HEY CONGRESS, Health Care NOW!

We can’t just think they are going to do the right thing and give us National Health Care, we have to be on their backs continually. Don’t delay, act now! Don’t find out for yourself if you go to a hospital and don’t have coverage, you won’t like it. Take it from me, Dave Gregory, been there, done that!

Congress is at work and health reform is moving forward. Congress needs to hear from us to make sure any health legislation includes:

• Coverage we can afford;
  
• Comprehensive benefits we can count on;
  
• Choice of a private plan or a national public health insurance plan ready on day one; and
  
• Equal access to quality care.
  

Members of Congress in both the House and the Senate are working to champion these goals.

Call today to make sure every Member of Congress stands with us!

American Revolution Revelation

“A revelation into our American Revolution, an insight that will not be found in the history books of Public Education”. Dave Gregory

By Howard Zinn

There are things that happen in the world that are bad, and you want to do something about them. You have a just cause. But our culture is so war prone that we immediately jump from, “This is a good cause” to “This deserves a war.”

You need to be very, very comfortable in making that jump.

The American Revolution-independence from England-was a just cause. Why should the colonists here be occupied by and oppressed by England? But therefore, did we have to go to the Revolutionary War?

How many people died in the Revolutionary War?

Nobody ever knows exactly how many people die in wars, but it’s likely that 25,000 to 50,000 people died in this one. So let’s take the lower figure-25,000 people died out of a population of three million. That would be equivalent today to two and a half million people dying to get England off our backs.

You might consider that worth it, or you might not.

Canada is independent of England, isn’t it? I think so. Not a bad society. Canadians have good health care. They have a lot of things we don’t have. They didn’t fight a bloody revolutionary war. Why do we assume that we had to fight a bloody revolutionary war to get rid of England?

In the year before those famous shots were fired, farmers in Western Massachusetts had driven the British government out without firing a single shot. They had assembled by the thousands and thousands around courthouses and colonial offices and they had just taken over and they said goodbye to the British officials. It was a nonviolent revolution that took place. But then came Lexington and Concord, and the revolution became violent, and it was run not by the farmers but by the Founding Fathers. The farmers were rather poor; the Founding Fathers were rather rich.

Who actually gained from that victory over England? It’s very important to ask about any policy, and especially about war: Who gained what? And it’s very important to notice differences among the various parts of the population. That’s one thing were not accustomed to in this country because we don’t think in class terms. We think, “Oh, we all have the same interests.” For instance, we think that we all had the same interests in independence from England. We did not have all the same interests.

Do you think the Indians cared about independence from England? No, in fact, the Indians were unhappy that we won independence from England, because England had set a line-in the Proclamation of 1763-that said you couldn’t go westward into Indian territory. They didn’t do it because they loved the Indians. They didn’t want trouble. When Britain was defeated in the Revolutionary War, that line was eliminated, and now the way was open for the colonists to move westward across the continent, which they did for the next 100 years, committing massacres and making sure that they destroyed Indian civilization.

So when you look at the American Revolution, there’s a fact that you have to take into consideration. Indians-no, they didn’t benefit.

Did blacks benefit from the American Revolution?

Slavery was there before. Slavery was there after. Not only that, we wrote slavery into the Constitution. We legitimized it.

What about class divisions?

Did ordinary white farmers have the same interest in the revolution as a John Hancock or Morris or Madison or Jefferson or the slaveholders or the bondholders? Not really.

It was not all the common people getting together to fight against England. They had a very hard time assembling an army. They took poor guys and promised them land. They browbeat people and, oh yes, they inspired people with the Declaration of Independence. It’s always good, if you want people to go to war, to give them a good document and have good words: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Of course, when they wrote the Constitution, they were more concerned with property than life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You should take notice of these little things.

There were class divisions. When you assess and evaluate a war, when you assess and evaluate any policy, you have to ask: Who gets what?

We were a class society from the beginning. America started off as a society of rich and poor, people with enormous grants of land and people with no land. And there were riots, there were bread riots in Boston, and riots and rebellions all over the colonies, of poor against rich, of tenants breaking into jails to release people who were in prison for nonpayment of debt. There was class conflict. We try to pretend in this country that we’re all one happy family. We’re not.

And so when you look at the American Revolution, you have to look at it in terms of class.

Do you know that there were mutinies in the American Revolutionary Army by the privates against the officers? The officers were getting fine clothes and good food and high pay and the privates had no shoes and bad clothes and they weren’t getting paid. They mutinied. Thousands of them. So many in the Pennsylvania line that George Washington got worried, so he made compromises with them. But later when there was a smaller mutiny in the New Jersey line, not with thousands but with hundreds, Washington said execute the leaders, and they were executed by fellow mutineers on the order of their officers.

The American Revolution was not a simple affair of all of us against all of them. And not everyone thought they would benefit from the Revolution.

We’ve got to rethink this question of war and come to the conclusion that war cannot be accepted, no matter what the reasons given, or the excuse: liberty, democracy; this, that. War is by definition the indiscriminate killing of huge numbers of people for ends that are uncertain. Think about means and ends, and apply it to war. The means are horrible, certainly. The ends, uncertain. That alone should make you hesitate.

Once a historical event has taken place, it becomes very hard to imagine that you could have achieved a result some other way. When something is happening in history it takes on a certain air of inevitability: This is the only way it could have happened. No.
We are smart in so many ways. Surely, we should be able to understand that in between war and passivity, there are a thousand possibilities.

© 2009 The Progressive

Author’s Bio: Howard Zinn is a historian, political scientist, social critic, activist and playwright, best known as author of the bestseller A People’s History of the United States. The author of some 20 books, he is currently Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department at Boston University.

CERN EXPERIMENTS

Quantum Mechanics, String Theories, Black Holes and the Bible

The fundamental idea of Quantum Mechanics is:

1. in the sub-micro world, smaller even than the subatomic particles that make up matter that lies underneath all of the “real world” that we see lies another realm where literally any imaginable thing has a measurable possibility of happening.

2. A postulate of this is the idea – there is no certainty in any event.

3. Strange things happen with “ghost-like particles that move in ways that defy logic, matter being created in a vacuum, and even particles that move backward in time.

The basic idea of String Theory is:

1. All matter is ultimately composed of “string-like” structures that vibrate at different frequencies and energy levels.

2. Predictions exist of multiple external universes to our own that sometimes bounce into each other and collide.

The basic idea of Black Holes is:

1. Gravity is so great that they trap matter and even light, inside, forever, in a concentrated geometric point in which the density is infinite and the temperature is infinitely high.

2. Black Holes may be the doorways, or “Wormholes” to these external universes.

I have already been called stupid enough, so please use a thesaurus if that is where you are headed in the comments.

Quantum Mechanics sounds much like just another way to explain there are indeed supernatural goings on. Can you say Creator?

The String Theory sounds like fetching for explanations of places like heaven and hell. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is spending billions this year to launch the Large Hadron Collider in search of Heaven and Hell maybe?

And Black Holes – check out the description of the bottomless pit in Revelation 20.

SIGNERS OF DECLARATION 2ND ADDITION

Origins: In the waning years of their lengthy lives, former presidents (and Founding Fathers) John Adams and Thomas Jefferson reconciled the political differences that had separated them for many years and carried on a voluminous correspondence. One of the purposes behind their exchange of letters was to set the record straight regarding the events of the American Revolution, for as author Joseph J. Ellis noted, they (particularly Adams, whom history would not treat nearly as kindly as Jefferson) were keenly aware of the “distinction between history as experienced and history as remembered”:

Adams realized that the act of transforming the American Revolution into history placed a premium on selecting events and heroes that fit neatly into a dramatic formula, thereby distorting the more tangled and incoherent experience that participants actually making the history felt at the time. Jefferson’s drafting of the Declaration of Independence was a perfect example of such dramatic distortions. The Revolution in this romantic rendering became one magical moment of inspiration, leading inexorably to the foregone conclusion of American independence.

Evidently Adams was right: So great is our need for simplified, dramatic events and heroes that even the real-life biographies of the fifty-six men who risked their lives to publicly declare American independence are no longer compelling enough. Through multiple versions of pieces like the one quoted below in other posting, their lives have been repeatedly embellished with layers of fanciful fiction to make for a better story. As we often do, we’ll try here to strip away those accumulated layers of fiction and get down to whatever kernel of truth may lie underneath:

• Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died.

It is true that five signers of the Declaration of Independence were captured by the British during the course of the Revolutionary War. However, none of them died while a prisoner, and four of them were taken into custody not because they were considered “traitors” due to their status as signatories to that document, but because they were captured as prisoners of war while actively engaged in military operations against the British: George Walton was captured after being wounded while commanding militia at the Battle of Savannah in December 1778, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., Arthur Middleton, and Edward Rutledge (three of the four Declaration of Independence signers from South Carolina) were taken prisoner at the Siege of Charleston in May in 1780. Although they endured the ill treatment typically afforded to prisoners of war during their captivity (prison conditions were quite deplorable at the time), they were not tortured, nor is there evidence that they were treated more harshly than other wartime prisoners who were not also signatories to the Declaration. Moreover, all four men were eventually exchanged or released; had they been considered traitors by the British, they would have been hanged.

Richard Stockton of New Jersey was the only signer taken prisoner specifically because of his status as a signatory to the Declaration, “dragged from his bed by night” by local Tories after he had evacuated his family from New Jersey, and imprisoned in New York City’s infamous Provost Jail like a common criminal. However, Stockton was also the only one of the fifty-six signers who violated the pledge to support the Declaration of Independence and each other with “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor,” securing a pardon and his release from imprisonment by recanting his signature on the Declaration and signing an oath swearing his allegiance to George III.

• Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

It is true that a number of signers saw their homes and property occupied, ransacked, looted, and vandalized by the British (and even in some cases by the Americans). However, as we discuss in more detail below, this activity was a common (if unfortunate) part of warfare. Signers’ homes were not specifically targeted for destruction — like many other Americans, their property was subject to seizure when it fell along the path of a war being waged on the North American continent.

• Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured.

Abraham Clark of New Jersey saw two of his sons captured by the British and incarcerated on the prison ship Jersey. John Witherspoon, also of New Jersey, saw his eldest son, James, killed in the Battle of Germantown in October 1777. If there was a second signer of the Declaration whose son was killed while serving in the Continental Army, we have yet to find him.

• Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

This statement is quite misleading as phrased. Nine signers died during the course of the Revolutionary War, but none of them died from wounds or hardships inflicted on them by the British. (Indeed, several of the nine didn’t even take part in the war.) Only one signer, Button Gwinnett of Georgia, died from wounds, and those were received not at the hands of the British, but of a fellow officer with whom he duelled in May 1777.

• Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Before the American Revolution, Carter Braxton was possessed of a considerable fortune through inheritance and favorable marriages. While still in his teens he inherited the family estate, which included a flourishing Virginia tobacco plantation, upon the death of his father. He married a wealthy heiress who died when he was just 21, and within a few years he had remarried, this time to the daughter of the Receiver of Customs in Virginia for the King. As a delegate representing Virginia in the Continental Congress in 1776, he was one of the minority of delegates reluctant to support an American declaration of independence, a move which he viewed at the time as too dangerous:

[Independence] is in truth a delusive Bait which men inconsiderably catch at, without knowing the hook to which it is affixed … America is too defenceless a State for the declaration, having no alliance with a naval Power nor as yet any Fleet of consequence of her own to protect that trade which is so essential to the prosecution of the War, without which I know we cannot go on much longer.

Braxton invested his wealth in commercial enterprises, particularly shipping, and he endured severe financial reversals during the Revolutionary War when many of the ships in which he held interest were either appropriated by the British government (because they were British-flagged) or were sunk or captured by the British. He was not personally targeted for ruin because he had signed the Declaration of Independence, however; he suffered grievous financial losses because most of his wealth was tied up in shipping, “that trade which is so essential to the prosecution of the War” and which was therefore a prime military target for the British. Even if he hadn’t signed the Declaration of Independence, Braxton’s ships would have been casualties of the war just the same.

Although Braxton did lose property during the war and had to sell off assets (primarily landholdings) to cover the debts incurred by the loss of his ships, he recouped much of that money after the war but subsequently lost it again through his own ill-advised business dealings. His fortune was considerably diminished in his later years, but he did not by any stretch of the imagination “die in rags.”

• Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

As one biography describes Thomas McKean (not “McKeam”):

Thomas McKean might just represent an ideal study of how far political engagement can be carried by one man. One can scarcely believe the number of concurrent offices and duties this man performed during the course of his long career. He served three states and many more cities and county governments, often performing duties in two or more jurisdictions, even while engaged in federal office.

Among his many offices, McKean was a delegate to the Continental Congress (of which he later served as president), President of Delaware, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, and Governor of Pennsylvania. The above-quoted statement regarding his being “hounded” by the British during the Revolutionary War is probably based upon a letter he wrote to his friend John Adams in 1777, in which he described how he had been “hunted like a fox by the enemy, compelled to remove my family five times in three months, and at last fixed them in a little log-house on the banks of the Susquehanna, but they were soon obliged to move again on account of the incursions of the Indians.”

However, it is problematic to assert that McKean’s treatment was due to his being a signer of the Declaration of Independence. (His name does not appear on printed copies of that document authenticated in January 1777, so it is likely he did not affix his name to it until later.) If he was targeted by the British, it was quite possibly because he also served in a military capacity as a volunteer leader of militia. In any case, McKean did not end up in “poverty,” as the estate he left behind when he died in 1817 was described as consisting of “stocks, bonds, and huge land tracts in Pennsylvania.”

• Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

First of all, this passage has a couple of misspellings: the signers referred to are William Ellery (not “Dillery”) and Edward Rutledge (not “Ruttledge”). Secondly, this sentence is misleading in that it implies a motive that was most likely not present (i.e., these men’s homes were looted because they had been signers of the Declaration of Independence).

The need to forage for supplies in enemy territory has long been a part of warfare, and so it was far from uncommon for British soldiers in the field to appropriate such material from private residences during the American Revolution. (Not only were homes used as sources of food, livestock, and other necessary supplies, but larger houses were also taken over and used to quarter soldiers or to serve as headquarters for officers.) In some cases, even American forces took advantage of the local citizenry to provision themselves. Given that many more prominent American revolutionaries who were also signers of the Declaration of Independence (e.g., Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, James Wilson, Benjamin Rush, Robert Morris) had homes in areas that were occupied by the British during the war, yet those homes were not looted or vandalized, it’s hard to make the case that the men named above were specifically targeted for vengeance by the British rather than unfortunate victims whose property fell in the path of an armed conflict being waged on American soil.

It’s also a common misconception that the signing of the Declaration of Independence was the event that triggered the Revolutionary War, so the signers were directly responsible for whatever misfortunes befell them (and their fellow Americans) as a result of that war. The war actually began more than a year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence — revolutionary events involving armed conflict, such as the battles of Lexington and Concord, the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga by Ethan Allen and his “Green Mountain Boys,” the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the capture of Montreal by General Richard Montgomery, all took place in 1775.

• At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

The tale about Thomas Nelson’s urging or suggesting the bombardment of his own house is one of several Revolutionary War legends whose truth may never be known. Several versions of this story exist, one of which (as referenced above) holds that Nelson encouraged George Washington to shell his Yorktown home after British Major General Charles Cornwallis had taken it over to use as his headquarters in 1781:

Cornwallis had turned the home of Thomas Nelson, who had succeeded Jefferson as governor of Virginia, into his headquarters. Nelson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, had led three Virginia brigades, or 3,000 men, to Yorktown and, when the shelling of the town was about to begin, urged Washington to bombard his own house. And that is where Washington, with his experienced surveyor’s eye, reputedly pointed the gun for the first (and singularly fatal) allied shot. Legend has it that the shell went right through a window and landed at the dinner table where some British officers, including the British commissary general, had just sat down to dine. The general was killed and several others wounded as it burst among their plates.

Other versions of the story have Nelson directing the Marquis de Lafayette to train French artillery on his home:

The story goes that the new Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson (who’d been held at Yorktown but released under a flag of truce) was with American forces that day. Lafayette invited Nelson to be present when Captain Thomas Machin’s battery first opened fire, as both a compliment and knowing Nelson lived in Yorktown and would know the localities in the riverport area. “To what particular spot,” Lafayette reportedly asked Nelson, “would your Excellency direct that we should point the cannon.” Nelson replied, “There, to that house. It is mine, and . . . it is the best one in the town. There you will be almost certain to find Lord Cornwallis and the British headquarters.”

“A simultaneous discharge of all the guns in the line,” Joseph Martin wrote, was “followed [by] French troops accompanying it with ‘Huzza for the Americans.’” Sounding much like the Nelson legend, Martin’s account added that “the first shell sent from our batteries entered an elegant house formerly owned or occupied by the Secretary of State under the British, and burned directly over a table surrounded by a large party of British officers at dinner, killing and wounding a number of them.”

Still other accounts maintain this legend is a conflation of two separate events: Thomas Nelson, acting as commander in chief of the Virginia militia, ordered a battery to open fire on his uncle’s home, where Cornwallis was then ensconced. Later, Nelson supposedly made a friendly bet with French artillerists in which he challenged them to hit his home, one of the more prominent landmarks in Yorktown.

Whatever the truth, the Nelson home was certainly not “destroyed” as claimed. The house stands to this day as part of Colonial National Historical Park, and the National Park Service’s description of it notes only that “the southeast face of the residence does show evidence of damage from cannon fire.”

• Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

Francis Lewis represented New York in the Continental Congress, and shortly after he signed the Declaration of Independence his Long Island estate was raided by the British, possibily as retaliation for his having been a signatory to that document. While Lewis was in Philadelphia attending to congressional matters, his wife was taken prisoner by the British after disregarding an order for citizens to evacuate Long Island. Mrs. Lewis was held for several months before being exchanged for the wives of British officials captured by the Americans. Although her captivity was undoubtedly a hardship, she had already been in poor health for some time and died a few years (not months) later.

• John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year, he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

John Hart’s New Jersey farm was looted in the course of the Revolutionary War, and he did have to remain in hiding for a while afterwards. However, the claim that he was “driven from his [dying] wife’s bedside” as his “13 children fled for his lives” is dramatic fiction. The British overran the area of New Jersey where he resided in late November of 1776, but his wife had already died on 8 October, and most of their children were adults by then. He also did not die “from exhaustion and a broken heart” a mere “few weeks” after emerging from hiding — he was twice re-elected to the Continental Congress, served as Speaker of the New Jersey assembly, and invited the American army to encamp on his New Jersey farmland in June 1778 before succumbing to kidney stones in May 1779.

• Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Lewis Morris (not Norris) indeed saw his Westchester County, New York, home taken over in 1776 and used as a barracks for soldiers, and the horses and livestock from his farm commandeered by military personnel, but he suffered those deprivations at the hands of the Continental Army, not the British. Shortly afterwards his home was appropriated by the British, but Morris and his wife reclaimed the property and restored their home after the war.

Philip Livingston lost several properties to the British occupation of New York and sold off others to support the war effort, and he did not recover them because he died suddenly in 1778, before the end of the war.

What should we take from all of this? The signers of the Declaration of Independence did take a huge risk in daring to put their names on a document that repudiated their government, and they had every reason to believe at the time that they might well be hanged for having done so. That was a courageous act we should indeed remember and honor on the Fourth of July amidst our “beer, picnics, and baseball games.” But we should also not lose sight of the fact that many men (and women) other than the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence — some famous and most not — risked and sacrificed much (including their lives) to support the revolutionary cause. The hardships and losses endured by many Americans during the struggle for independence were not visited upon the signers alone, nor were they any less ruinous for having befallen people whose names are not immortalized on a piece of parchment.

FEDERAL RESERVE PONZI SCHEME

The Federal Reserve Ponzi scheme, our Monetary system, debt = money, money = debt. There is nothing, absolutely NOTHING BACKING our monies. When they want more they just print it. In actuality they don’t even do that, only about 3% of our money is printed on paper, the rest 97% exists only in computers? It exists in virtual reality and is therefore not real. Inflation is a natural result of our monetary system. Take a look at the Fed Reserve; they have reduced the value of the dollar 90% since this private corporation took over printing our money in 1913. When it’s time to pay the piper, as in any POZI scheme, those at the bottom are left holding the bag, the way our country is now in a Depression that matches the Great One! When it came time to pay the piper, the big one’s got off the hook by the government bailout, while the little guy at the bottom of the Pyramid got the hammer. IT IS TIME TO END THE BIGGEST POZI SCHEME EVER, THE FEDERAL RESERVE.

Would you have signed? DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,and tortured before they died.Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Ellery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown , Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It’s not much to ask for the price they paid.Remember: Freedom is never Free! “And there are those who would steal it from you with slight of hand, as a magician, if you are not vigilant. ” Dave Gregory

Blogged with the Flock Browser

KEITH OLBERMANN ON RUPERT MURDOCH

This man, Rupert Murdoch owns hundreds, if not, thousands of media outlets in this country, not to mention in the world, watch the video and learn how you news has been homogenized in that certain special way! This has been going on for years, any wonder why there is such acrimony amongst the populace!

TIM RUSSERT SHOW SEGMENT

Tim Russert Show 4-5-08 Part 1

Revealing Tim Russert Segment. It appears when the Clintons couldn’t succeed on their agenda, they joined the Corporate America Republican coalition.

Give the U.S. back to the PEOPLE!

This is it, our one chance to change our country’s course – forever. “We may never have this chance again to restore our Democracy to GREATNESS, please join our efforts! Don’t let all the propaganda that you have been spoon fed all these years blind your eyes to the truth, America is about our people, our homes, our rights, our lives, don’t ever forget it! Dave Gregory A few more Senate seats, and we can end the conservative ascendency and achieve President Obama’s vision for lasting change and “we can set about change, change that will end the 4th branch of current government, the lobbyists!” Dave Gregory  We’ll end silly debates about whether tax cuts for the rich trickle down or global warming exists, and we’ll actually solve our toughest problems. It won’t be easy. “But with your help we’ll get it done”. Dave Gregory Sitting presidents have gained seats in only 3 midterm elections since the Civil War. With Barack Obama’s leadership, it’s possible.  Five Republicans are retiring, creating 50-50 races for open seats.  Republican approval ratings are at record lows. We can’t wait.  We have to work and work and work now to prepare for that final sprint.  You’ve been instrumental to Democratic victories in the past, and we thank you. Now, we need your help again. Your early support – this minute – before Tuesday’s midnight deadline is essential to 2010 victory. Four days to raise $147,622.  It’s so important, Democratic senators will match every dollar 2-to-1. We can win the Senate seats President Obama needs to achieve real, lasting change, but we need your help.  Click here to give $25, $50 or more right this minute.  Your contribution will make a difference. We’ve won 14 Senate seats over the last two cycles for two reasons.  First, we’ve recruited dynamite candidates, and this year is no different.  Folks like Robin Carnahan in Missouri and Paul Hodes in New Hampshire are already running hard for 2010. Second, we’ve always had more campaign resources than our opponents, thanks to your generous support. The results speak for themselves: President Obama and the Democratic Senate have already invested in new jobs and a strong economy, provided health coverage for even more children, and expanded stem cell research into life-saving cures.  Just imagine what we could accomplish with a few more Democratic votes! But this time, winning Senate seats will be harder than ever. Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, and the gang have the Republican cash machine operating at full capacity.  They raised more than $14.5 million in just one night a few weeks ago. This is the moment to press our advantage.  This is the moment to win big in 2010. All we need is you. Give before Tuesday’s midnight deadline to triple the impact of your money.  We’re pulling out all the stops to give our candidates everything they need. Click here to make an immediate contribution of $25, $50 or more to the DSCC.  Don’t think for a minute that our work to change this country is done.  We need a few more Senate seats to make President Obama’s bold vision a reality. Do not sit on the sidelines for this one. We have come so far, and everything we’ve worked for is in sight.  We cannot quit on our dreams now.  Please, don’t delay.  Do your part before it’s too late. Sincerely, J.B. Poersch The DSCC is committed to protecting our majority in the Senate. We can’t do it without your help. Please click here to make a donation. The DSCC knows how to win Senate races for Democrats. If you liked this message after receiving it from a friend, click this button to join our cause.

HEALTH CARE STORIES THAT NEED READING

A few weeks ago, President Obama asked you to share your personal story about how the health care crisis has affected you and the ones you love. Hundreds of thousands of stories poured in from every corner of the country. The President and I have read through many of them ourselves — and now I’m encouraging you to do so as well.

Read these powerful, personal stories from people in your area and around the country.

And after you do, please forward this note on to as many people as you can.

For folks who don’t yet understand why health care reform is such an urgent priority, these stories make the case far better than any statistics ever could.

For those who support health care reform but haven’t yet found the time to join our campaign, these stories provide more motivation than any speech any politician could ever give.

So please read these stories, pass this note on to everyone in your address book, and help us show everyone in America why fixing our broken health care system is a necessity that just can’t wait:

http://healthcare.barackobama.com /stories

Thank you,

Vice President Joe Biden

Clean Energy and Security Act, please continue to support it’s full passage!

“For too long this government has been the pawns of Corporate America, we are now on the way to giving it back to the people and protecting the future of “OUR WORLD”, yours and mine. I want my children and my children’s children to enjoy this world for as long as it is possible. By eventually removing the hands of Corporate America greed from it’s strangle hold over government, we know, at least, one of the potential destroyers of earth will be held at bay”. Dave Gregory

Today is truly a day for the history books!

A short time ago, the House passed the historic American Clean Energy and Security Act. In doing so, we took a monumental step to get America running on clean energy, create millions of new jobs, strengthen our security, and reduce pollution in the air.

This legislation was masterfully written by two longtime champions for building a clean energy economy in America and aggressively fighting climate change – Chairman Henry Waxman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Chairman Ed Markey of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.

Most of all, this victory belongs to you. It is directly because of your grassroots support and the leadership of President Obama that progress on climate change is indeed happening in Washington.

Thank you for making this good news possible.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Rally for HEALTH CARE REFORM CALL SENATOR NELSON TODAY!

Last week, a draft of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care reform bill was leaked to the press—and it lacked a public health insurance option, the heart of President Obama’s plan for real reform.¹

A strong public option is key to bringing down the costs for all of us—both the cost of enacting a new health care bill and the cost to patients who’re currently stuck with out-of-control premiums.² And we need to make sure the Finance Committee hears this message immediately.

Florida voters have a special role to play since your senator, Bill Nelson, is on the Finance Committee. Sen. Nelson needs to hear from voters all around Florida—we’ve set a goal of at least 3 people in Homosassa—that a strong public health insurance option must be included in any reform bill to help bring down costs throughout the system.

Can you call Sen. Nelson right now? Tell him: A health care bill without a strong public health insurance option is completely unacceptable. A strong public option is the best way to bring down costs for patients and taxpayers. Here’s where to call:

Senator Bill Nelson
Phone: 202-224-5274

Then, please report your call by clicking here:

http://pol.moveon.org/call?tg=FSFL_1&cp_id=958&id=16433-9668693-Hbfc7fx&t=4

A whopping 83% of Americans want a public health insurance option,³ but folks in Congress keep proposing half-measures like the “co-op” proposal that would set up small, private, regional plans that would be too weak to compete with insurance companies and bring costs down.⁴

That’s why we need to keep reminding senators that we need a strong public health insurance option that meets four key criteria:

• Available to all of us: A strong public health insurance option should be available to anyone who chooses to participate. If you like your current plan, you can keep it; if you want the public health insurance plan, you can choose it.

• A national plan with real bargaining clout: In order to truly control costs and compete with private health insurance plans, a strong public health insurance option must be available nationwide.

• Ready on day one: Every day we wait on real reform, health care costs continue to rise. A strong public health insurance option right out of the gate is key to building a competitive program that will help control costs.

• A truly public plan: To ensure it’s held to the highest standards of accountability, a public health insurance option must be truly publicly run—accountable and transparent to Congress and to voters.

This is the key to real health care reform. But it will only become a reality if we all speak out, loudly and clearly. Please call today.

Senator Bill Nelson
Phone: 202-224-5274

Thanks for all you do.

Inspiration from the Iranian people

We’ve all been moved by the heroic struggle of the Iranian people against a government that refused to count their votes – and by the brutal murder of Neda Agha-Soltan.

Here in the U.S., we voted twice to remove the warmongering Republican Congress and President. But we must still struggle to end their wars and to hold them accountable for their war crimes, including torture.

So let’s take our inspiration from the Iranian people and renew our progressive activism here in the U.S. today.

1. Wednesday Is Afghanistan Exit Action Day

U.S. bombing in Afghanistan and Pakistan has killed hundreds of civilians and created hundreds of thousands of refugees. Watch the powerful videos at RethinkAfghanistan.

Yet Congress is set to authorize $550 billion in military spending with an additional $130 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – more than George W. Bush ever requested.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) wants an exit strategy from Afghanistan and his bill ( H.R. 2404 ) has 89 Congressional co-sponsors. On Wednesday, he will propose it as an amendment to the war funding bill – but he needs our help.

Tell Congress to Demand an Afghanistan Exit Strategy
http://democrats.com/afghan-exit-petition?cid=ZGVtczQwNzA1NmRlbXM=

Also call your Representative today at (202) 224-3121 to co-sponsor Rep. McGovern’s Afghanistan Exit Strategy bill H.R. 2404, and to vote for Rep. McGovern’s amendment to the Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 2647).

2. Thursday Is Torture Accountability Action Day

A large coalition of human rights groups will hold rallies and marches in major U.S. cities, including a rally in Washington, D.C.’s John Marshall P ark at 11 a.m. followed by a noon march to the Justice Department where some participants will risk arrest in nonviolent protest if a special prosecutor for torture is not appointed.

Events are planned in Washington, D.C.; San Francisco, CA; Pasadena, CA; Thousand Oaks, CA; Boston, MA; Salt Lake City, UT; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; Las Vegas, NV; Honolulu, HI; Tampa, FL; Philadelphia, PA; and Anchorage, AK, with details available online:
http://tortureaccountability.webs.com/eventsacrossus.htm

In Pasadena at 12 p.m. PT citizens will submit a formal judicial misconduct complaint against 9th Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, former Assistant Attorney General.

If you can’t attend an event, please take action from home:

Urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor for torture:
http://democrats.com/special-prosecutor-for-bush-war-crimes?cid=ZGVtczQwNzA1NmRlbXM=

Call Eric Holder at 202-514-2001. Fax him at 202-307-6777 or

send him a free fax: http://www.peaceandjustice.it

Tweet this:
Rallies all over US on 6/25 demanding accountability for torture: http://tr.im/pppa

Thanks for all you do!

Bob Fertik

REMINDER: STAGE OF HATCHET MEN FOR CORPORATE AMERICA

Let’s not lose our focus, we must continual remind everyone why we are in the state of affairs that we are in, it is Corporate America and their lackeys! In the youtube video below, there is a whole stage of their hatchet men. They all have the shit eating grin on their faces,kinda reminds me of the Stepford Wifes, like programmed robots, all except Ron Paul. We must be vigilant and continue to remove those who will not represent us, the People.

HEALTH CARE REFORM IN DANGER!!!

Health care reform is in trouble in the Senate.

Conservatives in Congress, including some Democrats, are trying to kill Obama’s public health insurance option not by opposing it outright, but by pushing weak half-measures and calling them “public plans.”¹ The latest is a proposal for small, regional “co-ops” that would have no chance of competing against insurance companies to bring costs down.²

If we act immediately, we have a good shot at defeating ploys like the “co-op.” The key is to make it clear that we support a strong public health insurance option and lay out exactly what that means.

Click below and we’ll fax a flier in your name (for free!) to Sens. Nelson and Martinez that sets the bar for a strong public health insurance option. Faxes come directly into the office, so staffers are guaranteed to see them. And if enough of us send faxes, staffers will pass the flier on to their senator.

http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSFL_1.FSFL_2&cp_id=967&id=16427-9668693-_CQxlax&t=3

It’s up to us to remind our senators that an overwhelming majority of Americans—83%—supports a public health insurance option,³ and that weak half-measures like the “co-op” plan are no substitute for real reform.

The flier says: “A strong public health insurance option must be part of health care reform this year,” and outlines key criteria that a plan must be based upon:

• Available to all of us: A strong public health insurance option should be available to anyone who chooses to participate. If you like your current plan, you can keep it; if you want to participate in the public health insurance plan, you can choose that.

• A national plan with real bargaining clout: In order to truly control costs and compete with private health insurance plans, a strong public health insurance option must be available nationwide.

• Ready on day one: Every day we wait on real reform, health care costs continue to rise. A strong public health insurance option with a broad network of providers right out of the gate is key to building a competitive program that will help control costs.

• A truly public plan: To ensure it’s held to the highest standards of accountability, a public health insurance option must be truly publicly run—accountable and transparent to Congress and to voters.

If thousands of us send faxes to Senate offices this week, we can make sure that message is heard loud and clear. Can you fax Sens. Nelson and Martinez today? Click below and we’ll send one for you:

http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSFL_1.FSFL_2&cp_id=967&id=16427-9668693-_CQxlax&t=4

Thanks for all that you do.

FAT CATS RAISE 14 MILLION, NEWT AND SARAH, WHAT A DUO!

You won’t even believe this.

The Republicans called on none other than Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin to headline their big fat-cat fundraising dinner and claimed to raise over $14 million dollars in one night!

That’s right — $14 MILLION.

You know what I say? Thanks, but no thanks – how about you get back on that bridge to nowhere, Sarah.  We don’t need you or any of your fat cat friends who are rooting for President Obama to fail.

We’ve got to beat them by winning the FEC fundraising battle on June 30th. It’s the first reporting deadline after the GOP’s big dinner and they will be all over the news clamoring that their big cash totals prove that their fat cat friends are beating our grassroots movement.  But, not if we can help it – contribute $35, $50 or more to show everybody that America stands behind President Obama.

Better yet, if you do, Speaker Pelosi and the other House Democrats will match every one of your dollars with $2 of theirs.

Contribute $35, $50 or more to the DCCC’s Million Dollar Match* campaign. If you give today, they’ll match your gift 2-to-1, tripling its impact.

We need to make sure our Democratic voices for change are stronger and louder than all their “Party of No” talk.

Republicans are trying to change the subject by going on the attack.  It all started with the big daddy of all Republicans, Rush Limbaugh, riling up the GOP base by rooting for President Obama to fail.

They’re coming for a fight. Let’s give them one.

Contribute $35, $50 or more to the DCCC’s Million Dollar Match* campaign. If you give today, they’ll match your gift 2-to-1, tripling its impact.

In 2008, Republicans got heartburn every time they came up on one of these big FEC fundraising deadlines. So what do you say we keep them on their heels?

I would like not to have to make appeals, but until we get enough of our people, whether they be Independents or Southern Democrats, people who put PEOPLE FIRST, to change the way government runs, that is, by BIG MONEY, CORPORATE AMERICA, THAN I don’t have much choice. Let’s get those hooligans out, be they Republicans or Democrats, those who have fallen to Corporate America money have to be removed in order for you and I, to have a Government for the people and by the people!

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You won’t even believe this.
</span>
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”16″ />
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The Republicans
</span>
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”19″>
called on none other than
</span>
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Newt Gingrich
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and
</span>
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Sarah Palin
</span>
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”23″>
to headline their big fat-cat fundraising dinner  and claimed to raise over $14
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million dollars
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in one night!
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That’s right –
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$14  MILLION
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.
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<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”31″ />
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”32″>
You
know what I say? Thanks, but no thanks – how about you get back on that
bridge to nowhere, Sarah.  We don’t need you or any of your fat cat
friends who are rooting for President Obama to fail.
</span>
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”33″ />
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”34″ />
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We’ve got  to beat them
</span>
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by winning the FEC fundraising  battle
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on June 30th
</span>
.
</b>
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”38″>
It’s the first reporting deadline after the
</span>
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GOP
</span>
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”40″>
’s
big dinner and they will be all over the news clamoring that their big
cash totals prove that their fat cat friends are beating our grassroots
movement.  But, not if we can help it -
</span>
<b style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”41″>
<a href=”http://www.dccc.org/page/m2/1d63de69/1bee6d73/6a2c5dc9/4e0d57c6/2046133583/VEsF/” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow” zid=”42″>
<span id=”lw_1245682353_6″ class=”yshortcuts” zid=”43″>
contribute $35, $50 or more
</span>
</a>
</b>
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”44″>
to show everybody that America  stands behind President Obama.
</span>
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Better yet, if you do,
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Speaker  Pelosi
</span>
</b>
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and the  other House Democrats will match every one of your dollars with $2 of  theirs.
</b>
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”51″ />
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”52″ />
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<b zid=”54″>
Contribute
</b>
<b zid=”55″>
<u zid=”56″>
$35, $50 or more
</u>
</b>
<b zid=”57″>
to the DCCC’s Million Dollar  Match* campaign. If you give today, they’ll match your gift 2-to-1, tripling its  impact.
</b>
</a>
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”58″ />
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”59″ />
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”60″>
We need to make sure our Democratic voices for  change are stronger and louder than all their &quot;Party of No&quot; talk.
</span>
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”61″ />
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”62″ />
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”63″>
Republicans are trying to change the subject by going on the attack.  It  all started with the
</span>
<span id=”lw_1245682353_8″ class=”yshortcuts” style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”64″>
big daddy
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of all Republicans,
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<span id=”lw_1245682353_9″ class=”yshortcuts” style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”66″>
Rush Limbaugh
</span>
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”67″>
, riling up the  GOP base by rooting for President Obama to fail.
</span>
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<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”69″ />
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”70″>
They’re coming for a  fight. Let’s give them one.
</span>
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<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”72″ />
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Contribute
</b>
<b zid=”75″>
<u zid=”76″>
$35, $50 or more
</u>
</b>
<b zid=”77″>
to the DCCC’s Million Dollar  Match* campaign. If you give today, they’ll match your gift 2-to-1, tripling its  impact.
</b>
</a>
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”78″ />
<br style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”79″ />
<span style=”font-family: courier new,courier,monospace;” zid=”80″>
In
2008, Republicans got heartburn every time they came up on one of these
big FEC fundraising deadlines. So what do you say we keep them on their
heels?
</span>
</font>
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<br zid=”91″ />
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Americans United | Spread The Message: We’re Not Scared of Real Health Care Reform

Big Corporate America Republicans are spreading the fear mongering tactics used so well to get us into Iraq and Afghanistan, now they want to stop our MUCH NEEDED HEALTH CARE REFORM, don’t be bamboozled AGAIN. Billions for Cheney’s Halliburton, zilch for Americans!

more about “Americans United | Spread The Message…“, posted with vodpod

General Eaton: If Pres. Bush Wont Listen, Congress Must

Just a reminder how Bush and his gang destroyed our Nation and left us in the ruins of where we are now! WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

Noam Chomsky – Imperial Grand Strategy

The underlying, Imperial Grand Strategy to take over the world. This video is longer than I usually post here, I haven’t had time to cut and post the highlights, very interesting, but more for the person whose intellect embraces the world of academia.

more about “Noam Chomsky – Imperial Grand Strategy“, posted with vodpod

Cheney and Halliburton

One of the dogs of the last 8 years, looking at the bottom line through the blood and guts of your children.

more about “Cheney and Halliburton“, posted with vodpod

The People in these VIDEOS were THERE! Listen to their stories and have an EPIPHANY!

The Days are numbered, War Dogs are going to the Pound!