Get Started for FREE
Sign up with Facebook Sign up with Twitter
I don't have a Facebook or a Twitter account
|
Scooped by
Portland Coffee Party
onto Portland Coffee Party |
Scoop.it!
One of the few protections against corruption in government previously afforded The People was a free press; one that exists, at least in part, to inform us of wrong doings in the government.
 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Scoop.it!
Join us at 10 PM EST / 7 PM PST for a critical discussion on the hotest topics of the day (http://tobtr.com/s/4554679). Tonight: The Gun Control debate has reached a Mexican Standoff caused primarily by many people's inability to think rationally on the subject. And when they do, advocates on both sides use vitriolic, divisive language to whip their troops into an emotional frenzy and send them off, ironically, to war. To move things forward, we must first ask the question that has, to date, gone unasked: “What should the outcome of gun control legislation be?” After all, how can we chart and navigate a course through these politically treacherous waters if we don’t even know where we’re going? Only then can we plug the coordinates into our Legislative GPS and begin the journey. Secondly, we must find a way to maintain our collective composure as we engage in civil, transpartisan conversation -- most likely the more difficult task.
The weekend after the Sandy Hook Massacre I appeared on Egberto Willies’ Politics Done Right and pled for the nation to take a timeout. A cooling off period to allow sanity and reason to recover before entering what had always been an emotion-fueled debate -- even without the Newton tragedy. A month later, I blogged about how violent the debate had grown. And now, four months later, in an attempt to push Gun Control back to the top of the legislative pile, the President, his opponents, and their willing assistants in the press are doing their very best to stir up those emotions once again, clouding peoples judgement and making rational conversation virtually impossible. It’s time the Coffee Party fulfills its mission and bring transpartisanship, civilityand reason back to the negotiating table. Let’s agree to explore, rationally, every single possible solution aimed at making ours a safer society.
Portland Coffee Party's insight:
What outcomes do we expect from Gun Control legislation? Call (646) 929-2495 tonight at 10 PM EST / 7 PM PST and let us know what you want and how you think we can [peacefully] get their.
Scoop.it!
By DAVID A. STOCKMAN(NY Times)
Over the last 13 years, the stock market has twice crashed and touched off a recession: American households lost $5 trillion in the 2000 dot-com bust and more than $7 trillion in the 2007 housing crash. Sooner or later — within a few years, I predict — this latest Wall Street bubble, inflated by an egregious flood of phony money from the Federal Reserve rather than real economic gains, will explode, too.
Since the S.&P. 500 first reached its current level, in March 2000, the mad money printers at the Federal Reserve have expanded their balance sheet sixfold (to $3.2 trillion from $500 billion). Yet during that stretch, economic output has grown by an average of 1.7 percent a year (the slowest since the Civil War); real business investment has crawled forward at only 0.8 percent per year; and the payroll job count has crept up at a negligible 0.1 percent annually. Real median family income growth has dropped 8 percent, and the number of full-time middle class jobs, 6 percent. The real net worth of the “bottom” 90 percent has dropped by one-fourth. The number of food stamp and disability aid recipients has more than doubled, to 59 million, about one in five Americans.
So the Main Street economy is failing while Washington is piling a soaring debt burden on our descendants, unable to rein in either the warfare state or the welfare state or raise the taxes needed to pay the nation’s bills. Eight decades of bipartisan Keynesian spending and Federal Reserve money-printing have left us exhausted and bankrupt. MORE Via Michael Charney
Portland Coffee Party's insight:
The inequality gap in this country has far surpassed acceptable limits and it is due to the greediness of big business and the wealthy who were empowered (and continue to be so) by the government influence they have purchased. When will the 98% unite and put an end to this tyranny. 
Blackwhiteplanet.com__Most trusted black white dating site for serious relationship,No one night stand's comment,
April 2, 2013 4:16 AM
Are you a black woman who wants to dating white man? Join Now
Are you a white man who wants to dating black woman? Join Now
Scoop.it!
It takes a ton of cash to put on the sort of show President Barack Obama has planned this weekend for his second inauguration. But who's paying for it -- and what might they want in return?
Portland Coffee Party's insight:
Politicians are as politicians do. Corruption, lack of transparancy, and the revolving door between the private and public sectors converge in a single week's news. If you aren't mad, you aren't paying attention.
Scoop.it!
Data now exists that begins to make the “one dollar one vote” theory somewhat suspect; namely the spending patterns of this past Presidential Election. Via Party Recon
Portland Coffee Party's insight:
The only thing we have to fear is the indiffernce of good men and women. Will you be led to slaughter, or will you stand up to tyranny? This is the question that will define our generation. What say you? 
Party Recon's curator insight,
January 23, 2013 3:51 AM
The only thing we have to fear is the indiffernce of good men and women. Will you be led to slaughter, or will you stand up to tyranny? This is the question that will define our generation. What say you?
Scoop.it!
Few of us will ever forget the events that transpired in Newton, MA on Friday, December 14, 2012 and the visceral battle that ensued between pro and anti-gun forces in the days that followed. Via Party Recon
Portland Coffee Party's insight:
What price are we willing to pay for instant justice? In times of tragedy, calmer heads must prevail.
Party Recon's curator insight,
January 11, 2013 6:31 PM
What price are we willing to pay for instant justice? In times of tragedy, calmer heads must prevail.
Scoop.it!
Watch as the Honerable Lady from California, Sen. Dianne Feinstein attempts to take yet another big chuck out of your civil rights.
Scoop.it!
By Dan Aronson Now that the election has [thankfully] passed, I have compiled several short memos to the various groups that seemed to be at odds with one another during the campaign.
Scoop.it!
Economic growth—the kind America enjoyed during its longest decades of prosperity —does not happen in countries with chronic income inequality.
Scoop.it!
Extending most expiring tax cuts other than President Bush’s high-income tax cuts would boost gross domestic product (GDP) by a significant 1.3 percent next year, a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report finds, while extending the high-income...
Scoop.it!
I have long since studied the various arguments both for and against the Electoral College, including its effect on voter behavior and turnout, representation of smaller states, and the way presidential candidates design campaigns. But keeping Big Money from dominating elections is the best reason yet to do away with this antequated system that has kept three men from the White House who had recieved the most votes.
Scoop.it!
Tonight we discuss where the middle really is with guest Dan Aronson, founder of Party Recon, a principle-centric organization that asks us to RECONsider everything we think we know about the way parties work.
Listen in, or join the discussion live by calling the show at 646 929-2495. This is a chance to be part of the future of American politics.
Scoop.it!
America is coming of age -- the electronic age! Where do you get your news from? Recent polls show more people trust the internet than television. Take that talking heads!
Scoop.it!
By Jill Lepore (The New Yorker)
I, Governor of California, and How I Ended Poverty,” by Upton Sinclair, is probably the most thrilling piece of campaign literature ever written. Instead of the usual flummery, Sinclair, the author of forty-seven books, including, most famously, “The Jungle,” wrote a work of fiction. “I, Governor of California,” published in 1933, announced Sinclair’s gubernatorial bid in the form of a history of the future, in which Sinclair is elected governor in 1934, and by 1938 has eradicated poverty. “So far as I know,” the author remarked, “this is the first time an historian has set out to make his history true.”
It was only sixty-four pages, but it sold a hundred and fifty thousand copies in four months. Chapter 1: “On an evening in August, 1933, there took place a conference attended by five members of the County Central Committee of the Democratic party, Sixtieth Assembly District of the State of California.” That might not sound like a page-turner, unless you remember that at the time California was a one-party state: in 1931, almost all of the hundred and twenty seats in the state legislature were held by Republicans; not a single Democrat held a statewide office. Also useful to recall: the unemployment rate in the state was twenty-nine per cent. Back to that meeting in August, 1933: “The purpose was to consider with Upton Sinclair the possibility of his registering as a Democrat and becoming the candidate of the party for Governor of California.” What if Sinclair, a lifelong socialist, ran as a Democrat? That’s one nifty plot twist.
[MORE] Via Lynda Park |
Scoop.it!
“In the absence of state law, business entities are nothing.”
Portland Coffee Party's insight:
A HUGE WIN FOR THE PEOPLE! If you are against corporate personhood, this article is a must read.
Scoop.it!
Few of us will ever forget the events that transpired in Newton, MA on Friday, December 14, 2012 and the visceral battle that ensued between pro and anti-gun forces in the days that followed.
Portland Coffee Party's insight:
Gun control is a divisive topic that require sanity to move forward.
Scoop.it!
Data now exists that begins to make the “one dollar one vote” theory somewhat suspect; namely the spending patterns of this past Presidential Election.
Portland Coffee Party's insight:
Has lobbying taken over as the kingpin of corruption practices?
Scoop.it!
"ALEC Rock" Produced by Mark Fiore and the Center for Media and Democracy, which is the creator of ALECexposed, and co-produced by the Alliance for a Better Utah.
Via Eric Byler, John Davis
Portland Coffee Party's insight:
Too scarily true. What can be done to stop lobbying groups like ALEC? 
Eric Byler's comment,
December 26, 2012 3:13 AM
Many of us were introduced to our federal legislative process through School House Rock, which was mixed in with our Saturday morning cartoons. This updated video confronts us with the corrupt process we have today, due in large part to a shadowy quasi-legislative body called ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council).
Party Recon's curator insight,
January 14, 2013 3:43 PM
How are we to rescue our governmnet from the hands of big business and the uber-wealthy? The answers can all be found at www.partyrecon.org.
Scoop.it!
Americans must accept that there are no quick fixes to our current financial crisis and as such, we must find a new breed of politician to send to Washington.
Scoop.it!
Not quite like rats from a sinking ship, but we'll take any progress at this point, right? Thanks for kicking Grover to the curb. He's just plain bad for America.
Scoop.it!
Unless Anonymous presents evidence to support its claims of a planned Rove hack, its work will be relegated to the status of internet antics - and the dustbins of history.
Scoop.it!
Where is the wonky journalist to follow up these stats in Milbank's clever concept? So that "makers" and "takers" become not just epithets thrown around but actual graphs and lists of where federal dollars are going and coming. We could scoop that for the public to throw some factual ammunition at the budget fights in Congress. For example, is the biggie in the Ag budget the food stamps? What else are the states getting from it? Ratio of "take over make" in Alabama is 1.71 while Calif. is 0.79, really? Where are the real "gifts"? Clarifying a few nitty-gritty details could dodge the distractions and make more obvious the fairness among all the tax and spend, make and take, red and blue. (scooped by Jeanne Bear)
Scoop.it!
By Dan Aronson
Governor Romney is promising that if we deregulate business and reduce their tax burden, they'll create tons of jobs. President Obama is saying that the recovery has been successful and that we just need to stay the course. President Obama helped big business and the rich recover from the Crash of '08 while Romney helped himself to a great deal of the recovery wealth. Do either actually care about the rest of us? Spoiler alert, the answer is NO. Via Party Recon
Scoop.it!
Many poeple, perhaps even the majority of Americans say that they tend to be fiscally conservative, yet liberal on social issues. Those same people constantly lament the fact that they have no political party.
Scoop.it!
When this year’s September Employment Figures came out, all of my friends who are supporting the President in his reelection bid took to the streets, blogging verbosely for all to hear. There joy was premature -- about $15.8 Billion premature
Scoop.it!
A View of the State of Working Oregon The past three decades in Oregon, as elsewhere, are in large measure a story of surging income ... |
