Thursday, July 28, 2011

We, the People

For the past 30 years, or better put, since the time of Reagan we Americans have lost our sense of "We, the people." The public, the community that so impressed de Tocqueville has seemingly dispersed. Oh, from time to time we come together, and become patriotic, but not to solve any problems per se.
We, the people, have come to believe that most problems are individual--for instance, if we are poor,we just are not working hard enough. That we do not need the government to step in and equalize, that the private sector will do whatever--create jobs, protect the environment, build fuel efficient vehicles. . .
We should be realizing now, that we need our government. The private sector is not creating jobs here, and not paying living wages for most jobs. The private sector is most concerned with profit.

So, the question that I put forward is: how do we regain the concept of We, the people, of public good?

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Sunday, July 24, 2011

Breaking Myths

Myth: Al Qaeda is responsible for all acts of terrorism.
Broken (yet again) this time by a Right Wing Christian Fundamentalist in Norway (7/22/11).

Myth: Heterosexual marriages are in jeopardy, if same sex marriage occurs.
Broken again this time in NYS (7/24/11)

Myth: The Republicans are willing to negotiate with the Democrats on the debt crisis
Broken again when Boehner walked out of the meeting with the President (7/22/11)/

Myth: The Republicans care about all their constituents.
Broken when they call for cuts to social security, medicare and medicaid when SS has no impact on the debt, medicare and medicaid have minimal impact while there are NO cuts to the military wars that are being waged, and no revenues being raised. (Since 2010).

Myth: Creating jobs is Congress' number one goal.
Broken by the fact only one of the 23 bills passed by this congress & signed into law can be referred to as a jobs bill, only marginally is one: it provides continued investment in small businesses.

Myth: Private sector will create jobs.
Broken by the fact that in June the private sector only created 18,000 new jobs, not enough to cover the roughly 125,000 needed each month just to cover new wannabe entrants to the workforce.


















































Of the 23 bills passed by the 112th Congress and signed into law, one can marginally be referred to as a jobs bill.




Myth: The private sector will create more jobs if given tax cuts.
Still broken, in June 18,000 new jobs created fell far short of the roughly 125,000 needed each month just to cover new wannabe entrants into the workforce.

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