in the major coal mining States of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, and as we can read about, in part, as reported by InfoWars.Com:
"If you're still living under the delusion that the TSA is just restricted to airports then think again. A joint VIPR "security exercise" involving military personnel has Transportation Security Administration workers covering 5,000 miles and three states, illustrating once again how the TSA is turning into a literal occupying army for domestic repression in America.
The TSA, in alliance with a whole host of federal, state, local agencies as well as military personnel, is currently conducting a massive "security exercise" throughout Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.
"The participating teams are composed of a variety of TSA assets including federal air marshals, canine teams, inspectors and bomb appraisal officers. They will be joined by state and local law enforcement officials to supplement existing resources, provide detection and response capabilities. The exercise will utilize multiple airborne assets, including Blackhawk helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as waterborne and surface teams," reports the Marietta Times.
Although the exercise is couched in serious rhetoric about preparedness, it relates to "no specific threat" and the details are nebulous to say the least and seems to revolve around little else than testing out high-tech surveillance equipment and reminding Americans who their bosses are."
Obama's fears of the American people turning against nuclear power, should its true dangers be known, appear to be valid as both Germany and Italy (whose people, unlike the Americans, have been told the truth) have turned against it after the disaster in Japan and vowed to close all of their atomic plants.
Perhaps even more sadly for the American people is this report stating that the Obama regime is "walking in lockstep" with Japan in their attempts to keep the truth of nuclear accidents from their citizens; which in the case of the Japanese can only be labeled as horrific as new evidence points to them knowing within hours of the Great Tsunami that their atomic reactors had melted down, but have only today ordered an evacuation of pregnant women from what are called "radiation hotspots."
With a country that some scientists are now warning may soon become uninhabitable due to radiation damage, and with reports of mutant rabbits and radioactive whales now being reported, one wonders if in knowing the truth the American people would really want to follow Japan's "example" instead of those people in Germany and Italy?
But, with an already documented 35% increase in the infant mortality rate for American mothers living in the western coastal regions of the US caused by radiation blowing onto them from Japan being ignored by these people there doesn't seem to be much hope for them. (The EU Times)

ANS -- The Feminine Side

This is an interesting analysis of the reason women don't go into science, technology, engineering and math as often as men do.  Instead of blaming the women, it postulates that the fields are lacking and could benefit from an infusion of feminine viewpoint. 
Disclosure: it's written by my "little" brother, Alan Cooper.
Find it here:  http://www.mralancooper.com/?p=201 
--Kim

The Feminine Side

February 28th, 2011

At the recent Interaction Eleven conference in Boulder CO, Cheryl Platz gave an excellent presentation on ways to encourage young girls to study science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in school. Cheryl's talk highlighted the importance of this, as the number of young women so choosing has dropped dramatically since the early 1980s, and the field needs all of the bright contributors it can recruit, regardless of gender.

I agree wholeheartedly with Cheryl's remarks, and I support her recommendations without reservation. There is indeed some sort of barrier that discourages young women from getting into the technical professions, and it is well worth tearing it down.


Computer Engineering Barbie

But something about the presentation bothered me. After listening awhile, I realized that I was feeling the " framing effect", a well-known cognitive bias, wherein the way a question is worded affects the way people answer it. Cheryl's insistence that girls could enjoy studying math and science sounds right to me, but the way her argument was framed seemed to blame the girls for the shortfall.

While I earnestly support the idea that more girls should study math and science, I believe that the problem instead belongs to employers, educators, and the institutions they lead. I believe that the STEM disciplines would have more success with young women if they developed a stronger feminine side.

Rather than simply "boys" versus "girls", I prefer to think of personal inclinations in terms of one's "feminine side" and "masculine side". I believe that all men and all women possess both sides in varying degrees. I am proud of my strong feminine side, and I know many women whose strong masculine side makes them tough as nails.

What's more, there are many men and boys who are more comfortable in the soft studies and who eschew the harder sciences. There are many young men who struggle with math, but who could make excellent contributions to the fields of software development, technical literature, interaction design, visual design, cognitive and behavioral studies, and other closely related fields (for example, that would describe me).

I believe that girls reject math and science not because they are too girly, but because the purveyors of STEM education are too manly, or more accurately, too pointless and boring from the feminine point of view.

There are very real differences between the sexes, and these appear at a young age in all children. There is a large and growing body of literature in the fields of evolutionary and cognitive psychology that prove and illustrate these different ways the sexes behave in similar situations.

Women are quite capable of high achievement in STEM subjects, but they are disinterested because their motivations are different. Platz asserted that while men are content to learn math or science for the subject's own sake, women see those disciplines merely as a means for achieving broader human goals. Those goals are what motivate the feminine approach, and when the subjects are taught in isolation, they often lose interest.

What's more, I don't believe that the hard sciences discourage only girls; I believe that they also discourage those with a well-developed feminine personality.

This is admittedly a semantic quibble, but the framing effect is a very real thing, and the language we use powerfully influences our decisions. And when the feminine side is strongly influenced to stay away from science and technology, our entire society suffers. A solely masculine discipline is a weak and one-sided discipline.

One could make a strong argument that the feelings of frustration and failure people get from using technology were caused by our purely masculine approach to software design. Almost all of our digital artifacts are designed and built by men (and a few women with strong masculine sides) inside organizations led by the same, who learned their discipline from masculine teachers within masculine institutions using curricula and methods that embody strong masculine principles.

Bringing stronger feminine values and more feminine ways of thinking to science and technology will bring a larger, more human scale view to our disciplines. The feminine side approaches problems and group dynamics in a way that is very different from the masculine way. When some minor catastrophe occurs at work or play, I have seen groups of men standing around demanding "Who did this?" and "Who's going to fix this?" When that same catastrophe occurs amid a group of women, they ask "Did I cause this?" and "What can I do to fix this?" This positive, supportive attitude of women transforms the whole sense of teamwork and accomplishment.

It's certainly possible to go too far, as groups of only women can be as biased and problematic as groups of only men. By far, the strongest and most effective teams are the ones composed of both men and women, with strong masculine and feminine sides. The whole nature of the group changes for the better with mixed gender teams. When there are at least two members of each sex in a group, the dynamics improve dramatically. A recent study gives some empirical credence to my personal observations.

Unfortunately, almost the entire spectrum of education in computer and software subjects is taught in glacial isolation from any practical application that improves people's lives. The masculine side says "Computers are great because they can do anything!" while the feminine side says "I'd be very interested in computers if you could just tell me one useful thing they can do!"

I believe that the greatest burden of responsibility for bringing women into STEM education lies with the academic establishment. Young girls know who they are and what they want just as clearly as young boys do. As Cheryl noted in her talk, women are capable and willing of engaging with technology if it gives them command of something relevant in their lives. When educators connect their disciplines to the larger world, girls will be the first to see it, value it, and join up.

Many practitioners today seek redemption in a deeper understanding of the technical tools we use to build software. But that is such a masculine interpretation of the problem. Rather, I believe that a more worthwhile wellspring lies in understanding how human beings think and behave and what motivates their actions. That is, if the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math were to develop a stronger feminine side we'd not only see a lot more girls entering our fields, but our fields would be much better for it.

Tags: bias, cognitive, education, engineering, feminine, framing, gender, girls, masculine, science, software, stem, teaching, women
Posted in Interesting Stuff | 6 Comments »

ANS -- US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report

 a news blackout.  What will they think of next?  This is crazy. 
Are we going to have a disaster like Japan?  Let's hope there's no earthquake/tsunami before they get this cleared up....
Find it here:  http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/18-Jun-2011/US-orders-news-blackout-over-crippled-Nebraska-Nuclear-Plant-report   
--Kim

US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report

Submitted 2 days 18 hrs ago

 

A shocking report prepared by Russia�s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a �total and complete� news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska.
According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a �catastrophic loss of cooling� to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a �no-fly ban� over the area.
Located about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant is owned by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) who on their website denies their plant is at a �Level 4� emergency by stating: �This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified.�
Russian atomic scientists in this FAAE report, however, say that this OPPD statement is an �outright falsehood� as all nuclear plants in the world operate under the guidelines of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) which clearly states the �events� occurring at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant do, indeed, put it in the �Level 4� emergency category of an �accident with local consequences� thus making this one of the worst nuclear accidents in US history.
Though this report confirms independent readings in the United States of �negligible release of nuclear gasses� related to this accident it warns that by the Obama regimes censoring of this event for �political purposes� it risks a �serious blowback� from the American public should they gain knowledge of this being hidden from them.
Interesting to note about this event was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chief, Gregory B. Jaczko, blasting the Obama regime just days before the near meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant by declaring that �the policy of not enforcing most fire code violations at dozens of nuclear plants is �unacceptable� and has tied the hands of NRC inspectors.�
This report further notes that the �cover-up� of this nuclear disaster by President Obama is being based on his �fantasy� of creating so-called green jobs which he (strangely) includes nuclear power into as his efforts to bankrupt the US coal industry proceed at a record breaking pace.
Unknown to the American people about Obama�s �war� on the US coal industry is it�s estimated to cost them over a 60% increase in their electricity bills by 2014 and cause over 250,000 jobs to be lost in an already beleaguered economy.
More ominous for those American people whose lives depend on the coal industry that is being deliberately destroyed is the Obama regime�s massive �security exercise� currently ongoing in the major coal mining States of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, and as we can read about, in part, as reported by InfoWars.Com:
�If you�re still living under the delusion that the TSA is just restricted to airports then think again. A joint VIPR �security exercise� involving military personnel has Transportation Security Administration workers covering 5,000 miles and three states, illustrating once again how the TSA is turning into a literal occupying army for domestic repression in America.
The TSA, in alliance with a whole host of federal, state, local agencies as well as military personnel, is currently conducting a massive �security exercise� throughout Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.
�The participating teams are composed of a variety of TSA assets including federal air marshals, canine teams, inspectors and bomb appraisal officers. They will be joined by state and local law enforcement officials to supplement existing resources, provide detection and response capabilities. The exercise will utilize multiple airborne assets, including Blackhawk helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as waterborne and surface teams,� reports the Marietta Times.
Although the exercise is couched in serious rhetoric about preparedness, it relates to �no specific threat� and the details are nebulous to say the least and seems to revolve around little else than testing out high-tech surveillance equipment and reminding Americans who their bosses are.�
Obama�s fears of the American people turning against nuclear power, should its true dangers be known, appear to be valid as both Germany and Italy (whose people, unlike the Americans, have been told the truth) have turned against it after the disaster in Japan and vowed to close all of their atomic plants.
Perhaps even more sadly for the American people is this report stating that the Obama regime is �walking in lockstep� with Japan in their attempts to keep the truth of nuclear accidents from their citizens; which in the case of the Japanese can only be labeled as horrific as new evidence points to them knowing within hours of the Great Tsunami that their atomic reactors had melted down, but have only today ordered an evacuation of pregnant women from what are called �radiation hotspots.�
With a country that some scientists are now warning may soon become uninhabitable due to radiation damage, and with reports of mutant rabbits and radioactive whales now being reported, one wonders if in knowing the truth the American people would really want to follow Japan�s �example� instead of those people in Germany and Italy?
But, with an already documented 35% increase in the infant mortality rate for American mothers living in the western coastal regions of the US caused by radiation blowing onto them from Japan being ignored by these people there doesn�t seem to be much hope for them. (The EU Times)

ANS -- Bill Clinton's 14 Global Initiatives

You may have heard some or all of this, but it's definitely worth
reading. But I'm giving you the link because of the form and
pictures, instead of copying and pasting it here.
It's Bill Clinton's 14 suggestions for what to do to get the economy
going again. I just want everyone to know there are things we could
be doing, but the Republicans won't let us, because they think it's
more important to make Obama look like a failure than to rescue
America from doom. They are willing to kill us to make sure Obama
looks bad. That's insane. They are psychopaths.

find it
here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/06/20/bill-clinton-s-14-global-initiatives.html

--Kim

ANS -- How's that workin' for ya USA?

Here's an opinion piece by Chip Shirley, the Dixie Dove, on the economy.  The 60 Minutes link goes to a good but long article on the financial meltdown and who really knew what was going on.  There are links in the article to the 60 Minutes piece, I think: I haven't yet clicked on any of them: I just read the article.  It was really good. 
The core problem was that the companies that were supposed to rate the credit-worthiness of financial instruments were being paid by the companies that made the financial instruments, so they rated them AAA even when they were junk because that's what the boss wanted to hear.  In other words, the fox was guarding the henhouse.  Since when is that okay? Since Ronald Reagan.
Find it here:  http://chipshirley.blogspot.com/2011/06/hows-that-workin-for-ya-usa.html?showComment=1308548494452#c2922292464744124876   
--Kim

6/18/11

How's that workin' for ya USA?

Pay Us Back Now!

Corporate America put us in the shape we're in right now by any reasonable standard of measurement and they are doing well, unlike the rest, so, they have a large debt to pay in taxes by any fair measurement. They totally influenced policy and they crashed our economy. We did deregulate the financial industries in the 1980's and 90's and that was largely at the behest of Corporate American lobbying and donations.

It was the unregulated Ratings Industry which allowed millions of unscrutinized mortgages to be put in gold plated bundles and rated Grade A. This is the exact type of thing that goes all the way back to just before the Great Depression.

Corporate American donations and lobbying has MADE policy in the USA since Reagan took office.

Now they're stacking up against President Obama in every way shape and form.

How's that workin' for ya USA?
I'm not saying that people didn't get mortgages they couldn't afford. That's true, but the BIGGER PROBLEM that caused the whole global economy to bottom out was that the unregulated ratings agencies bundled rotten mortgages up into mega financial products and gave them perfect AAA ratings WITHOUT SCRUTINIZING THEM which is required by law! But since we had DE-REGULATED the finance industry in the 80s and 90s they weren't caught and then finally the xhit hit the fan!


Here are two links for proof. The first link is to a brilliant spot from 60 minutes on the subject that is a MUST SEE and it's only about 10 minutes. The second link is to a graph showing how bank failures virtually disappeared after the Glass-Steagall regulatory act was passed in 1932 and then failures surged again after that act was repealed in 1980.

60 Minutes on Cause of Crash:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/12/60minutes/main6292458.shtml?tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel

Bank failure Graph:
http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-087.pdf
Posted by CHIP at 7:37 PM

ANS -- Is there a Will?

This starts with the question of where did our backbone go?  Well, where did it go?  Is this the solution?  Is it possible?  do we have to start the Union movement over again?
Find it here:  http://www.groupnewsblog.net/ 
--Kim

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Is there a Will?

1945, one month after V-J Day, the Oil Workers� Union called a national strike
I often wonder where the backbones of the Progressive movement and the Democratic Party have gone? We are the children of Kent State, of the War protests, of the civil rights movement and yet we seem unable to rise when the stakes get higher and higher. FDL had a book salon with Joe Burns, Author of Reviving the Strike.

In Reviving the Strike, union negotiator Joe Burns draws on labor economics, history, and current analysis to show how only a campaign of civil disobedience can overcome an illegitimate system of labor control that has been specifically constructed over the past thirty years to reign in the power of the American worker. The book challenges prevailing views within the labor movement that say that tactics such as organizing workers or amending labor law can resolve the crisis of the American worker. Instead, Reviving the Strike offers a fundamentally different solution to the current labor crisis, showing how collective bargaining backed by a strike capable of inflicting economic harm upon an employer is the only way for workers to break free of the repressive system that has been inflicted upon them for the past three decades.

It is time to stop waiting for sanity to prevail. Time to stop letting the corporate agenda dictate our lives and our fortunes. Time to stop waiting for things to get better.

I don't advocate violence but I do advocate rising up and refusing to be a part of the systems that are destroying america. The clock is definitely ticking.

The Littlest Gator 2:27 PM Comments  

Labels: rising up, social justice, unions, workers

ANS -- Weekend Sleep Fails to Improve Performance, but Women Handle Workweek Sleep Loss Better

This is a short science article about catching up on missed sleep.
Find it here:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110615015650.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
--Kim

Weekend Sleep Fails to Improve Performance, but Women Handle Workweek Sleep Loss Better

ScienceDaily (June 16, 2011) ­ Performance deteriorates when sleep is restricted to six hours per night for a week and does not improve after two nights of recovery sleep. However, women may be less affected than men by this workweek pattern of sleep loss, suggests a research abstract being presented in Minneapolis, Minn., at SLEEP 2011, the 25th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS).

Results show that, in both men and women, performance decreased significantly after six nights of sleep restriction and did not improve after two nights of recovery sleep, suggesting that complete performance recovery may require more than just two nights of extended sleep. Sleep restriction also caused subjective and objective sleepiness to increase significantly; however, sleepiness did improve after recovery.

"After one workweek of mild sleep deprivation, two recovery nights were adequate in improving sleepiness but not performance," said principal investigator Dr. Alexandros N. Vgontzas, professor of psychiatry and endowed chair in sleep disorders medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine and director of the Sleep Research and Treatment Center at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa. "The usual practice of extending sleep during the weekend after a busy workweek associated with mild sleep loss is not adequate in reversing the cumulative effects on cognitive function resulting from this mild sleep deprivation."

The study also found significant gender differences. Compared with men, women were found to have less subjective sleepiness and less performance deterioration during sleep restriction, as well as greater improvements after recovery. These differences were associated with increased amounts of slow-wave sleep, or "deep sleep," in women at baseline.

"In women, but not in men, deep sleep appeared to have a protective effect," said Vgontzas. "Women with a higher amount of deep sleep can handle better the effects of one workweek of mild sleep deprivation, and their recovery is more complete after two nights of extended sleep."

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, slow-wave sleep, or deep sleep, is one of the sleep stages that make up a sleep cycle. Each complete cycle lasts about 90 to 110 minutes. Most adults will go through four to six cycles in a full night of sleep. During slow-wave sleep, there is an increase in high-amplitude, slow-wave brain activity, known as delta waves.

The study involved 34 normal sleepers: 16 men and 18 women. They had a mean age of 24.5 years. Participants spent 13 consecutive nights in a sleep lab, sleeping eight hours per night for the first four nights as a baseline measurement. Then sleep was restricted to six hours per night for six nights, followed by three recovery nights of 10 hours of sleep.

Sleepiness was measured subjectively using the Stanford Sleepiness Scale and objectively using the Multiple Sleep Latency Test. Performance was measured using the Psychomotor Vigilance Task. Measurements were taken on the fourth day for baseline data, on day 10 after one week of sleep restriction, and on day 13 after two nights of recovery sleep.

ANS -- The Sifted Bookshelf: Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton

This is about what Marx actually said rather than the stereotype that most people think of Marxism.  It's from The Daily Sift by Doug Muder, and is a book report of a book by Terry Eagleton.
Find it here:  http://weeklysift.blogspot.com/
--Kim


The Sifted Bookshelf: Why Marx Was Right by Terry Eagleton

When a thinker has had an impact on history, it's hard to put that out of your mind and read his or her words in their original context. It's hard not to judge Christ by the Christians, or Freud by the Freudians. Nietzsche was done writing before Hitler was born, but it is hard not to equate Nietzsche's supermen with Hitler's master race.

That's what Terry Eagleton is asking us to do for Karl Marx: Put aside the distorting lens of Stalinism, Leninism, and Maoism and read Marx on his own terms -- as a 19th-century critic of capitalism rather than the patron saint of 20th-century communism. The book's main point is that most of what "everybody knows" about Marx is stereotype, not reality. Correctly understood, Marxist ideas about 19th-century capitalism still provide a lot of insight into what's going wrong with 21st-century capitalism.

Eagleton defeats one stereotype immediately: that Marxists are dour and humorless, and that they write in an impenetrable style whose jargon is meaningful only to other Marxists. Chapters of his books begins with plainly stated present-day attacks on Marx. Chapter One, for example :

Marxism is finished. It might conceivably have had some relevance to a world of factories and food riots, coal miners and chimney sweeps, widespread misery and massed working classes. But it certainly has no bearing on the increasingly classless, socially mobile, postindustrial Western societies of the present.

Each chapter is an answer to a particular attack like this, and is written in an engaging style that doesn't make you feel like you missed the prerequisite course. There's no Marxist glossary in the back, and I never felt the need for one.

Capital, property, and oppression. Here's the main definition you need in order to understand Eagleton's version of Marxism: Capital is labor that makes future labor more productive. The purpose of clearing and plowing a field, for example, is not any immediate consumption; the purpose is to make future planting and reaping more productive.

Economic progress happens because capital accumulates, and so labor keeps getting more productive. So I'm more productive as a journalist because I can use computers, which wouldn't be possible if people like Ben Franklin hadn't spent countless hours experimenting with electricity. Franklin's labor -- and the labor of generations of successor scientists and engineers -- is capital for me.

The fundamental mystery of economic progress, then, is: Why do people create capital? They could be laboring to produce something immediately consumable, or they could be resting or playing. Why labor to make future labor more productive?

Marx has two answers: property and oppression. A person will create capital if the surrounding society will recognize it as property. (I'll plant in the spring if my tribe will recognize that the fall crop is mine to reap. Otherwise I probably won't. Or I'll clear the stumps out of a field if people will recognize it as my field, so that it is my future labor that will be more productive.)

A society's level of technology determines what kinds of capital are possible, and that in turn determines what kinds of property the society will recognize. The Native Americans who sold Manhattan to the Dutch, for example, had no notion of what it meant to "own" an island. It would be like someone offering you trinkets in exchange for your share of the Moon. The Moon isn't property to us, but it could be to a space-traveling society.

The other reason people create capital is oppression -- someone forces them. They work, and the capital they create belongs to someone else. (Picture the slaves who dug the irrigation systems of ancient Sumer.)

Property and oppression interact. If I own all the arable land in a region, then people will work for me or they will starve. Naturally, I will set them to raising the food that they will consume. But I will also make them create capital that will belong to me, not them.

Subsistence and abundance. Looking at individuals, Marx saw two important production levels: subsistence, which is enough to keep the person alive, and abundance, the level at which a person will stop working and enjoy leisure. (When a deer is cooking, a tribal hunting band will not keep hunting. They'll gather around the fire and tell stories.)

Looking at societies, Marx saw that any surviving society had to be achieving subsistence. But until his own era, no society had achieved a level of production that could provide abundance for everyone. For that reason, he theorized that every previous society had needed oppression to keep growing its capital. Somehow, large numbers of people had to be kept working for future productivity, even though their present needs were not being satisfied.

So when Marx looked at any historical society, he saw:

• a technological level that determined what could be produced,
• a definition of property appropriate to that production system,
• a ruling class that owned the vast majority of the defined property,
• a system of oppression that forced everyone else to labor at creating capital for the ruling class.

He wasn't judgmental about this. It was just the way things had to be if a society was going to grow its capital to a point where it could provide abundance. (How, for example, could ancient peoples have invented writing -- a great capital improvement for the rest of history -- if slaves hadn't supported a class that had the time to think about such things?)

But in his own era, Marx believed that abundance-for-everybody was finally possible, because the highly efficient oppression of capitalism had accumulated enough capital to make labor sufficiently productive. If only the fruits of labor could be properly distributed, everybody could work enough to produce abundance for himself/herself, and then stop and enjoy leisure. To the extent that capital needed to develop further, it could be a kind of play -- like Ben Franklin mucking about with electricity or volunteers creating the Wikipedia.

In Marx's era (and even moreso today) considerable effort went into controlling production, so that overproduction didn't swamp the markets and ruin the capitalists. So you frequently had (and have) fallow fields, idle factories, unemployed workers, un-used raw materials -- and people whose needs go unsatisfied.

This state-of-affairs Marx did get judgmental about, because he believed we could finally be done with systems of oppression. The only thing that prevented this happy development was that society was still organized around the goal of growing capitalists' capital as fast as possible. He believed that a revolution was necessary to re-orient the economy towards producing abundance-for-everybody rather than ever-increasing capital for the ruling class.

So what didn't Marx foresee? Several things. He didn't foresee the European welfare state, which produces something like abundance-for-everybody by taxing capitalism rather than overthrowing it. He also didn't foresee the extent to which technology could create new products and advertising could create dissatisfaction, so that people would keep working for iPhones and HDTVs and designer jeans even after they had achieved a 19th-century level of abundance.

But mainly he didn't foresee that communist revolutions would happen in countries like Russia and China, which hadn't accumulated enough capital yet to provide abundance. So he didn't anticipate Stalinism: communist oppression to build mines, factories, and other productive capital. The kind of revolution Marx expected -- one in a highly developed capitalist economy like England -- has never happened.

Say you want a revolution? To Marx, it goes without saying that the ruling class rules for its own benefit, and preserves the institutions that solidify its power. Everything putters along nicely as long as the interests of the ruling class are in line with the economic possibilities of the era, and its institutions are socially productive.

But sooner or later new possibilities develop, and those possibilities line up with the interests of a new class. Eventually that class achieves enough consciousness to understand its potential, and then you have a tug-of-war until the new class comes out on top. The prime example here was what Europe had recently gone through: the transfer of power from the feudal aristocracy to the businessmen. Unlike the suddens spasms of the French or Russian Revolutions, the feudalism/capitalism revolution played out over centuries.

The symptoms of a revolution, then, are also symptoms of a ruling class being out of joint with its times. The institutions, traditions, concepts, and categories that support the ruling class become baggage rather than assets. Society has to do complicated tricks to keep them functioning, and they seem increasingly artificial rather than natural. (To see how artificial feudal traditions looked in the early capitalist era, read Jane Austen.)

In this context, it's interesting to look back at Martin Ford's The Lights in the Tunnel, which I reviewed two weeks ago. Ford is worrying about how we will provide human jobs in an era of intelligent machines, and so continue to have enough viable consumers to keep a consumer market economy going. He winds up with elaborate systems to pay people for socially productive behaviors that aren't considered "jobs" today.

Whatever you may think of Ford's specific suggestions, they're a symptom. Capitalist-era concepts like jobs and profits are starting to hobble economic thinking rather than facilitate it. Increasingly, the problem isn't how to produce stuff and distribute it; the problem is how to produce stuff at a profit and distribute it by paying people to work jobs.

Now that the 19th-century proletariat is shrinking, I don't have a clue what class Marx would think is achieving consciousness or what re-definitions could make the economy work for them. But it sure looks like this era is getting long in the tooth.

ANS -- Boortz Double Talk on Taxes

This is an article from Chip Shirley, the Dixie Dove.  It's about taxes, and whether taxes charged to big companies actually do get passed on to the consumer or not. 
Find it here:  http://chipshirley.blogspot.com/2011/06/double-talk-on-taxes.html  
--Kim

6/11/11

Boortz Double Talk on Taxes

There's an old saying my mother used to use to get me thinking when I was a little boy, it goes like this..."If you pick up a newborn calf and hold it over your head on the day it is born and then you come back to the barn the next day and do the same thing and keep that up every day, then when the calf is grown you'll be able to lift that full grown cow over your head." The wry smile and glint in her eye as she finished the story clued me into her true meaning. My mother wasn't trying to teach me how to become the world's strongest man, she was teaching me how to sniff out a line of bull when I heard it. I think this is a good parable for today and it cogently points out how easy it is for any would be con artist to start with a little fact and turn it into a big lie, that seems factual.

Such is the case with the notion that corporations and rich people pay no taxes (in essence) because any tax levied against them will simply be countered by their increasing their prices for consumers. And so it's said (by Neal Boortz and other rightwing talk show hosts) that if we increase taxes on corporations today, they will simply pass that increase on to the consumer, but this is as big a lie as my mother's cow story. Yes the corporations would like to pass this tax on the consumer in it's entirety and they certainly will try, but there's a little thing in their way called free market capitalism. If the USA had no rules governing commerce and disallowing monopolies in the market place this canard would be true. That is, if one large corporation were able to leverage its wealth and eventually buy out all competition so that this 'super corporation' was the only economic entity in the country, if they sold consumers 100% of the goods they purchase, then yes, they could theoretically charge whatever price they wanted, but this is not the case. We don't allow monopolies in America, although there is a wave of political sentiment (funded by large corporations) pushing us in that direction.

But here are the facts. Pertaining to this idea, income taxes on corporations function in the same manner as individual income taxes and various sales taxes and user fees in our society. One could argue that any sales tax at the grocery store isn't really deducted from the store's gross income because the store just raises prices to get around it, likewise one might argue that the tax on gasoline doesn't come out of the filling stations profits, but the consumer as the tax leads to higher prices. One could say that this formula applies to all taxes even individual income taxes, since in fact we all produce 'something' for the money we earn and if we are taxed at a higher rate might not we all demand more in wages to make up for it?

Proponents of lowering taxes on the wealthy and corporations use the term 'pass thru tax' to describe this supposedly inalienable fact of nature. It sounds sensible and it serves their purpose, but as I will explain here, it's just not true. Sadly, just as it is far easier to break something than to build it, it also takes a lot more work/words to disprove a lie than to tell one, but here goes.

If one assumes that corporations and wealthy business people charge the 'minimum' price for their goods and services in order to garner a profit that would be one thing, but they don't, they charge the 'maximum' price that the market they're in will bear. Any business entity which is operating with the bare minimum in profits to survive would be most tempted to raise prices with increased taxation, that is unless they had some cash reserve and decided to 'ride the storm out' and not raise prices (even in the face of short term losses) in the hopes that business might pickup and increase their profit margin. But in the case of a business entity which is experiencing large profits, even record profits (as oil companies presently are, along with corporations who have outsourced their workforce to cheap foreign labor) the temptation to raise prices to match increased taxation is tempered by the firm knowledge that if they can make do with slimmer profits and keep their prices the same while their competitors are opting to raise prices, then that might well be a formula for their increasing their market share, or sell more of their product and therefore increase their profits even more even in the face of higher taxes. It's called 'free market capitalism'.

We all hunger for 'easy answers' to the difficult questions we face on a daily basis. We wish we could come up with a simple rule of thumb for thorny issues like taxation and then just stick to it and be done with all the analysis of the situation, but in reality that doesn't work. While we may wish we could settle all troublesome matters with one short cogent sentence of wisdom, the truth on the ground is that things are always changing around us and so are the solutions to our problems.

It is an undeniable fact that before the stock market crash in 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, tax rates in the US for corporations and wealthy individuals were relatively similar to what they are today and the solution FDR and the US Congress turned to in dealing with the dire straits we found ourselves in was to raise taxation on the most wealthy to double and triple what they had been and what they are today. The results? From 1940-1980 the wealthiest Americans paid between 70% and 90% in income taxes. Between 1940-80 we fought and paid for WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, we built our entire US Interstate Expressway system and we went to the MOON six times and we were able to pay for it all in the end with debt and deficits only a fraction of what we are seeing today! That was America at our best, in our shining hour and not only did we set world records for economic growth and for bringing people from poverty to good middle class lifestyles (the American Dream) but we also saw a dramatic increase in the income of wealthy individuals because the US government used the money garnered from taxes to 'invest' in our nation's infrastructure (roads, bridges, highways, hospitals, communications, public education etc.) which created a far superior environment in which business could prosper. Investments like these in major projects are all but undoable without governmental leadership. That's not 'communism' that is common sense capitalism.

Taxation naysayers are fond of pointing out that liberal hero President JFK actually lowered taxes on the wealthy. Yes, the JFK administration did lower the upper income tax bracket on the most wealthy...to 70%. That's double what it is today! In the 1980s President Reagan slashed that tax rate in half and we got along ok for a while. In a growing economy it is possible to lower income taxes and simultaneously increase revenue to the federal government, but it still left us well short of the federal income from taxation that we needed to maintain our high level of investment and maintenance of the nation's infrastructure and it was these types of investments that had led to the forty years of explosive growth in our economy! So we were in fact 'eating our seed corn' so to speak. What that old saying means is this...a farmer might be tempted in the midst of winter to conclude, 'We could save a lot of money now while our income is low if instead of buying food at the store, we just eat our stored up grain. or seed corn.' The only problem is that come spring and the growing season, the farmer has nothing to plant and therefore no crops to harvest and sell later. It's a shortsighted recipe for disaster.

To make things worse, at least when Reagan was in office we still had almost 100% of the manufactured goods we consume produced here in the USA. That meant that despite the lower income taxes all of the money made by the US workers who produce the products we consume 'stayed in the system' and was spent here in the US thereby funding the tax coffers of every city and state. But then came Newt Gingrich and the Republican Revolution. That congress passed super-free trade legislation (with GATT and the WTO) which led inevitably to the loss of most of our manufacturing base and all of the income tax from workers in US manufacturing which had funded the USA so well for so long. It's true that a Democrat president (Bill Clinton) signed these deals while under the the coercion of impeachment over personal malfeasance, but lets keep track of who was really behind this whole thing, it was the Republicans. 


Posted by CHIP at 3:04 PM 3 comments Links to this post
 

ANS -- A Model for Change

This is a statement on the home page of the Vermont Progressive Party.  If you don't read it all, read just the last section.  It is a model for a progressive movement that works. 
Find it here:  http://www.progressiveparty.org/organize/model 
--Kim

A Model for Change

There are many models for political change. There are the many issue groups that focus on the problems, define solutions, and then create the political pressure to implement those solutions. There are the �small p� progressives who work within the Democratic party to effect change from within. There are those few politicians who stay outside the party structure by running as Independents.

In Vermont, we have created another model: the Vermont Progressive Party, independent of the two corporate owned parties, engaged in grass roots organizing.

Origins

In 1985, Bernie Sanders (now Vermont�s junior Senator) was elected mayor of Burlington, beating a conservative �old boy� Democrat. Bernie brought the best and the brightest in to City Hall and implemented many reforms that were simply modern good government. He empowered a range of citizens to have a direct voice in city government: from students, to the poor, to the elderly.

Progressives started running for the Burlington City Council and getting elected from the poor, student, and middle class areas of Burlington. They cleaned up the waterfront left trashed by industry, started city-wide recycling, and established a public/private partnership with a land trust to make low and moderate rental and home ownership available. The Progressive Administration started a women�s small business technical assistance program and an affirmative action ordinance for the awarding of city contracts. The city-owned public electric utility created nationally-recognized efficiency programs, developed a wood-burning electric facility, and provides Burlington residents with the lowest electric rates in the state.

Recent History

Progressives began to run for the Vermont Legislature from Burlington districts which elected one, then two, then three, then four representatives. In 2000, we established a statewide party, the Vermont Progressive Party, and in our first statewide race, we attained the status of Major Party and elected our first legislator outside of Burlington, in the southernmost Vermont city of Brattleboro.

In 2002, Anthony Pollina, the Progressive candidate for Lt. Governor, received 25% of the vote in a statewide race, the largest percentage of any third party candidate for statewide office in the country in recent history. Pollina is an advocate for farmers and his best showings were in rural, traditionally Republican areas.

In 2004, we elected three additional legislators, all from rural, traditionally Republican areas of Vermont. In 2008, we elected our first State Senator, in a year when Pollina made a second bid for Governor, coming in second behind the Republican incumbent. In 2010, Pollina became the second Progressive elected to the State Senate. Progressives have now served a total of 47 terms in the Vermont Legislature.

In Burlington, Progressives have won the mayor�s office in every election but one since 1985, and remain a strong presence on the City Council.

A Model for Change:

The VPP is the most successful independent party in the US. We have seven members currently in the Vermont Legislature. Progressives have been elected to the Vermont Legislature, without interruption, for 20 years.

This is not a traditional third party. Our model is not Ralph Nader. We pick the races we enter strategically. We recruit candidates who are entrenched in their communities. We do not run against other �progressive� candidates.

We challenge the status quo, and this puts pressure on both of the other major parties. The Republicans and Democrats have achieved a comfort zone. They are entrenched in business-as-usual and big-money politics. They need each other and do not want competition from anyone with new ideas. They define themselves in opposition to each other, rather than articulating what they stand for.

In Vermont, our presence pushes the envelope on many fronts. As we speak out on issues and provide leadership, the voters express their support for our positions. This puts pressure on the other parties in campaigns, and in legislation. Our strong voice keeps progressive issues on the forefront and forces all the candidates to take positions on them. As our legislators speak out on the House floor, we provide cover for those progressive Democrats, and Republicans, who are unable to speak out against their party leadership.

Progressive leadership in the Vermont Legislature resulted in the opposition to utility deregulation in our state and in passage of rBGH growth hormone labeling laws and Medical Marijuana legislation.

We are strongly pro-labor and supporters of small agriculture. We have backed issues such as Universal Health Care, Opposition to No Child Left Behind, comprehensive Tax Reform, and many other issues which have forced the other parties to take public positions on these items and to move toward the Progressive positions.

This is not the only model for political change, but has proven viable in Vermont. As our hard work and measured pace pay off with state policies more in needs with working Vermonters, these successes point to a way forward for organizers and activists in other states unable to work within the two-party duopoly or on third parties focused on national, rather than local, races.

ANS -- Obama Administration’s Achievements (Thus Far)

This was posted eight months ago, but I just found it.  It's a long list.  Look through it.  Obama has accomplished a lot. 
Find it here:  http://kaystreet.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/obama-administration%E2%80%99s-achievements-thus-far/
--Kim

Obama Administration's Achievements (Thus Far)

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin says: "When you look at things that will last, Obama has more notches on the political belt."

Obama's Achievements Center

Arts and Culture 

1. Increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to the highest level since 1992. ref, ref, ref
2. Created an artist corps for public schools. ref
3. Championed the importance of arts education. ref
4. Promoted cultural diplomacy. ref
5. Section curator: ^pash

Banking and Financial Reform

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Established the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. ref
3. Established President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability to assist in financial education for all Americans. ref, ref , ref
4. Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010. ref, ref
5. Dodd-Frank (DF) Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the biggest financial reform law since the Great Depression. ref
6. Managed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) ref
7. Assigned a Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Act of 2009. ref
8. Pension relief Act of 2010. ref
9. Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act. ref, ref
10. Played a lead role in G-20 Summit re: financial crisis. ref
11. Reformed deferral rules to curb tax advantages for investing overseas. ref
12. Established new offshore investment policy that promotes in-sourcing. ref, ref
13. FUNDING:
14.  Cut salaries for 65 bailout executives (Pay Czar). ref
15. Banks have repaid 75% of TARP funds, bringing the cost down to $89B as of June 2010. ref
16. Closed offshore tax safe havens, tax credit loopholes. ref , ref , ref
17. TARGETED ACTIONS:
18.  Created the Financial Stability Oversight Council to monitor stability of the financial system and individual firms (DF). ref
19. New requirements for reporting financial data (DF). ref
20. Created self-funded Office of Financial Research (OFR) to collect information from financial firms (DF). ref
21. OFR employees must wait a year before working for certain financial firms. ref
22. Provided for orderly liquidation of financial companies (DF). ref
23. Limited trading activities of banks (Volcker Rule) beginning 2 yrs after passage (DF). ref
24. Swaps Pushout Rule prevented federal assistance to swaps (including derivatives) traders (DF). ref
25. Derivatives must be traded transparently through a clearing house (DF). ref
26. Defined the amount and nature of assets required to meet capital requirements (DF). ref
27. Originators of asset-backed securities must retain 5% ownership/risk (DF). ref
28. Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (DF). ref
29. Stronger client fiduciary duty for broker-dealers (DF). ref
30. Higher standards for securities advertising and disclosures (DF). ref
31. Expanded "insider loans" (DF). ref
32. Higher standards for sytemically important ($50 billion assets+) institutions, including annual stress tests and restrictions on bank acquisitions (DF). ref
33. Executive compensation must be determined by an independent committee (DF). ref
34. Issued compensation guidelines for bank executive salary and bonuses. ref , ref
35. Financial agencies must establish Offices of Women and Minorities to promote more diverse hiring (DF). ref
36. Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act. ref, ref
37. Credit CARD Technical Corrections Act of 2009. ref
38. Established a credit card bill of rights. ref
39. Reformed credit card swipe fees. ref
40. Created new criminal penalties for mortgage fraud. ref
41. Congress pursued Goldman Sachs for securities violations. ref
42. Permanently extended Research and Experimentation Tax Credit for domestic investments. ref
43. RESULTS:
44. (Treasury) Sold 1.5 billion shares of Citigroup at a profit. ref
45. G-20 summit produced a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis. ref
46. Negotiated deal with Swiss banks to permit US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals. ref
47. Financial reform has 'strongest consumer financial protections in history.' ref
48. Section curator: ^dellalee

Civil Rights

1. FUNDING:
2. Provided $12.2 billion in new funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Act though the American Recovery and investment Act. ref
3. TARGETED ACTIONS:
4. Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; Instituted equal pay for women. ref, ref, ref
5. Presidential Memorandum extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. ref , ref , ref , ref
6. Presidential Memorandum protecting gay and lesbian partners' visitation/healthcare decision-making rights (4/15/2010). ref
7. Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to include gender, sexual orientation and disability. ref
8. Supported the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT). ref
9. Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act. ref
10. Established White House Council on Women and Girls (Executive Order 13506 ). ref
11. Financial agencies must establish Offices of Women and Minorities to promote more diverse hiring.
12. Increased minority access to capital. ref
13. Pushing through settlement in the black farmers lawsuit against USDA. ref, ref
14. Signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. ref
15. Increased Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities (Exec Order)(celebrating 20th anniversary of the ADA). ref, ref
16. Section curator: ^roytoric

Commerce, Trade and technology

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Promoted internet freedom as part of U.S. foreign policy. ref, ref , ref
3. Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009. ref
4. Satellite Television Extension Act of 2010. ref
5. FUNDING:
6. Expanded loan programs for small businesses. ref
7. TARGETED ACTION:
8. Small Business Act. ref
9. Small Business Investment Act. ref
10. Proposed tougher meat industry antitrust rules. ref , ref
11. Denied federal contracts to tax delinquents. ref
12. Appointed the nation's first Chief Technology Officer. ref
13. Established Federal IT Dashboard. ref
14. Modernized the USA.gov portal to connect people to the services they require. ref
15. Launched the National Export Initiative, with the goal of doubling US exports by 2015. ref , ref
16. Provided National Export Initiative/Progress report and named President's Export Council. ref, ref
17. Launched piracy crackdown. ref
18. Section curators: ^dellalee

Conservation

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Amendments Act of 2009. ref
3. Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. ref
4. North American Wetlands Conservation Act. ref
5. Stewardship of the Ocean (established National Ocean Council ), our Coasts and the Great Lakes (Executive Order). ref
6. Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance (Executive Order). ref, ref
7. Established partnerships to share environmental technology with other countries. ref
8. FUNDING:
9. Increased funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. ref
10. Increased funding for national parks and forests. ref
11. $175 million of ARRA allocated for water conservation, $135 million of that in the West. ref
12. TARGETED AREAS:
13. Reengaged in the treaties/agreements to protect the Antarctic. ref, ref
14. Expanded access to places to hunt and fish. ref
15. Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration (Executive Order). ref, ref
16. Led effort to phase out whaling. ref
17. Pursued a wildfire management plan. ref
18. Encouraged more controlled burns to reduce wildfires. ref
19. Ordered removal of more brush, small trees and vegetation that fuel wildfires. ref
20. Section curator: ^pash

Economy

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA): a $789 billion economic stimulus plan. ref
3. US auto industry rescue plan. ref, ref
4. Start-Up activity now higher than it was during the dotcom boom. ref
5. Created task force to fight deficit. ref
6. Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009. ref
7. Temporary extension of programs under the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958. ref
8. FUNDING:
9. Increased minority access to capital. ref
10. $26 billion aid to states package (Aug 2010). ref
11. TARGETED ACTIONS:
12. Raised the small business investment limit to $250,000 through the end of 2009. ref
13. Created an Advanced Manufacturing Fund to invest in peer-reviewed manufacturing processes. ref
14. Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act – establishes a Federal "Do Not Pay" list. ref
15. Extended and indexed the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch. ref
16. Adopted Economic Substance tax doctrine. ref
17. Extended unemployment insurance benefits and temporarily suspend taxes on these benefits. ref ref
18. Economy grew 5.9% in 4th quarter. ref
19. U.S. Economy: Manufacturing grew by most since 2004. ref
20. U.S. GDP up 3.2% in first quarter. ref
21. Consumer spending showed biggest rise in 3 years. ref
22. Orders for most durable goods rose. ref
23. Wholesale inventories and sales rose in March. ref
24. $26 billion state aid bill triggered a surge of private municipal investment. ref
25. EXHIBITS – THE STIMULUS ONE YEAR LATER:
26. Success of the stimulus–how do you illustrate 'could have been worse'? ref
27. Distribution of ARRA funds by year. ref
28. Need for financial education: Investors who act on their own do worse than T-bills; market timers earn negative returns. ref
29. Consumer debt patterns (revolving and non-revolving) through end of 2009. ref
30. Growth of the national debt from 2000-2009. ref
31. Bar chart showing increases in national debt by President (since Carter). ref
32. Pie chart: 2009 annual deficit contrasting large Bush tax cuts and relatively small ARRA. ref
33. THE LEGACY: AUGUST 2010
34. The Economy Has Been Growing – seasonally adjusted change in GDP by quarter 2007-2010. ref
35. The Private Sector Has Begun to Add Jobs – Monthly change in nonfarm employment 2008-2010. ref
36. GDP would have been lower without the Recovery Act (2007-2013 projection) (scroll down to Part III to see chart). ref
37. Unemployment would have been higher without ARRA (2008-2010). ref
38. The gap between actual and full-employment GDP would have been much larger without TARP and ARRA (2008-2010). ref
39. MISCELLANEOUS EXHIBITS:
40. Public Sector Lost 316,000 jobs October 09-July 10 (state aid negotiated out of ARRA by GOP). ref
41. Section curator ^roytoric

Education: College

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Enacted largest reform of student aid in 40 years. ref, ref
3. Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010. ref
4. Established President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability to assist in financial education for all Americans. ref, ref, ref
5. FUNDING:
6. Increased funding for land-grant college. ref
7. Provided means for students struggling to make college loan payments to refinance. ref
8. TARGETED ACTIONS:
9. Expanded Pell grants for low-income students. ref
10. Expanded Pell grant pool by eliminating private lender subsidies for student loans. ref
11. Section curators: ^ejoyce ^Kroth

Education: Health of Children

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Created the Race to the Top Fund ($4.35 billion) to reward States that create comprehensive education reform plans. ref
3. Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 . ref
4. FUNDING:
5. Provided funding for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools. ref
6. Established State Equalization Fund; new funds for school construction (ARRA). ref
7. Provided $77 Billion for reforms to to strengthen Elementary and Secondary education. ref
8. Fully funded the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). ref
9. Provided $12.2 billion in new funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Act through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. ref
10. $26 billion state aid package saved 160,000 teacher jobs (Aug 2010) ref
11. Provided over $2.3 billion in additional funding to Head Start and Early Head Start programs in 2009. ref
12. Provided $5 billion dollars for Early Learning Programs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. ref
13. Roughly doubled the amount available in Federal Child Care Block Grants. ref
14. Established "Promise Neighborhood" Grants (modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone). ref , ref
15. Eliminated abstinence-only funding in budget. ref, ref
16. TARGETED ACTIONS:
17. Helped rebuild schools in New Orleans. ref
18. Established school programs to highlight space and science achievements. ref
19. Recruited math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession. ref
20. Expanded the Nurse-Family Partnership to all low-income, first-time mothers . ref
21. Provided affordable, high-quality child care. ref
22. Unveiled initiatives to help men be better fathers. ref
23. Section curators: ^ejoyce ^Kroth

Employment: Jobs

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Jobs for Main Street Act (2010). ref
3. American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010. ref
4. National Export Initiative ref
5. FUNDING:
6. (DOL) Dedicated $100 million in Energy Training Partnership green jobs training grants. ref
7. (DOL) Dedicated $150 million for Pathways Out of Poverty green jobs training grants. ref
8. $33 billion-dollar jobs package (March 2010). ref , ref
9. $26 billion aid to states package (Aug 2010). ref
10. $5,000 tax credit for every new worker. ref
11. New Health IT Workforce Grants (ARRA). ref
12. TARGETED ACTIONS:
13. Job training programs in clean technologies for displaced workers. ref
14. Green Vet Initiative to promote environmental jobs for veterans. ref
15. Financial agencies must establish Offices of Women and Minorities to promote more diverse hiring (DF).
16. Recruited math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession. ref
17. Initiated a new policy to promote federal hiring of military spouses. ref, ref
18. Required new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliations or contributions. ref, ref
19. RESULTS:
20. CBO found 3.7 Million jobs created by stimulus (May 2010). ref
21. Job loss exploded under Bush, improves under Obama. ref
22. 682,370 jobs created under the Recovery Act Between January 1 ­ March 31,2010. ref, ref, ref
23. New jobless claims tumble. ref
24. March payrolls surge by 162,000 US says . ref
25. March jobs data showed biggest growth in three years . ref
26. U.S. economy added 90000 jobs in April . ref
27. Jobless rates dropped in 34 states and DC (AP). ref
28. Section curator: ^roytoric

Energy: Green

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Established an Energy Partnership for the Americas. ref
3. Established the Biofuels Working Group to develop a comprehensive approach to alternative fuels. ref
4. Additional measures to advance clean energy/solar investments and job creation (ARRA). ref
5. Launched new Climate Service. ref
6. Worked toward deploying a global climate change research and monitoring system. ref
7. Implemented renewable fuels mandate of 36 billion gallons by 2022. ref
8. FUNDING:
9. More than doubled federal spending for research on clean fuels. ref
10. $60 billion in spending and tax incentives for renewable and clean energy. ref
11. Invested in all types of alternative energy. ref
12. Increased funding for the Environmental Protection Agency. ref
13. Invested $2 billion in solar power, hailed new jobs. ref, ref, ref
14. Established consumer tax credit for plug-in hybrid cars. ref, ref
15. Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes. ref
16. Doubled funding for bicycling, walking projects ref, ref
17. (DOL) Dedicated $100 million in Energy Training Partnership green jobs training grants. ref
18. (DOL) Dedicated $150 million for Pathways Out of Poverty green jobs training grants. ref
19. $8 billion combined public/pvt funding committed to develop Smart Power Grid (part of ARRA). ref
20. Incentivized farmers to use more renewable energy and be more energy efficient. ref
21. TARGETED ACTIONS:
22. Purchased fuel efficient American-made fleet for the federal government. ref
23. Ordered 5,000 hybrids for federal fleet. ref
24. (NIST) Completed first release of Smart Grid framework. ref
25. Created job training programs in clean technologies for displaced workers. ref
26. Created Green Vet Initiative to promote environmental jobs for veterans. ref
27. Established program to convert manufacturing centers into clean technology leaders. ref
28. RESULTS:
29. First President to create detailed vision for clean energy economy. ref
30. Wind power growth up 39% due to government stimulus. ref
31. Study: Almost 5 million charging stations by 2015. ref
32. Section curator: ^pash

Energy: Old

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Ended the previous policy of not regulating and labeling carbon dioxide emissions. ref
3. Created Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage. ref
4. Set national standards for fuel economy and first ever greenhouse gas emission levels for passenger cars and light trucks. ref
5. Set smog limit: new strict proposal to replace Bush-era rule (EPA). ref ref
6. Regulated greenhouse gases for large industrial sources (EPA). ref
7. Raised fuel economy standards. ref
8. Required states to provide incentives for utilities to reduce energy consumption. ref
9. Allowed states to enact tougher fuel efficiency standards than federal standards. ref
10. Established Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future. ref
11. FUNDING:
12. Pledged more than $8 billion for new nuclear reactors. ref
13. Tax breaks to promote public transit. ref
14. TARGETED ACTIONS:
15. Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref
16. Reengaged in global warming and greenhouse gas emissions talks. ref, ref
17. Offered 17% U.S. emissions cuts at climate summit. ref
18. Pledged 28% cut in federal greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. ref
19. Expanded greenhouse gas reduction targets for Federal operations -13% reduction from indirect sources by 2020. ref
20. (FTC) Toughened anti-greenwashing rules. ref
21. Instituted "Cash for Clunkers" to spur auto sales and promote fuel efficiency . ref, ref
22. Ordered inspections of mines with poor safety records. ref
23. Closed loophole that allowed drilling in Rockies without environmental review. ref
24. (EPA) Sharply limited mountaintop mining. ref
25. (EPA) Announced historic plans to regulate coal ash. ref
26. Required electric utilities to produce 20% of their electricity demand from renewable energy sources by 2020. ref
27. (EPA) Limited mercury emissions. ref ref
28. Section curator: ^pash

Energy: Oil

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Introduced Oil Spill Recovery Bill to remove oil company liability cap. ref ref
3. Created offshore drilling safety review board. ref
4. Created new drilling agency with investigative arm. ref
5. Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations and reports. ref
6. FUNDING:
7. Ordered $20 billion escrow fund by BP to reimburse lost incomes in Gulf. ref
8. Ordered $100 million to compensate those hurt by drilling moratorium. ref
9. TARGETED ACTIONS:
10. Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref
11. Mandated new safety rules for offshore drilling. ref
12. Opened civil and criminal investigations into Gulf oil spill. ref, ref
13. (Congress) Launched investigation into gas drilling practices. ref
14. Established the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. ref
15. Amended Oil Pollution Act of 1990 authorizing advances from Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. ref
16. Expanded oil rig workers' families abilities to sue and recover. ref
17. Fined BP subsidiary $5.2 million for false reporting. ref
18. (EPA) Barred Texas' authority to issue refinery operating permits. ref
19. Section curator: ^pash

Foreign Affairs and International Relations

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Re-established the United States standing in the world. ref, ref, ref
3. Poll: World's opinion of U.S. has "improved sharply" under Obama. ref
4. 47 nations rise to Obama's challenge at US nuke summit and agree to four years of non-proliferation efforts. ref
5. Visited more countries and world leaders than any first year president. ref
6. G-20 Summit produced a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis. ref
7. Launched an international Add Value to Agriculture initiative (AVTA). ref
8. Created a rapid response fund for emerging democracies. ref
9. Bolstered the military's ability to speak different languages. ref
10. BY REGION:
11. West Hem: Returned the rights of Americans to visit and assist their families in Cuba. ref , ref , ref
12. Middle East: Appointed envoys to the Middle East and AFPAK affirming the power of American diplomacy. ref
13. Middle East: Renewed loan guarantees for Israel. ref
14. Middle East: Pledged $400 million in aid to Gaza civillians. ref
15. Middle East: Pressured Israel to end Gaza blockade. ref
16. Middle East: Refused to give Israel a "green light" to strike Iran, augmenting Mid-East stability. ref
17. Middle East: Iran Sanctions Act. ref
18. Asia: Authorized President Bill Clinton's mission to secure the release of two Americans held in North Korea. ref
19. Asia: Authorized discussions with Myanmar and mission by Sen. Jim Webb to secure the release of an American held captive. ref
20. Asia: Renewed import restrictions under Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003. ref
21. Asia: Nuclear arms agreements with India (5/4/2010). ref
22. Africa: Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. ref
23. Africa: Helped stabilize Somalia (Exec Order). ref
24. Aus: Nuclear arms agreements with Australia (5/5/2010). ref
25. Europe: Nuclear arms agreement with Russia. ref , ref, ref, ref
26. Europe: Agreed with Switzerland to bolster tax information exchange ref, ref
27. Section curators: ^arrghPaine

Government Efficiency

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Established the President's Management Advisory Board. ref
3. Streamlined and modernized government to save taxpayer dollars. ref
4. Ended previous practice of having White House aides rewrite scientific and environmental rules, regulations and reports. ref
5. SPECIFIC CUTS:
6. Cut salaries of senior White House aides. ref
7. Made $20 Billion in budget cuts. ref
8. Provided that Members of Congress shall not receive a cost of living adjustment in pay during fiscal year 2011. ref, ref, ref
9. Eliminated F-22 fighter jet program after lobbying Senate vote to strip financing for more jets from a defense funding authorization bill. ref, ref, ref
10. Canceled contract for new Presidential helicopter fleet (28 helicopters, $11.2 billion). ref
11. OTHER TARGETED ACTIONS:
12. Enhanced payment accuracy through a "Do Not Pay" list. ref
13. Cracked down on tax cheats (Exec Order). ref
14. Returned taxpayer monies for refurbishment of White House offices and living quarters. ref , ref
15. Established the USA.gov portal connecting people to the services they require. ref
16. Section curator: ^roytoric

Health and Wellness

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Established HealthCare.gov, a web portal for determining and comparing all consumer health insurance and health care options ref, ref
3. Established an independent health institute to provide accurate and objective information. ref
4. Established the National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council . ref, ref
5. Established President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. ref
6. Ended previous policy of cutting the FDA and circumventing FDA rules. ref
7. Implemented a National HIV/AIDS Strategy 7/13/10 ref
8. FUNDING:
9. Provided $20 billion increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. ref
10. Provided $500 million in expanded funding for Health Professions Training Programs. ref, ref
11. Provided funding to strengthen hospital preparedness and emergency response ref
12. Expanded funding to train primary care providers and public health practitioners. ref
13. Increased funding to expand community based prevention prog: rams. ref
14. TARGETED ACTIONS:
15. First Lady Michelle Obama kicked off anti-obesity effort. ref
16. Established a New Patient's Bill of Rights. ref
17. Established Patient Safety and Medical Liability Demonstration Projects. ref , ref
18. Questioned Prestigious Hospitals in Electronic Health Records Probe (DHHS). ref
19. Established Standards For Accessible Medical Diagnostic Equipment ref
20. Expanded vaccination programs. ref , ref
21. Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009. ref
22. Engaged global efforts on HIV/AIDS issues. ref
23. (FDA) Now regulating tobacco. ref, ref
24. Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. ref
25. (FDA) Ordered Tobacco Companies to Disclose Cigarette Ingredients. ref , ref , ref
26. Banned sale of "light" cigarettes. ref
27. Increased Federal Employment of Individuals with Disabilities (Exec Order)(celebrating 20th anniversary of the ADA). ref, ref
28. (FDA) to discuss stricter guidelines for tanning beds due to skin cancer. ref
29. (FDA) Issued new guidance limiting antibiotic use in cattle to preserve efficacy in humans (6/28/2010). ref
30. FDA) Reconsidered safety of Bisphenol A, initiates study. ref
31. Section curator: ^roytoric

Health Care Reform (See also Taxes)

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act // Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (March 2010). ref , ref
3. Required large employers to contribute to a national health plan. ref
4. Required insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions. ref , ref
5. Required health plans to disclose how much of the premium goes to patient care. ref
6. Established an independent health institute to provide accurate and objective information. ref
7. Provided minimum essential health care coverage by Veteran's Affairs. ref
8. Expanded eligibility for State Children's Health Insurance Fund (SCHIP). ref, ref
9. Prevented children from being refused health insurance coverage. ref
10. Established Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. ref
11. Increased regulation of drug manufacturers. ref, ref
12. Cut prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients by 50% and began eliminating the plan's gap ("donut hole") in coverage. ref
13. TRICARE Affirmation Act. ref
14. Extended COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) to provide for a continuation of health care. ref, ref, ref
15. Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009. ref , ref , ref, ref
16. Section curator: ^roytoric

Housing

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Unveiled $275 billion dollar housing plan ref
3. Established "Opening Doors" – a federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness. ref , ref
4. FUNDING:
5. Provided $510 Million for the rehabilitation of Native American housing. ref
6. Provided $2 billion for Neighborhood Stabilization Program . ref
7. Provided $5 billion for Weatherization Assistance Program for low income families. ref
8. Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes. Ref
9. TARGETED ACTIONS:
10. Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act. ref
11. Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, helping millions avoid foreclosure . ref, ref
12. Established the Making Home Affordable Plan, which will provide for the refinance or loan modification for 9 Million homeowners. ref
13. RESULTS:
14. New-home sales saw biggest jump in 47 years. ref, ref
15. Foreclosures fall 2%. ref
16. Section curators: ^roytoric

Humanitarianism

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Supported the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT). ref
3. Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009. ref, ref
4. FUNDING:
5. Accelerated tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for Haiti earthquake relief. ref
6. Made Haiti donations tax deductible for 2009. ref
7. $60 million for flood victims in Pakistan (8/19/10).
8. TARGETED ACTIONS:
9. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act; instituted equal pay for women. ref, ref, ref
10. Presidential Memorandum extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. ref, ref, ref, ref
11. Increased federal employment of individuals with disabilities (Exec Order)(celebrating 20th anniversary of the ADA). ref ref
12. Presidential Memorandum extending benefits to Same-Sex Partners of Federal Employees. ref, ref, ref, ref
13. Presidential Memorandum protecting gay and lesbian partners' visitation/healthcare decision-making rights (4/15/2010). ref
14. The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act. ref
15. Awarded the Presidential Medal of freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King. ref
16. The Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, advancing press freedom and safety for journalists. ref, ref,
17. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to include gender, sexual orientation and disability. ref
18. Established White House Council on Women and Girls (Executive Order 13506 ). ref
19. Awarded 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. ref
20. Signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. ref
21. The Native American Heritage Day Act of 2009. ref
22. Appointed an American Indian policy adviser. ref
23. (EPA) Reversed Controversial "Human Guinea Pig" Rule. ref
24. Section curators: ^rmuse

Immigration

1. Requested emergency funding of $600 million for Border Security. ref
2. Deployed more drones on Mexico border (Homeland Security). ref
3. Deported higher numbers of Illegal Immigrants. ref
4. Section curators: ^roytoric

Infrastructure

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Introduced plan to expand broadband Internet across U.S. ref, ref
3. FUNDING:
4. $8 billion combined public/private funding committed to develop Smart Power Grid (ARRA.) ref
5. $800 million to fund rapid rollout of rural broadband expansion (7/2010). ref
6. Provided funding for high-speed, broadband Internet access to K-12 schools. ref
7. Increased infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants) after years of neglect. ref
8. $290 million in funding for 53 grants to "fund new streetcars, buses, and transit facilities." ref ref
9. Invested $13 Billion (ARRA: $8B + $1B 5-year federal budget) in high speed rail projects in 13 major corridors ref, ref, ref
10. Provided grants to encourage energy-efficient building codes. ref
11. Created a social investment fund network. ref
12. Funded a major expansion of AmeriCorps. ref
13. TARGETED ACTIONS:
14. (NIST) Completed first release of Smart Grid framework. ref
15. Opened 500 MHz of wireless spectrum over next 10 years to expand wireless/mobile broadband use. ref
16. Commenced 10,000th road project, Columbus, OH (part of ARRA); June 2010. ref , ref
17. Airport and Airway Extension Act. ref
18. Initiated modification to Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) regulations. ref, ref
19. Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which expands the volunteer program. ref, ref ref
20. RESULTS:
21. Study: Almost 5 million charging stations by 2015. ref
22. 10,000th highway project (ARRA). ref
23. Section curator: ^roytoric

Labor

1. Established POWER Initiative – protects government workers, ensures reemployment, reduces worker's comp claims and payments. ref
2. Restored funding to the EEOC and the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. ref

Law and Justice

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Outlined new federal drug control policy. ref ref
3. Ordered review of mandatory minimum sentences. ref
4. FUNDING:
5. Restored funding for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne/JAG) program. ref
6. TARGETED ACTIONS:
7. Appointment of first Latina to the Supreme Court. ref, ref
8. Appointed first black Attorney General, Eric Holder. ref
9. Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act to include gender, sexual orientation and disability. ref
10. Established crimes programs for the new Orleans area. ref
11. Brought greter alignment to sentencing guidelines for powdered versus crack cocaine. ref
12. Denounced SCOTUS ruling in Citizens United. ref
13. Pushing through settlement in the Black Farmers Lawsuit against USDA . ref, ref
14. DTV Delay Act. ref
15. Criminal History Background Checks Pilot Extension Act of 2009. ref
16. Tribal Law and Order Act. ref, ref, ref, ref
17. RESULTS:
18. U.S. jail population declined for first time in decades. ref
19. Section curators: ^roytoric

Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Established independent commission to make recommendations on slowing the costs of Medicare. ref
3. Social Security Disability Applicant Access to Professional Representation Act of 2010. ref
4. FUNDING:
5. Eliminated higher subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans. ref
6. TARGETED ACTIONS:
7. Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009. ref, ref, ref, ref
8. Cut prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients by 50% and began eliminating the plan's gap ("donut hole") in coverage. ref
9. Preserved access to care for Medicare beneficiaries ref
10. Expanded eligibility for Medicaid. ref

Military and National Security

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Began restructuring the military to reflect present day threats and technology. ref
3. Recommitted the U.S. to a policy of "no torture" and full compliance with the Geneva Conventions. ref
4. All servicepeople receive education in a region's culture and language before deployment there (a soldier said this on Maddow).
5. Supported the Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT). ref , ref
6. Ended the previous stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date. ref
7. Established new cyber security office. ref, ref
8. Defense Production Act Reauthorization of 2009. ref
9. Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act. ref
10. Nuclear Forensics and Attribution Act. ref
11. FUNDING:
12. Cut the missile defense program by $1.4 billion in 2010. ref
13. Eliminated F-22 fighter jet program after lobbying Senate vote to strip financing for more jets from a defense funding authorization bill. ref, ref, ref
14. Canceled contract for new Presidential helicopter fleet (28 helicopters, $11.2 billion). ref
15. $1.1 Billion for improving airport security. ref
16. Increased pay and benefits for military personnel. ref
17. BY REGION/THEATER:
18.  AF Changed the failing/status quo military command in Afghanistan. ref, ref
19. AF Set troop pullout in Afghanistan to begin in summer 2011. ref , ref
20. AF Established Afghan War policy that limits aerial bombing, prioritizes aid
21. AF infrastructure, diplomacy, and good government practices. ref
22. AF Ordered military to withdraw fast food establishments from Afghan bases. ref
23. IQ Ended combat mission (remaining personnel are nonagressive) 8/18/10
24. SOM Increased US Navy patrols off Somali coast. ref
25. SOM Ordered SEAL operation that resulted in killing of three terrorists and the release of US captain held by Somali pirates. ref
26. Closed secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. ref , ref
27. Opened door to space arms treaty. ref, ref
28. Restarted the nuclear nonproliferation talks, building back up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocols. ref
29. Executive Order Optimizing the Security of Biological Select Agents and Toxins in the US. ref
30. Caught more Taliban Leaders in one month than Bush/Cheney did in six years. ref
31. Negotiated nuclear arms agreements with Australia (5/5/2010), India (5/4/2010), and Russia (5/10/2010). ref, ref, ref, ref
32. New START treaty and protocol with Medvedev. ref
33. Section curators: ^arrghPaine

Military Veterans and Families

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Initiated a new policy to promote federal hiring of military spouses. ref, ref
3. Improved benefits for veterans. ref, ref, ref, ref
4. Interagency Task Force on Veterans Small Business Development . ref
5. Worked to clear the backlog of veterans claims and streamline benefits to those who served. ref
6. FUNDING:
7. Provided for the expenses of families of to be at Dover AFB when fallen soldiers arrive. ref
8. Donated 250K of Nobel prize money to Fisher House. ref
9. Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009. ref
10. Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009. ref
11. TARGETED ACTIONS:
12. Medal of Honor Commemorative Coin Act of 2009. ref
13. Promoted a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots ("WASP"). ref
14. Ended media blackout on war casualties; reporting full information. ref , ref, ref , ref
15. Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. ref
16. Improved basic housing allowance for military personnel. ref
17. Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010. ref
18. Provided minimum essential health care coverage by Veteran's Affairs. ref
19. Authorized construction/opening of additional health centers to care for veterans. ref
20. Korean War Veterans Recognition Act. ref
21. Blinded Veterans Association. ref
22. Major Charles R. Soltes, Jr., O.D. Department of Veterans Affairs Blind Rehabilitation Center. ref
23. Improved access for Veterans to receive PTSD treatment. ref
24. Green Vet Initiative to promote environmental jobs for veterans. ref
25. Section curators: ^roytoric

National Disasters and Emergencies

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Ordered an extensive review of hurricane and natural disaster preparedness. ref, ref
3. Memorandum on the Long-Term Gulf Coast Restoration Support Plan ref
4. FUNDING:
5. Provided $210 Million for building and upgrading fire stations. ref
6. Ordered $20 billion escrow fund by BP to reimburse lost incomes in Gulf. ref
7. Ordered $100 million to compensate those hurt by drilling moratorium. ref
8. TARGETED ACTIONS:
9. Haiti Economic Lift Program Act of 2010. ref
10. Haiti Debt Relief and Earthquake Recovery Act of 2010. ref
11. Emergency Aid to American Survivors of the Haiti Earthquake Act. ref

National Service

1. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act ­ Expands the national volunteer program. ref ref, ref ref
2. Created a Social Investment Fund Network. ref
3. Section curators: ^roytoric

Scientific and Medical Research

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Removed restrictions and provided support for embryonic stem-cell research and new biomedical research. ref, ref, ref ref
3. Extended the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. ref, ref
4. Supported Landsat Data Continuity Mission to enhance earth mapping. ref
5. FUNDING:
6. Provided new federal funding for science and research labs. ref
7. Provided grants to early-career researchers. ref
8. TARGETED ACTIONS:
9. Appointed an assistant to the president for science and technology policy. ref
10. Optimized the Security of Biological Select Agents and Toxins in the United States ref
11. Optimized the Security of Biological Select Agents and Toxins in the United States ref

Space Exploration and Space Station

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Worked with international allies on International Space Station ref
3. Opened door to space arms treaty. ref, ref
4. Used the private sector to improve spaceflight ref
5. Supported commercial access to outer space ref
6. FUNDING:
7. Increased spending to prepare for longer space missions ref
8. TARGETED ACTIONS:
9. Added another Space Shuttle flight ref
10. Partnered to enhance the potential of the International Space Station ref
11. Used the International Space Station for fundamental biological and physical research ref
12. Determined whether International Space Station can operate after 2016 ref
13. Conducted robust research and development on future space missions ref
14. DOD opened access to social media sites (Air Force News). ref
15. DOD will film all interrogations. ref
16. Cracked down on tax cheats (exec order). ref
17. Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref
18. Established the USA.gov portal connecting people to the services they require ref
19. Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. ref, ref
20. White House voluntary disclosure policy – visitor access records/450,000 records to date ref ref
21. Section curators: ^roytoric

Taxes

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Adopted Economic Substance tax doctrine. ref
3. Cracked down on tax cheats (Exec Order). ref
4. TARGETED ACTIONS: TAX CREDITS/REDUCTIONS:
5. Temporarily suspended taxes on unemployment benefits. ref ref
6. Established consumer tax credit for plug-in hybrid cars. ref, ref
7. $60 billion in spending and tax incentives for renewable and clean energy. ref
8. Tax breaks to promote public transit. ref
9. Extended and indexed the 2007 Alternative Minimum Tax patch. ref
10. Small business teax credits for the cost of health insurance for employees beginning 1/1/10 (HCR).
11. 2-year temporary tax credit up to $1 billion to encourage investment in new disease prevention and treatment therapies (HCR).
12. Income floor for medical expense deductions for individuals age 65 and older (and their spouses) remains at 7.5% through 2016; Raise 7.5% floor to 10% for all others (1/1/13) (HCR) ref
13. Health insurance premium tax credits and subsidies available for those with income up to 4x the federal poverty level (1/1/14) (HCR) ref ref
14. Accelerated tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for Haiti earthquake relief. ref
15. TARGETED ACTIONS: TAX ASSESSMENTS/INCREASES:
16. Made Haiti donations tax deductible for 2009. ref
17. ncreased penalty tax of 20% on nonqual distributions from HSA and MSA (1/1/11) (HCR) ref
18. Income tax rates for the highest earners will change from 35 to 39.6 percent. (1/1/11) (HCR) ref
19. Capital gains tax for the highest earners will change from 15 to 20 percent. (1/1/11) (HCR) ref
20. 2.3% excise tax on manufacturers and importers of certain medical devices (1/1/13) (HCR) ref
21. For high earners the capital gains tax will rise from 20 to 23.8 percent. (1/1/13) (HCR) ref
22. A 2.35 percent Medicare payroll tax only on wages over the threshold (an increase of 0.9 percent) (1/1/13) (HCR) ref
23. Tax increase for corporations with assets of at least $1 billion (1/1/14) (HCR) ref
24. 40% Excise tax on Cadillac health plans (2018) (HCR) ref
25. TARGETED ACTIONS: TAX ENFORCEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION:
26. Closed offshore tax safe havens, tax credit loopholes . ref , ref , ref
27. Employers will report the value of health benefits on W-2s (1/1/11) (HCR) ref
28. RESULTS:
29. Tax bills hit lowest level since 1950. ref
30. Tax refunds up 10 percent due to stimulus. ref
31. Section curator: ^roytoric

Transparency and Accountability

1. BROAD POLICY:
2. Mandate to follow the standards of the Freedom of Information Act (exec order). ref
3. Instructed all federal agencies to promote openness and transparency as much as possible. ref
4. Unveiled "open government" plans. ref
5. Federal IT Dashboard, "a website enabling federal agencies & the public to view details of information technology". ref
6. TARGETED ACTIONS:
7. Released presidential records. ref
8. Imposed limits on lobbyists' access to the White House. ref ref
9. Imposed limits on White House aides working for lobbyists after their tenure in the administration. ref
10. Closed lobbyist loopholes with respect to the Recovery Act ref
11. Banned lobbyist gifts to executive employees. ref
12. Provided more town halls and media access than previous administration. ref, ref
13. Required health plans to disclose how much of the premium goes to patient care. ref
14. Established an independent health institute to provide accurate and objective information. ref
15. Required new hires to sign a form affirming their hiring was not due to political affiliations or contributions. ref, ref
16. Established a uniform standard for declassifying, safeguarding and classifying national security information (12/29/2009). ref
17. Created a national declassification center. ref
18. DOD opened access to social media sites (Air Force News). ref
19. DOD will film all interrogations. ref
20. Cracked down on tax cheats (exec order). ref
21. Dismantled the Minerals Management Service, cutting ties between industry and government. ref , ref
22. Established the USA.gov portal connecting people to the services they require ref
23. Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act. ref, ref
24. RESULTS:
25. White House voluntary disclosure policy – visitor access records/450,000 records to date ref ref

Recovery, Progress and Change

1. Federal deficit shrank 8% year-on-year.
2. Financial reform has 'strongest consumer financial protections in history.' ref
3. Wall St reform designed to end taxpayer bailouts. ref
4. Six-month report card: exports in the first four months of 2010 were 17 percent higher than in the first four months of 2009 . ref
5. Job loss exploded under Bush, improves under Obama. ref
6. 682,370 jobs created under the Recovery Act Between January 1 ­ March 31,2010. ref, ref, ref
7. New jobless claims tumble. ref
8. March payrolls surge by 162,000. ref
9. March jobs data showed biggest growth in three years . ref
10. U.S. economy added 90,000 jobs in April . ref
11. Jobless rates dropped in 34 states and DC (AP). ref
12. New-home sales saw biggest jump in 47 years. ref, ref
13. Foreclosures fall 2%. ref
14. U.S. Economy: Manufacturing grew by most since 2004. ref
15. U.S. GDP up 3.2% in first quarter, consumer spending showed biggest rise in 3 years . ref
16. Orders for most durable goods rose. ref
17. Wholesale inventories and sales rose in March. ref
18. Consumer confidence highest in 2 years. ref
19. Start-Up activity now higher than it was during the dotcom boom. ref
20. Study: almost 5 million charging stations by 2015. ref
21. Wind power growth up 39% due to government stimulus. ref
22. Poll: world's opinion of U.S. has "improved sharply" under Obama. ref
23. 47 nations rise to Obama's challenge at US nuke summit and agree to four years of non-proliferation efforts. ref
24. U.S. jail population declined for first time in decades. ref

Miscellaneous

1. Got his daughters a puppy! ref
2. Held first Seder in White House. ref, ref
3. Appointed at least one Republican to the cabinet. ref
4. Section curator: ^roytoric

Copyright 2010 ObamaAchievements [at] gmail [dot] com
 
h/t Kato (again)

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This entry was posted on October 30, 2010, 10:10 PM and is filed under Bush Tax Cuts, Chamber of Commerce, Congressional Democrats, Congressional Republicans, Conservative Media, Obama Administration's Achievements, Obama Derangement Syndrome, Obama's Accomplishments, Obamaphonia, President Obama. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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