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Peninsula readers' letters: October 27
From Daily News Group readers Posted: 10/26/2011 06:39:02 PM PDTUpdated: 10/27/2011 12:36:08 AM PDT
Playing with fire
Dear Editor: President Barack Obama may be widely regarded at home as the least pro-Israeli president in decades, but he has secretly approved giving the Jewish state a bunch of special bunker-busting bombs ideal for destroying Tehran's ruling mullahs' nuclear ambitions and so powerful that George W. Bush blocked handing them over.
Capable of penetrating deep beneath the surface, the bunker-busters would be crucial for any air strikes at Iran's nuclear sites. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has wanted the bunker-busters for years and, as first reported by Newsweek, Obama agreed to hand over 55 of the sophisticated and powerful weapons.
Given Israel's track record of preemptive bombing strikes to destroy nuclear sites in neighboring nations, and Iran's ambitious and suspicious nuclear program, the American bunker-busters may increase the chance of another Middle East war. Iran's unpredictable and bellicose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. Iran continues to defy international sanctions with a clandestine nuclear program. Meanwhile, Netanyahu now has the means to carry out his threat that "Iran will not acquire nuclear arms, and this implies everything necessary to carry this out."
Ted Rudow III, MA
Palo Alto
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Spartan Daily
Spartan Daily
last update 11:18 pmOctober 25, 2011
Political stances should outweigh religious views
News Sports Opinion A&E
Political stances should outweigh religious views
by Jaimie Collins
The wise Thomas Jefferson is often attributed with writing the historical phrase “separation of church and state.” To this day, that ideal is still considered to hold importance in the election of our country’s leaders.
Unfortunately, United States voters and presidential candidates may not feel the same way.
During a convention on Oct. 7 in Washington, D.C. Pastor Robert Jeffress, the Southern Baptist Convention leader from Texas, introduced Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, and altogether stole the show.-------
One thought on “Political stances should outweigh religious views”
Ted Rudow III, MA on October 26, 2011
During a GOP debate last week, Texas Governor Rick Perry was asked about his support of the death penalty. (Texas has the highest rate of execution in the country.) Rick Perry was steadfast, saying, to cheers of support from the audience, that he had “never struggled” with the potential that Texas could have execution of an innocent person. At a June 2011 anti-abortion event, Perry told supporters that he believes “human life [is] a sacred gift from God.”Can you be pro-life and pro-death penalty? How does one reconcile these positions? A good saying is, “The speak peace, but war is in their heart” It is as if they find refuge in the belief that the life of a fetus is more important than the life of a fully-conscious human being.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Class of 1996
last update 11:18 pmOctober 25, 2011
Political stances should outweigh religious views
News Sports Opinion A&E
Political stances should outweigh religious views
by Jaimie Collins
The wise Thomas Jefferson is often attributed with writing the historical phrase “separation of church and state.” To this day, that ideal is still considered to hold importance in the election of our country’s leaders.
Unfortunately, United States voters and presidential candidates may not feel the same way.
During a convention on Oct. 7 in Washington, D.C. Pastor Robert Jeffress, the Southern Baptist Convention leader from Texas, introduced Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, and altogether stole the show.-------
One thought on “Political stances should outweigh religious views”
Ted Rudow III, MA on October 26, 2011
During a GOP debate last week, Texas Governor Rick Perry was asked about his support of the death penalty. (Texas has the highest rate of execution in the country.) Rick Perry was steadfast, saying, to cheers of support from the audience, that he had “never struggled” with the potential that Texas could have execution of an innocent person. At a June 2011 anti-abortion event, Perry told supporters that he believes “human life [is] a sacred gift from God.”Can you be pro-life and pro-death penalty? How does one reconcile these positions? A good saying is, “The speak peace, but war is in their heart” It is as if they find refuge in the belief that the life of a fetus is more important than the life of a fully-conscious human being.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Class of 1996
History of Halloween
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/26/18695229.php
History of Halloween
by Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com ) Wednesday Oct 26th, 2011
The true name of Halloween is “Samhain.” This was the Celtic Lord of the Dead. For 3 days from Oct 29-31, the Celtic people, along with their priestly class called Druids, would hold an ancient rite which would mark the beginning and the end of the year. A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age. Very little is currently known about the ancient druids because they left no written accounts about themselves. The druids then also appear in some of the medieval tales from Christianised Ireland like the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity. Usually a week before the rites of Samhain began, the Druid had ordered the people of the Celtic tribe to disperse throughout the countryside and gather thousands of wicker reed.This is a very strong and durable stick. Wicker furniture has been made from it and most of us are familiar with it. They would then construct a giant human effigy that would stand from 30 to 50 feet, as the Wicker Man. A wicker man was a large wicker statue of a human used by the ancient Druids (priests of Celtic paganism) for human sacrifice by burning it in effigy, according to Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico In modern times the figure has been adopted for festivals as part of some neopagan-themed ceremonies, notably without the human sacrifice element. Many cages had been built within it. Each prisoner would be tied to one of the cages.Then the Druids began their idea of fun and games. Yet, I have seen many Christian churches throughout this nation hold Halloween Parties within the church building. Every single one of these things is directly from the celebration of Samhain. You are simply trying to turn something evil into something good!
Ted Rudow III,MA
History of Halloween
by Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com ) Wednesday Oct 26th, 2011
The true name of Halloween is “Samhain.” This was the Celtic Lord of the Dead. For 3 days from Oct 29-31, the Celtic people, along with their priestly class called Druids, would hold an ancient rite which would mark the beginning and the end of the year. A druid was a member of the priestly class in Britain, Ireland, and Gaul, and possibly other parts of Celtic western Europe, during the Iron Age. Very little is currently known about the ancient druids because they left no written accounts about themselves. The druids then also appear in some of the medieval tales from Christianised Ireland like the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where they are largely portrayed as sorcerers who opposed the coming of Christianity. Usually a week before the rites of Samhain began, the Druid had ordered the people of the Celtic tribe to disperse throughout the countryside and gather thousands of wicker reed.This is a very strong and durable stick. Wicker furniture has been made from it and most of us are familiar with it. They would then construct a giant human effigy that would stand from 30 to 50 feet, as the Wicker Man. A wicker man was a large wicker statue of a human used by the ancient Druids (priests of Celtic paganism) for human sacrifice by burning it in effigy, according to Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico In modern times the figure has been adopted for festivals as part of some neopagan-themed ceremonies, notably without the human sacrifice element. Many cages had been built within it. Each prisoner would be tied to one of the cages.Then the Druids began their idea of fun and games. Yet, I have seen many Christian churches throughout this nation hold Halloween Parties within the church building. Every single one of these things is directly from the celebration of Samhain. You are simply trying to turn something evil into something good!
Ted Rudow III,MA
Raise the fist
RTF RADIOlive 24/7 www.raisethefist.com/streamplayer/player.swf',
Share comment FEATURE THIS
Barack Obama may be widely regarded at home as the least pro-Israeli president in decades, but he has secretly okayed giving the Jewish state a bunch of special bunker-busting bombs ideal for destroying Tehran's ruling mullahs nuclear ambitions and so powerful that George W. Bush blocked handing them over.
Capable of penetrating deep beneath the surface, the bunker-busterswould be crucial for any air strikes at Iran nuclear sites. Mr. Netanyahu has wanted the bunker-busters for years and, as first reported by Newsweek, Mr. Obama agreed to hand over 55 of the sophisticated and powerful weapons.
Given Israel's track record of pre-emptive bombing strikes to destroy nuclear sites in neighbouring nations and Iran's ambitious and suspicious nuclear program, the American bunker-busters may increase the chance of another Middle East war. Iran's unpredictable and bellicose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. Iran continues to defy international sanctions with a clandestine nuclear program. Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu now has the means to carry out his threat that Iran will not acquire nuclear arms, and this implies everything necessary to carry this out.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Share comment FEATURE THIS
Barack Obama may be widely regarded at home as the least pro-Israeli president in decades, but he has secretly okayed giving the Jewish state a bunch of special bunker-busting bombs ideal for destroying Tehran's ruling mullahs nuclear ambitions and so powerful that George W. Bush blocked handing them over.
Capable of penetrating deep beneath the surface, the bunker-busterswould be crucial for any air strikes at Iran nuclear sites. Mr. Netanyahu has wanted the bunker-busters for years and, as first reported by Newsweek, Mr. Obama agreed to hand over 55 of the sophisticated and powerful weapons.
Given Israel's track record of pre-emptive bombing strikes to destroy nuclear sites in neighbouring nations and Iran's ambitious and suspicious nuclear program, the American bunker-busters may increase the chance of another Middle East war. Iran's unpredictable and bellicose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. Iran continues to defy international sanctions with a clandestine nuclear program. Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu now has the means to carry out his threat that Iran will not acquire nuclear arms, and this implies everything necessary to carry this out.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Life in Iran?
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/25/18695026.php
Life in Iran?
by Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com ) Tuesday Oct 25th, 2011
Barack Obama may be widely regarded at home as the least pro-Israeli president in decades, but he has secretly okayed giving the Jewish state a bunch of special bunker-busting bombs – ideal for destroying Tehran’s ruling mullahs’ nuclear ambitions and so powerful that George W. Bush blocked handing them over.
Capable of penetrating deep beneath the surface, the bunker-busterswould be crucial for any air strikes at Iran nuclear sites. Mr. Netanyahu has wanted the bunker-busters for years and, as first reported byNewsweek, Mr. Obama agreed to hand over 55 of the sophisticated and powerful weapons.
Given Israel’s track record of pre-emptive bombing strikes to destroy nuclear sites in neighbouring nations and Iran’s ambitious and suspicious nuclear program, the American bunker-busters may increase the chance of anotherMiddle East war. Iran’s unpredictable and bellicose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. Iran continues to defy international sanctions with a clandestine nuclear program. Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu now has the means to carry out his threat that “Iran will not acquire nuclear arms, and this implies everything necessary to carry this out.”
Ted Rudow III, MA
Life in Iran?
by Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com ) Tuesday Oct 25th, 2011
Barack Obama may be widely regarded at home as the least pro-Israeli president in decades, but he has secretly okayed giving the Jewish state a bunch of special bunker-busting bombs – ideal for destroying Tehran’s ruling mullahs’ nuclear ambitions and so powerful that George W. Bush blocked handing them over.
Capable of penetrating deep beneath the surface, the bunker-busterswould be crucial for any air strikes at Iran nuclear sites. Mr. Netanyahu has wanted the bunker-busters for years and, as first reported byNewsweek, Mr. Obama agreed to hand over 55 of the sophisticated and powerful weapons.
Given Israel’s track record of pre-emptive bombing strikes to destroy nuclear sites in neighbouring nations and Iran’s ambitious and suspicious nuclear program, the American bunker-busters may increase the chance of anotherMiddle East war. Iran’s unpredictable and bellicose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has vowed to wipe Israel off the map. Iran continues to defy international sanctions with a clandestine nuclear program. Meanwhile, Mr. Netanyahu now has the means to carry out his threat that “Iran will not acquire nuclear arms, and this implies everything necessary to carry this out.”
Ted Rudow III, MA
Spartan Daily
Spartan Daily
October 24, 2011
News
Sports
Opinion
Wes Side Stories: Reflecting on the War in Iraq
by Wesley Dugle Oct 23, 2011
Wesley Dugle
Last Friday, President Obama officially stated that all U.S. troops would be out of Iraq by the end of the year.
It was a monumental declaration that appears to have put an end to a struggle that has been going on now for nearly nine years.
It was mind boggling to me to see that the war was officially coming to an end because in all honesty I hadn’t truly thought about it in a long time.
In fact, most of this country has barely talked about it for the last three or four years with the economy tanking and tea partyers and Wall Street occupiers protesting but when you look at the numbers its amazing no one has even taken note of it lately.
More than $800 billion have been spent over in Iraq in this past decade and it’s hard not to think the war’s cost had something to do with our downgraded economy.
Just over 4,400 American soldiers have paid the ultimate price for Operation Iraqi Freedom and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have perished as well and yet it’s barely a blip on the media’s radar.
There’s no anniversary for the war every year like we do 9/11 and yet arguably both are just as important to how America’s foreign policy has been shaped today.
I know the war definitely affected me.
Up until the war broke out I would say I was largely ignorant of the world around me.
Sure, I was in middle school and I didn’t know any better, but the events that happened in the world while I was there in many ways shaped my political and social outlook on the world today.
The events of 9/11 were the first to really change me.
I was too young to really understand just how shocking the event was but it still rattled me nonetheless when I understood for the first time that there were people out there that wanted to destroy America.
It was at that moment my shell of ignorance began to crack and I started to see the world outside of my hometown a little differently.
But just two years later, on March 20, 2003, is when things officially changed for me.
I remember coming home from school that day and seeing my parents watching the television as President George W. Bush declared war in Iraq.
Bush was stating that Saddam Hussein and his regime were connected with Osama Bin Laden and 9/11 and that they were in control of weapons of mass destruction.
This was infuriating to me.
I remember asking myself “Wait, when and how is Osama Bin Laden in cahoots with Saddam? Why are we declaring a war when we should be diverting all our sources to catching the monster who actually attacked us? And why are we issuing a preemptive strike on a country that we think has WMDs while another that actually has them (North Korea) is the one we are negotiating with?”
It was at that point my shell of ignorance shattered and I realized just how screwed up our government was.
It was infuriating to me that we would attack a country prematurely without any hard evidence and waste valuable resources while our economy was hurting and the real monster was still at large.
After that day I learned never to trust my government again, to ask questions, and to not simply just follow the commander in chief and whatever he says (this goes for Obama as well).
It changed me in a way that helped me take more notice of the world around me and dare myself to question what our government tells us is right.
The war has barely been in the minds of many Americans over the last few years however, but either way you look at it this conflict has had a profound effect on this country today.
With all this said though, despite the fact that we should have never been there in the first place, I wish Iraq and it’s people nothing but the best for they have probably suffered more than we have over this conflict.
I really do hope that Iraq can evolve into a stable peaceful democracy and even if we did not go in there for the right reasons I hope that some measure of success and peace is yielded from this war.
The war was one of the biggest events of the last decade and even if most Americans don’t think about it much today, I will never forget the impact it had on me and this country.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in a stunning decision that honored the first-year U.S. president more for promise than achievement, and drew both praise and skepticism around the world. But critics called the Nobel committee's decision premature, given that Obama has achieved few tangible gains, as he still grapples with challenges ranging from the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, and now the war on Libya. The raid has further strained ties between the United States and Pakistan. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are calling for a review of billions in aid to Pakistan in light of the revelation that bin Laden was living inside a heavily fortified compound in a wealthy Pakistani suburb. Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf criticized the United States for attacking the compound without Pakistan's knowledge, calling it a violation of Pakistani sovereignty. "It's very important to use this defining moment, I think, to rally the American people and to remind the American people that we are spending trillions of dollars, billions every week, on this open-ended longest war in American history and that we have economic priorities, economic recovery, job creation priorities here in our own country that this money can be used for," U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee said. We've got to remove our young men and women from harm's way, and we've got to really make sure that our presence in countries throughout the world does not create more danger and more anger toward the United States, which, you know, diminishes our national security.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Class of 1996
October 24, 2011
News
Sports
Opinion
Wes Side Stories: Reflecting on the War in Iraq
by Wesley Dugle Oct 23, 2011
Wesley Dugle
Last Friday, President Obama officially stated that all U.S. troops would be out of Iraq by the end of the year.
It was a monumental declaration that appears to have put an end to a struggle that has been going on now for nearly nine years.
It was mind boggling to me to see that the war was officially coming to an end because in all honesty I hadn’t truly thought about it in a long time.
In fact, most of this country has barely talked about it for the last three or four years with the economy tanking and tea partyers and Wall Street occupiers protesting but when you look at the numbers its amazing no one has even taken note of it lately.
More than $800 billion have been spent over in Iraq in this past decade and it’s hard not to think the war’s cost had something to do with our downgraded economy.
Just over 4,400 American soldiers have paid the ultimate price for Operation Iraqi Freedom and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have perished as well and yet it’s barely a blip on the media’s radar.
There’s no anniversary for the war every year like we do 9/11 and yet arguably both are just as important to how America’s foreign policy has been shaped today.
I know the war definitely affected me.
Up until the war broke out I would say I was largely ignorant of the world around me.
Sure, I was in middle school and I didn’t know any better, but the events that happened in the world while I was there in many ways shaped my political and social outlook on the world today.
The events of 9/11 were the first to really change me.
I was too young to really understand just how shocking the event was but it still rattled me nonetheless when I understood for the first time that there were people out there that wanted to destroy America.
It was at that moment my shell of ignorance began to crack and I started to see the world outside of my hometown a little differently.
But just two years later, on March 20, 2003, is when things officially changed for me.
I remember coming home from school that day and seeing my parents watching the television as President George W. Bush declared war in Iraq.
Bush was stating that Saddam Hussein and his regime were connected with Osama Bin Laden and 9/11 and that they were in control of weapons of mass destruction.
This was infuriating to me.
I remember asking myself “Wait, when and how is Osama Bin Laden in cahoots with Saddam? Why are we declaring a war when we should be diverting all our sources to catching the monster who actually attacked us? And why are we issuing a preemptive strike on a country that we think has WMDs while another that actually has them (North Korea) is the one we are negotiating with?”
It was at that point my shell of ignorance shattered and I realized just how screwed up our government was.
It was infuriating to me that we would attack a country prematurely without any hard evidence and waste valuable resources while our economy was hurting and the real monster was still at large.
After that day I learned never to trust my government again, to ask questions, and to not simply just follow the commander in chief and whatever he says (this goes for Obama as well).
It changed me in a way that helped me take more notice of the world around me and dare myself to question what our government tells us is right.
The war has barely been in the minds of many Americans over the last few years however, but either way you look at it this conflict has had a profound effect on this country today.
With all this said though, despite the fact that we should have never been there in the first place, I wish Iraq and it’s people nothing but the best for they have probably suffered more than we have over this conflict.
I really do hope that Iraq can evolve into a stable peaceful democracy and even if we did not go in there for the right reasons I hope that some measure of success and peace is yielded from this war.
The war was one of the biggest events of the last decade and even if most Americans don’t think about it much today, I will never forget the impact it had on me and this country.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in a stunning decision that honored the first-year U.S. president more for promise than achievement, and drew both praise and skepticism around the world. But critics called the Nobel committee's decision premature, given that Obama has achieved few tangible gains, as he still grapples with challenges ranging from the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea, and now the war on Libya. The raid has further strained ties between the United States and Pakistan. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers are calling for a review of billions in aid to Pakistan in light of the revelation that bin Laden was living inside a heavily fortified compound in a wealthy Pakistani suburb. Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf criticized the United States for attacking the compound without Pakistan's knowledge, calling it a violation of Pakistani sovereignty. "It's very important to use this defining moment, I think, to rally the American people and to remind the American people that we are spending trillions of dollars, billions every week, on this open-ended longest war in American history and that we have economic priorities, economic recovery, job creation priorities here in our own country that this money can be used for," U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee said. We've got to remove our young men and women from harm's way, and we've got to really make sure that our presence in countries throughout the world does not create more danger and more anger toward the United States, which, you know, diminishes our national security.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Class of 1996
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Spartan Daily
Spartan Daily
last update 4:09 pm
October 19, 2011
News Sports Opinion A&E Multimedia Tech Class Reports National World
Virtual Money: A commentary on Google Wallet
by francisco.rendon Oct 3, 2011 1:11 am
WHAT IS THE PRICE WE PAY FOR CONVENIENCE?
Leo Postovoit, Spartan Daily
The end is near, friends.
Google released the first version of the Google Wallet application last month, foreshadowing the death of paper money and the birth of the “wallet-phone.”
This app, available now to all Nexus 4G users on the Sprint mobile network, will eventually, according to Google’s website, contain “all the cards you keep in your wallet today.”
You can scan your phone at Mastercard PayPass stations to make transactions with a quickness usually reserved for viral videos, Facebook messaging and, when it’s convenient, telephone calls.
Beyond this, Google is also using its status as a corporate behemoth to get special offers and rewards, like free cupcakes at a local bakery and discounts at local stores, for people who make purchases with the Wallet app.
No doubt, within a short amount of time, having your wallet in your cellphone will be more convenient than having to fumble with bills and coins or having to reach for the right piece of plastic and signing a printed receipt.
Not even Abraham Lincoln and George Washington can compete with free cupcakes.
I will leave the “Big Brother” implication alone, with the observation that a phone this smart would advance it to become the central instrument of most people’s financial, social and business activity.
Beyond the “1984” paranoia however, this phone represents a larger trend in our society — the movement toward convenience.
We love making things easy in the global culture of consumerism in which we live.
In large cities, the places where consumerism thrives most, companies are all suing each other and fighting tooth and nail to be the one to offer the next convenience that makes all the city dwellers’ lives that much easier.
But do our conveniences make our lives better?
If you brought a cellphone to the middle of the desert or a village in the mountains and expected them to scan your Google Wallet to make a digital transaction, you would be out of luck.
Beyond this, your cellphone holds little practical use when you are in a place without the infrastructure to support it.
Gold, one of the oldest forms of currency humans have used, was valuable because of its malleability, its ability to be reshaped into any form themaker required, such as jewelry or ornaments.
So why, exactly, are our numbers on a screen valuable?
Ultimately, currency — and indeed what we actually own — is becoming less and less real.
While we once had a representative piece of the gold in Fort Knox assigned to our money, our greenbacks’ only monetary value lies in what the government assigns it.
This theoretical value, shifting through decisions of government officials and foreign economists, may soon only be numbers on the screen of a conveniently sized phone.
Most people have no idea how this neat little screen on a phone actually works, how to make one or how to fix it if anything goes wrong. If our screen screws up, it ruins our day and we have to pay someone to fix it or replace it.
Yet if you even suggest the idea of taking away a high schooler’s cellphone, I suggest you anchor yourself against the oncoming tide of obscenities.
I am 23 years old, and yet many people my own age lack not only the ability to state outright problems within their social environment, but once in difficult situations they find themselves even without the ability to express what it is they want.
Our generation’s increasingly apparent lack of communication skills demonstrates that technological advances, far from making us better people and teaching us practical applications of knowledge, are actually proving fundamentally disempowering, particularly to the youth of our culture.
In my spare time, I have done community-building service with youth ages 12 to 14, and I have found that rather than exploring their communities and affecting each others lives, more and more young people choose to remain inside their homes, on computers, texting their friends and watching television.
Increasingly, despite all the bright lights and loud sounds we can buy in a store, we are more and more finding ourselves slaves to the conveniences that corporations market so aggressively.
If these things are taken away from them, they often do not know what to do. I worry about what will become of future generations as their relationship with money goes in the same direction as that of the traditional telephone.
Yet because the option is available to us, and it is, undeniably, more convenient, Google wallet will no doubt become more prevalent.
So here’s to the free cupcakes.
0 Vote up Vote down Ted Rudow III, MA
Standard Poor’s decision to downgrade the United States has led to a lot of criticism of Standard Poor’s. The White House called their performance, which included a miscalculation of about $2.1 trillion, “amateur hour.”The move by S&P, one of three leading credit rating agencies, came just days after Congress approved a $2.1 trillion deficit-reduction plan.S&P didn’t just miss the bubble. They helped cause it. They were paid by the banks to award their AAA-stamp of approval to all manner of financial products that were anything but riskless -- which, ironically, makes them an accessory to the resulting explosion of U.S. debt. Lowering the nation’s rating to one notch below AAA, the credit rating company said "political brinkmanship" in the debate over the debt had made the U.S. government’s ability to manage its finances. There’s not much mention anymore of the recession or economic hard times, because the people at the top are doing great. And that is an upward redistribution of wealth by cutting taxes for the wealthiest, and in subtle ways, raising them for the poorest and for the middle class. The big business game is to see how fast you can rob the other guy.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Class of 1996
last update 4:09 pm
October 19, 2011
News Sports Opinion A&E Multimedia Tech Class Reports National World
Virtual Money: A commentary on Google Wallet
by francisco.rendon Oct 3, 2011 1:11 am
WHAT IS THE PRICE WE PAY FOR CONVENIENCE?
Leo Postovoit, Spartan Daily
The end is near, friends.
Google released the first version of the Google Wallet application last month, foreshadowing the death of paper money and the birth of the “wallet-phone.”
This app, available now to all Nexus 4G users on the Sprint mobile network, will eventually, according to Google’s website, contain “all the cards you keep in your wallet today.”
You can scan your phone at Mastercard PayPass stations to make transactions with a quickness usually reserved for viral videos, Facebook messaging and, when it’s convenient, telephone calls.
Beyond this, Google is also using its status as a corporate behemoth to get special offers and rewards, like free cupcakes at a local bakery and discounts at local stores, for people who make purchases with the Wallet app.
No doubt, within a short amount of time, having your wallet in your cellphone will be more convenient than having to fumble with bills and coins or having to reach for the right piece of plastic and signing a printed receipt.
Not even Abraham Lincoln and George Washington can compete with free cupcakes.
I will leave the “Big Brother” implication alone, with the observation that a phone this smart would advance it to become the central instrument of most people’s financial, social and business activity.
Beyond the “1984” paranoia however, this phone represents a larger trend in our society — the movement toward convenience.
We love making things easy in the global culture of consumerism in which we live.
In large cities, the places where consumerism thrives most, companies are all suing each other and fighting tooth and nail to be the one to offer the next convenience that makes all the city dwellers’ lives that much easier.
But do our conveniences make our lives better?
If you brought a cellphone to the middle of the desert or a village in the mountains and expected them to scan your Google Wallet to make a digital transaction, you would be out of luck.
Beyond this, your cellphone holds little practical use when you are in a place without the infrastructure to support it.
Gold, one of the oldest forms of currency humans have used, was valuable because of its malleability, its ability to be reshaped into any form themaker required, such as jewelry or ornaments.
So why, exactly, are our numbers on a screen valuable?
Ultimately, currency — and indeed what we actually own — is becoming less and less real.
While we once had a representative piece of the gold in Fort Knox assigned to our money, our greenbacks’ only monetary value lies in what the government assigns it.
This theoretical value, shifting through decisions of government officials and foreign economists, may soon only be numbers on the screen of a conveniently sized phone.
Most people have no idea how this neat little screen on a phone actually works, how to make one or how to fix it if anything goes wrong. If our screen screws up, it ruins our day and we have to pay someone to fix it or replace it.
Yet if you even suggest the idea of taking away a high schooler’s cellphone, I suggest you anchor yourself against the oncoming tide of obscenities.
I am 23 years old, and yet many people my own age lack not only the ability to state outright problems within their social environment, but once in difficult situations they find themselves even without the ability to express what it is they want.
Our generation’s increasingly apparent lack of communication skills demonstrates that technological advances, far from making us better people and teaching us practical applications of knowledge, are actually proving fundamentally disempowering, particularly to the youth of our culture.
In my spare time, I have done community-building service with youth ages 12 to 14, and I have found that rather than exploring their communities and affecting each others lives, more and more young people choose to remain inside their homes, on computers, texting their friends and watching television.
Increasingly, despite all the bright lights and loud sounds we can buy in a store, we are more and more finding ourselves slaves to the conveniences that corporations market so aggressively.
If these things are taken away from them, they often do not know what to do. I worry about what will become of future generations as their relationship with money goes in the same direction as that of the traditional telephone.
Yet because the option is available to us, and it is, undeniably, more convenient, Google wallet will no doubt become more prevalent.
So here’s to the free cupcakes.
0 Vote up Vote down Ted Rudow III, MA
Standard Poor’s decision to downgrade the United States has led to a lot of criticism of Standard Poor’s. The White House called their performance, which included a miscalculation of about $2.1 trillion, “amateur hour.”The move by S&P, one of three leading credit rating agencies, came just days after Congress approved a $2.1 trillion deficit-reduction plan.S&P didn’t just miss the bubble. They helped cause it. They were paid by the banks to award their AAA-stamp of approval to all manner of financial products that were anything but riskless -- which, ironically, makes them an accessory to the resulting explosion of U.S. debt. Lowering the nation’s rating to one notch below AAA, the credit rating company said "political brinkmanship" in the debate over the debt had made the U.S. government’s ability to manage its finances. There’s not much mention anymore of the recession or economic hard times, because the people at the top are doing great. And that is an upward redistribution of wealth by cutting taxes for the wealthiest, and in subtle ways, raising them for the poorest and for the middle class. The big business game is to see how fast you can rob the other guy.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Class of 1996
Indian summer
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Ever wonder about ‘Indian summer?'
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Posted: Thursday, October 20, 2011 2:39 pm
Ever wonder about ‘Indian summer?' 0 comments
The origins of the term Indian summer are uncertain, but several writers suggest it may have been based on the warm, hazy conditions in autumn when native American Indians chose to hunt. The earliest record of the use of the term is in America at the end of the 18th century. Although William R. Deedler also refers to a reference by a French man, John de Crevecoeur, in 1778:
"Sometimes the rain is followed by an interval of calm and warmth which is called the Indian Summer; its characteristics are a tranquil atmosphere and general smokiness. Up to this epoch the approaches of winter are doubtful; it arrives about the middle of November, although snows and brief freezes often occur long before that date."
The term was first used in the British Isles at the beginning of the 19th century, but there is no statistical evidence to show that such a warm spell tends to recur each year.
Ted Rudow III
Palo Alto
Send Us Your photo!
hmbreview.com
Half Moon Bay, CA -->
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Ever wonder about ‘Indian summer?'
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Comments
Posted: Thursday, October 20, 2011 2:39 pm
Ever wonder about ‘Indian summer?' 0 comments
The origins of the term Indian summer are uncertain, but several writers suggest it may have been based on the warm, hazy conditions in autumn when native American Indians chose to hunt. The earliest record of the use of the term is in America at the end of the 18th century. Although William R. Deedler also refers to a reference by a French man, John de Crevecoeur, in 1778:
"Sometimes the rain is followed by an interval of calm and warmth which is called the Indian Summer; its characteristics are a tranquil atmosphere and general smokiness. Up to this epoch the approaches of winter are doubtful; it arrives about the middle of November, although snows and brief freezes often occur long before that date."
The term was first used in the British Isles at the beginning of the 19th century, but there is no statistical evidence to show that such a warm spell tends to recur each year.
Ted Rudow III
Palo Alto
Stage is set
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Peninsula readers' letters: October 22
From Daily News Group readers Posted: 10/21/2011 06:16:06 PM PDTUpdated: 10/21/2011 11:04:06 PM PDT
Stage is set for Iran confrontation
Dear Editor: To understand American policy toward Iran, one must understand who the authors are of such policy and what their motivations are. The Brookings Institution itself was created by and for the corporate-financier elite. It is a policy think tank that represents the collective interests of the big oil corporations, banks and military contractors that fund it. Quite obviously then, policy toward Iran, or any nation for that matter, from within the halls of the Brookings Institution will revolve around expanding the global financial, social, political and military hegemony of its corporate sponsors.
America and Israel conspire to silence this troublesome voice, to quell and to put out these fires which burn and trouble the world for them. They conspire together, and so a leader has risen of their own making, of their own choice, a zealot for the cause of the Jews -- Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister. The stage is set. You can be sure of a confrontation and an escalation of confrontation between these two houses that battle at war.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Palo Alto
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Peninsula readers' letters: October 22
From Daily News Group readers Posted: 10/21/2011 06:16:06 PM PDTUpdated: 10/21/2011 11:04:06 PM PDT
Stage is set for Iran confrontation
Dear Editor: To understand American policy toward Iran, one must understand who the authors are of such policy and what their motivations are. The Brookings Institution itself was created by and for the corporate-financier elite. It is a policy think tank that represents the collective interests of the big oil corporations, banks and military contractors that fund it. Quite obviously then, policy toward Iran, or any nation for that matter, from within the halls of the Brookings Institution will revolve around expanding the global financial, social, political and military hegemony of its corporate sponsors.
America and Israel conspire to silence this troublesome voice, to quell and to put out these fires which burn and trouble the world for them. They conspire together, and so a leader has risen of their own making, of their own choice, a zealot for the cause of the Jews -- Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister. The stage is set. You can be sure of a confrontation and an escalation of confrontation between these two houses that battle at war.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Palo Alto
Friday, October 21, 2011
From Anne Eshoo
October 19, 2011
Dear Mr. Rudow,
Because I share your deep concern and frustration about the foreclosure crisis which is devastating families and communities across our country, I want to update you on some of my recent work.
On October 12, 2011, I joined my colleagues in the California Democratic Delegation to introduce a plan for effectively addressing the foreclosure crisis. We detailed the plan in a letter to President Obama, a copy of which is attached for your review.
Like millions of Americans, I'm extremely frustrated that more progress has not been made to address this crisis. Much of the problem was not caused by irresponsible borrowing, but by the risky financial speculation that inflated prices and disguised bad debt as safe. Now, as millions of people find their homes underwater and their monthly payments increasingly unaffordable, the Administration has done very little to come to their aid.
In a recent meeting with the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, I asked the Director if he had ever met with a family facing foreclosure. He answered that he hadn't. This sends a deeply troubling message, and I hope the Administration will act promptly on our proposals, which include:
o Directing the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to establish a plan to refinance all mortgages they own or guarantee;
o Establishing a principal reduction plan that would allow a restructuring in Chapter 13 bankruptcy for underwater mortgages; and
o Instituting a "Homeowner's Bill Of Rights" to stem some of the most flagrant servicer abuses once and for all.
These actions can each be accomplished swiftly through administrative action and without new legislation which would be difficult to pass in a divided political environment. Our plan would have a meaningful impact on millions of borrowers and their communities, in contrast to previous Treasury initiatives that have helped a comparatively small number of homeowners. The only thing missing is the political will to act, and I intend to continue pressing for it.
A number of useful pieces of legislation have been introduced that also would help to relieve this crisis, but while Democrats and Republicans may agree on the scale of the problem, we so far have not been able to agree on solutions. The impact of the crisis is being felt not just by individual borrowers, but by families devastated at the loss of a home, communities impacted by declining tax revenue, and an industry devastated by loss of stability. I will continue to fight for homeowners to bring this crisis to an end as quickly as possible.
If you have any other questions or comments, let me hear from you. I value what my constituents say to me, and always need your thoughts and benefit from your ideas.
I've created an ongoing e-newsletter to keep constituents informed on a variety of congressional issues and legislation. Many constituents tell me how much they value reading it, and if you would like to as well, you can go to my website at http://eshoo.house.gov and click on Sign Up for ENews. Your email address will never be used by anyone except my office to communicate with you, and your tax dollars will be conserved by using electronic communications rather than traditional mailings.
Sincerely, Anna G. Eshoo
Member of Congress
Dear Mr. Rudow,
Because I share your deep concern and frustration about the foreclosure crisis which is devastating families and communities across our country, I want to update you on some of my recent work.
On October 12, 2011, I joined my colleagues in the California Democratic Delegation to introduce a plan for effectively addressing the foreclosure crisis. We detailed the plan in a letter to President Obama, a copy of which is attached for your review.
Like millions of Americans, I'm extremely frustrated that more progress has not been made to address this crisis. Much of the problem was not caused by irresponsible borrowing, but by the risky financial speculation that inflated prices and disguised bad debt as safe. Now, as millions of people find their homes underwater and their monthly payments increasingly unaffordable, the Administration has done very little to come to their aid.
In a recent meeting with the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, I asked the Director if he had ever met with a family facing foreclosure. He answered that he hadn't. This sends a deeply troubling message, and I hope the Administration will act promptly on our proposals, which include:
o Directing the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to establish a plan to refinance all mortgages they own or guarantee;
o Establishing a principal reduction plan that would allow a restructuring in Chapter 13 bankruptcy for underwater mortgages; and
o Instituting a "Homeowner's Bill Of Rights" to stem some of the most flagrant servicer abuses once and for all.
These actions can each be accomplished swiftly through administrative action and without new legislation which would be difficult to pass in a divided political environment. Our plan would have a meaningful impact on millions of borrowers and their communities, in contrast to previous Treasury initiatives that have helped a comparatively small number of homeowners. The only thing missing is the political will to act, and I intend to continue pressing for it.
A number of useful pieces of legislation have been introduced that also would help to relieve this crisis, but while Democrats and Republicans may agree on the scale of the problem, we so far have not been able to agree on solutions. The impact of the crisis is being felt not just by individual borrowers, but by families devastated at the loss of a home, communities impacted by declining tax revenue, and an industry devastated by loss of stability. I will continue to fight for homeowners to bring this crisis to an end as quickly as possible.
If you have any other questions or comments, let me hear from you. I value what my constituents say to me, and always need your thoughts and benefit from your ideas.
I've created an ongoing e-newsletter to keep constituents informed on a variety of congressional issues and legislation. Many constituents tell me how much they value reading it, and if you would like to as well, you can go to my website at http://eshoo.house.gov and click on Sign Up for ENews. Your email address will never be used by anyone except my office to communicate with you, and your tax dollars will be conserved by using electronic communications rather than traditional mailings.
Sincerely, Anna G. Eshoo
Member of Congress
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
The stage is set
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FEATURE THIS
To understand American policy toward Iran, one must understand who the authors
are of such policy and what their motivations are. The Brookings Institution itself was created by and for the corporate-financier elite.
It is a policy think-tank that represents the collective interests of the big oil corporations, banks, and military contractors that fund it. Quite obviously then, policy toward Iran, or any nation for that matter, from within the halls of the Brookings Institution will revolve around expanding the global financial, social, political, and military hegemony of its corporate sponsors.
America and Israel conspire to silence this troublesome voice, to quell and to put out these fires which burn and trouble the world for them. They conspire together, and so leader has risen of their own making, of their own choice, a zealot for the cause of the Jews [Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister]. The stage is set. You can be sure of a confrontation and an escalation of confrontation between these two houses that battle at war.
Ted Rudow III, MA
live 24/7
raisethefist.com
so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');so.addVariable('type', 'mp3');so.addVariable('autostart', 'true');so.addVariable('title', 'true');// so.addVariable('file', 'http://raisethefist2.dlinkddns.com:8030/listen.pls');// Icecast stream - Proton Radioso.addVariable('file', 'http://raisethefist2.dlinkddns.com:8030/;stream.nsv');so.write('player');
Share comment
FEATURE THIS
To understand American policy toward Iran, one must understand who the authors
are of such policy and what their motivations are. The Brookings Institution itself was created by and for the corporate-financier elite.
It is a policy think-tank that represents the collective interests of the big oil corporations, banks, and military contractors that fund it. Quite obviously then, policy toward Iran, or any nation for that matter, from within the halls of the Brookings Institution will revolve around expanding the global financial, social, political, and military hegemony of its corporate sponsors.
America and Israel conspire to silence this troublesome voice, to quell and to put out these fires which burn and trouble the world for them. They conspire together, and so leader has risen of their own making, of their own choice, a zealot for the cause of the Jews [Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister]. The stage is set. You can be sure of a confrontation and an escalation of confrontation between these two houses that battle at war.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Monday, October 17, 2011
The CLASS gone
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/17/18693989.php
The CLASS gone
by Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com ) Monday Oct 17th, 2011
The Obama administration has announced it is pulling the plug on a long-term home care program included in the 2010 healthcare reform law. The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports, or CLASS program, was designed to give the disabled and elderly cash to receive care at home instead of usually more expensive institutional care.
-->
The administration estimated that although monthly premiums typically would have ranged from $235 to $391, they could have reached as high as $3,000 under some scenarios. The program was co-authored by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey. Pallone criticized the Obama administration’s decision, saying, "While we are fighting so hard against Republican attempts to cut Medicaid ... abandoning the CLASS Act is the wrong decision. Soon enough, those in need will have nowhere to go for long-term care."
The end of the CLASS program eliminates an estimated $86 billion in savings that the health reform law was projected to generate. The overhaul is now expected to reduce the deficit by $124 billion between 2012 and 2021 (Aizenman, Washington Post, 10/14). Since there's not much love in families any longer and the relatives don't want to take care of you, they vote in laws so that the government will take care of you. And now that too has ended!
Ted Rudow III, MA
The CLASS gone
by Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com ) Monday Oct 17th, 2011
The Obama administration has announced it is pulling the plug on a long-term home care program included in the 2010 healthcare reform law. The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports, or CLASS program, was designed to give the disabled and elderly cash to receive care at home instead of usually more expensive institutional care.
-->
The administration estimated that although monthly premiums typically would have ranged from $235 to $391, they could have reached as high as $3,000 under some scenarios. The program was co-authored by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy and Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey. Pallone criticized the Obama administration’s decision, saying, "While we are fighting so hard against Republican attempts to cut Medicaid ... abandoning the CLASS Act is the wrong decision. Soon enough, those in need will have nowhere to go for long-term care."
The end of the CLASS program eliminates an estimated $86 billion in savings that the health reform law was projected to generate. The overhaul is now expected to reduce the deficit by $124 billion between 2012 and 2021 (Aizenman, Washington Post, 10/14). Since there's not much love in families any longer and the relatives don't want to take care of you, they vote in laws so that the government will take care of you. And now that too has ended!
Ted Rudow III, MA
The stage is set
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/17/18693964.php
The stage is setby Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com ) Monday Oct 17th, 2011
To understand American policy toward Iran, one must understand who the authors are of such policy and what their motivations are. The Brookings Institution itself was created by and for the corporate-financier elite.It is a policy think-tank that represents the collective interests of the big oil corporations, banks, and military contractors that fund it. Quite obviously then, policy toward Iran, or any nation for that matter, from within the halls of the Brookings Institution will revolve around expanding the global financial, social, political, and military hegemony of its corporate sponsors. America and Israel conspire to silence this troublesome voice, to quell and to put out these fires which burn and trouble the world for them. They conspire together, and so leader has risen of their own making, of their own choice, a zealot for the cause of the Jews [Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister]. The stage is set. You can be sure of a confrontation and an escalation of confrontation between these two houses that battle at war.
Ted Rudow III, MA
The stage is setby Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com ) Monday Oct 17th, 2011
To understand American policy toward Iran, one must understand who the authors are of such policy and what their motivations are. The Brookings Institution itself was created by and for the corporate-financier elite.It is a policy think-tank that represents the collective interests of the big oil corporations, banks, and military contractors that fund it. Quite obviously then, policy toward Iran, or any nation for that matter, from within the halls of the Brookings Institution will revolve around expanding the global financial, social, political, and military hegemony of its corporate sponsors. America and Israel conspire to silence this troublesome voice, to quell and to put out these fires which burn and trouble the world for them. They conspire together, and so leader has risen of their own making, of their own choice, a zealot for the cause of the Jews [Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister]. The stage is set. You can be sure of a confrontation and an escalation of confrontation between these two houses that battle at war.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Indian summer
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Peninsula readers' letters: October 15
From Daily News Group readers Posted: 10/14/2011 05:50:05 PM PDTUpdated: 10/14/2011 11:43:42 PM PDT
Origin of 'Indian summer'
Dear Editor: The origins of the term Indian summer are uncertain, but several writers suggest it may have been based on the warm, hazy conditions in autumn when native American Indians chose to hunt. The earliest record of the use of the term is in America at the end of the 18th century.
William R. Deedler also references the term to a French man, John de Crevecoeur, in 1778: "Sometimes the rain is followed by an interval of calm and warmth which is called the Indian Summer; its characteristics are a tranquil atmosphere and general smokiness. Up to this epoch the approaches of winter are doubtful; it arrives about the middle of November, although snows and brief freezes often occur long before that date."
The term was first used in the British Isles at the beginning of the 19th century, but there is no statistical evidence to show that such a warm spell tends to recur each year.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Palo Alto
eEdition / Subscriber ServicesMobile Mobile Alerts RSS
Home
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Peninsula readers' letters: October 15
From Daily News Group readers Posted: 10/14/2011 05:50:05 PM PDTUpdated: 10/14/2011 11:43:42 PM PDT
Origin of 'Indian summer'
Dear Editor: The origins of the term Indian summer are uncertain, but several writers suggest it may have been based on the warm, hazy conditions in autumn when native American Indians chose to hunt. The earliest record of the use of the term is in America at the end of the 18th century.
William R. Deedler also references the term to a French man, John de Crevecoeur, in 1778: "Sometimes the rain is followed by an interval of calm and warmth which is called the Indian Summer; its characteristics are a tranquil atmosphere and general smokiness. Up to this epoch the approaches of winter are doubtful; it arrives about the middle of November, although snows and brief freezes often occur long before that date."
The term was first used in the British Isles at the beginning of the 19th century, but there is no statistical evidence to show that such a warm spell tends to recur each year.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Palo Alto
Friday, October 14, 2011
Raisethefist.com
RTF RADIOlive 24/7 var so = new SWFObject('http://www.raisethefist.com/streamplayer/player.swf', 'streambaby', '150', '20', '9');// so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');so.addVariable('type', 'mp3');so.addVariable('autostart', 'true');so.addVariable('title', 'true');// so.addVariable('file', 'http://raisethefist2.dlinkddns.com:8030/listen.pls');// Icecast stream - Proton Radioso.addVariable('file', 'http://raisethefist2.dlinkddns.com:8030/;stream.nsv');so.write('player'); Populist movement : Indybaindybay.org Mon Oct 10 11:45:34 PDT 2011
Click here to watch video
The Populist movement started the end of the first Gilded Age in the 1890s. The movement developed from farmers' alliances formed in the 1880s in reaction to falling crop prices and poor credit facilities. The leaders organized the Populist, or People's, Party (1892), which advocated a variety of measures to help farmers. It form to be a mass disruptions and mass protests by unemployed workers, especially in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It took roughly four years for the organize to happen. We first started seeing the first uprisings around 1933, and continued in 1934, 35, 36. 37 is the Flint sit-down strike. Marches of unemployed, people going into the street, in some cases actually occupying factories, as we saw later on with the Flint sit-down strike. So there was massive unrest and disruption across the country, from both farmers as well as unemployed people. And what's interesting about that is it was farmers who were in debt both in the 1890s and the 1930s. Today it's students in debt, to a great extent, to large banks. That energy was channeled into what we now know as the New Deal. Since the 30s, and especially starting in the 50s, 60s and 70s, the right actually claimed the label and mantra of populism, and they have successfully changed the entire discourse and politics of this country under populist rhetoric. New research shows household income has declined more in the two years after the recession officially ended than it did during the recession itself. Money needs to flow from the top down, not from the bottom up. Ted Rudow III, MA
RTF RADIOlive 24/7 var so = new SWFObject('http://www.raisethefist.com/streamplayer/player.swf', 'streambaby', '150', '20', '9');// so.addParam('allowscriptaccess','always');so.addParam('allowfullscreen','true');so.addVariable('type', 'mp3');so.addVariable('autostart', 'true');so.addVariable('title', 'true');// so.addVariable('file', 'http://raisethefist2.dlinkddns.com:8030/listen.pls');// Icecast stream - Proton Radioso.addVariable('file', 'http://raisethefist2.dlinkddns.com:8030/;stream.nsv');so.write('player'); Populist movement : Indybaindybay.org Mon Oct 10 11:45:34 PDT 2011
Click here to watch video
The Populist movement started the end of the first Gilded Age in the 1890s. The movement developed from farmers' alliances formed in the 1880s in reaction to falling crop prices and poor credit facilities. The leaders organized the Populist, or People's, Party (1892), which advocated a variety of measures to help farmers. It form to be a mass disruptions and mass protests by unemployed workers, especially in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It took roughly four years for the organize to happen. We first started seeing the first uprisings around 1933, and continued in 1934, 35, 36. 37 is the Flint sit-down strike. Marches of unemployed, people going into the street, in some cases actually occupying factories, as we saw later on with the Flint sit-down strike. So there was massive unrest and disruption across the country, from both farmers as well as unemployed people. And what's interesting about that is it was farmers who were in debt both in the 1890s and the 1930s. Today it's students in debt, to a great extent, to large banks. That energy was channeled into what we now know as the New Deal. Since the 30s, and especially starting in the 50s, 60s and 70s, the right actually claimed the label and mantra of populism, and they have successfully changed the entire discourse and politics of this country under populist rhetoric. New research shows household income has declined more in the two years after the recession officially ended than it did during the recession itself. Money needs to flow from the top down, not from the bottom up. Ted Rudow III, MA
Thursday, October 13, 2011
The Populist Movement
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The Populist movement
Ted Rudow III, MA, Encina Ave, Palo Alto, CA
The Populist movement started at the end of the first Gilded Age in the 1890s. The movement developed from farmers' alliances, formed in the 1880s, in reaction to falling crop prices and poor credit facilities. The leaders formed the People's Party (1892), also known as the Populist Party, which advocated a variety of measures to help farmers. Mass protests were staged by the unemployed workers, especially in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It took roughly four years to organise this. The first uprising started around 1933, and continued in 1934, '35, and '36.
The marches of unemployed people went into the street, in some cases actually occupied the factories, as we saw later with the Flint sit-down strike. So, there was massive unrest and disruption across the country, from both farmers and unemployed people. And what's interesting is, it was farmers who were in debt both in the 1890s and the 1930s. Today it is the students who are in debt, to a great extent, to large banks.
That energy was channeled into what we now know as the New Deal. Since the '30s, and especially starting in the '50s, '60s and '70s, the right actually claimed the label and mantra of populism, and they have successfully changed the entire discourse and politics of this country under populist rhetoric. New research shows that household income has declined more in the two years after the recession officially ended than it did during the recession itself. Money needs to flow from the top down, not from the bottom up.
T: 29C H: 70%
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Thursday, October 13, 2011
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Friday, October 14, 2011Letters
The Populist movement
Ted Rudow III, MA, Encina Ave, Palo Alto, CA
The Populist movement started at the end of the first Gilded Age in the 1890s. The movement developed from farmers' alliances, formed in the 1880s, in reaction to falling crop prices and poor credit facilities. The leaders formed the People's Party (1892), also known as the Populist Party, which advocated a variety of measures to help farmers. Mass protests were staged by the unemployed workers, especially in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It took roughly four years to organise this. The first uprising started around 1933, and continued in 1934, '35, and '36.
The marches of unemployed people went into the street, in some cases actually occupied the factories, as we saw later with the Flint sit-down strike. So, there was massive unrest and disruption across the country, from both farmers and unemployed people. And what's interesting is, it was farmers who were in debt both in the 1890s and the 1930s. Today it is the students who are in debt, to a great extent, to large banks.
That energy was channeled into what we now know as the New Deal. Since the '30s, and especially starting in the '50s, '60s and '70s, the right actually claimed the label and mantra of populism, and they have successfully changed the entire discourse and politics of this country under populist rhetoric. New research shows that household income has declined more in the two years after the recession officially ended than it did during the recession itself. Money needs to flow from the top down, not from the bottom up.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
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The real story behind the U.S.-Pakistani dispute October 01, 2011 02:12 AM
By David Ignatius The Daily Star
Behind the recent verbal confrontation between U.S. and Pakistani officials about the Haqqani network lies a delicate political-military effort to split the Haqqanis as part of an end-game strategy for the war in Afghanistan.Admiral Mike Mullen, the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rebuked the Pakistani spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, for using the Haqqani network as its “veritable arm” in Afghanistan. But U.S. officials know the ISI also facilitated a secret meeting during the last several months between the U.S. and a representative of the Haqqani clan. This is the double game that’s always operating in U.S.-Pakistani relations.Some U.S. officials believe that the recent wave of attacks by the Haqqanis on U.S. targets in Afghanistan may, in fact, reflect the determination of hard-line members of the clan to derail any move toward negotiation. The U.S. wants the Pakistani military’s help in isolating and destroying these “unreconcilable” elements of the network.The sparring with Pakistan illustrates the wider dilemma of the Afghan war. How does the U.S. bring pressure on the Haqqanis and other Taliban factions, even as it withdraws troops with a 2014 deadline for completing its mission? As Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., has said: “The more the U.S. says it wants to leave Afghanistan, the harder it will be to leave.”What angered Mullen and other U.S. officials was Pakistan’s failure to act on intelligence reports about planned Haqqani attacks. A time line helps disentangle the threads of the dispute:On Sept. 8, General John Allen, the NATO commander in Afghanistan, is said to have warned General Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistani army chief, that two truck bombs had been assembled in Miran Shah, the Haqqanis’ base in North Waziristan, and were headed for Afghanistan. Kayani is said to have pledged he would take action.On Sept. 10, one of those truck bombs struck a NATO base in Wardak, just east of Kabul, wounding 77 U.S. soldiers. That was the real trigger for Mullen’s anger: Some senior officials concede that Pakistan may not have had enough time, or precise “actionable” intelligence, to stop the bomb-laden truck.On Sept. 13, insurgents from the Haqqani network attacked the U.S. Embassy compound in Kabul. Though Mullen mentioned this attack in his denunciation of ISI-Haqqani links, U.S. officials don’t see any evidence of a Pakistani role in planning or executing the operation, a message the CIA privately communicated to Islamabad. However, in the days after the bombing, U.S. officials presented Pakistan with a series of “what ifs,” to convey the danger of the situation: What if the 77 soldiers at Wardak had been killed? What if the U.S. ambassador in Kabul had died? What then?On Sept. 18, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Pakistani foreign minister and delivered the first of a series of U.S. rebukes, asking how Pakistan could promote the Haqqanis as a prospective negotiating partner and yet sit by idly while they attacked Americans. On Sept. 22, Mullen delivered his blunt testimony. On Sept. 25 and 26, two longtime congressional supporters of Pakistan, senators Lindsey Graham and Mark Kirk, warned of a halt in military aid.But military liaison continues, with General James Mattis, the commander of U.S. Central Command, visiting Islamabad last weekend and warning that Pakistan had to choose sides.The message seems to have gotten through to Pakistani military leaders, who reportedly concluded at a secret commanders’ conference on Sept. 26 that they don’t want a confrontation with the U.S. But surely, this is a sick relationship when the partners have to go to the brink of open confrontation to get the other side to listen. If they were a married couple, you would send them to a counselor, or, failing that, a divorce lawyer.With all the noise about the Haqqanis, it’s important to remember that the real issue here is the larger war in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama’s goal remains a political settlement with “reconcilable” elements of the Taliban, and secret contacts have been continuing around the world. The message to the Haqqanis is that they can best protect political power in their ancestral homeland in Paktika, Paktia and Khost provinces by coming to the table now.But does the Taliban – or the Pakistani government, for that matter – take the U.S. strategy seriously? How can the U.S. gain enough leverage to tip the process toward negotiation? That’s what this war of words was really about.David Ignatius is published twice weekly by THE DAILY STAR.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2011/Oct-01/150184-the-real-story-behind-the-us-pakistani-dispute.ashx#ixzz1aTi8O1gd (The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Ted Rudow III, MA October 07, 2011
The rest of the world is not going to stand for America starting another war just to boost its economy, no matter what its excuses are. But they are doing this in Paskistan. We are in an invariable cycle. It always happens. You don't have to be a prophet to predict it, all you have to do is look at history. They can sing "The party's over," the war is over, but now we have to pay the fiddler. And there isn't going to be any way to pay the fiddler. The only way America has ever pulled out of the depression that always follows, is with a war. They will choose some other kind of a war again.The next time, by the time America finds out it can't solve its problems at home, and wants to try to start another … war on some poor little nation to pull its self out of a hole at the expense of starving or destroying its neighbours, the rest of the world is going to say “no, we're not going to let you do it!” They're going to stop them. America is not going to be able to do as it pleases and oppress the poor and start wars, starve the poor to feed the rich.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2011/Oct-01/150184-the-real-story-behind-the-us-pakistani-dispute.ashx#ixzz1aTi00c7M (The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Mobile About us Photos Videos Subscriptions RSS Feeds Today's Paper Classifieds Contact Us Sign in Register TUESDAY, 11 OCT 2011 04:04 PM Beirut time Weather Beirut28 °C Blom Index 1,217.2 News Business Opinion Sports Culture Technology Entertainment Politics Local News Middle East Analysis International Health Science Environment
Lebanon International Middle East Follow us: Like us: Advanced Search
Columnist
The real story behind the U.S.-Pakistani dispute October 01, 2011 02:12 AM
By David Ignatius The Daily Star
Behind the recent verbal confrontation between U.S. and Pakistani officials about the Haqqani network lies a delicate political-military effort to split the Haqqanis as part of an end-game strategy for the war in Afghanistan.Admiral Mike Mullen, the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rebuked the Pakistani spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, for using the Haqqani network as its “veritable arm” in Afghanistan. But U.S. officials know the ISI also facilitated a secret meeting during the last several months between the U.S. and a representative of the Haqqani clan. This is the double game that’s always operating in U.S.-Pakistani relations.Some U.S. officials believe that the recent wave of attacks by the Haqqanis on U.S. targets in Afghanistan may, in fact, reflect the determination of hard-line members of the clan to derail any move toward negotiation. The U.S. wants the Pakistani military’s help in isolating and destroying these “unreconcilable” elements of the network.The sparring with Pakistan illustrates the wider dilemma of the Afghan war. How does the U.S. bring pressure on the Haqqanis and other Taliban factions, even as it withdraws troops with a 2014 deadline for completing its mission? As Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., has said: “The more the U.S. says it wants to leave Afghanistan, the harder it will be to leave.”What angered Mullen and other U.S. officials was Pakistan’s failure to act on intelligence reports about planned Haqqani attacks. A time line helps disentangle the threads of the dispute:On Sept. 8, General John Allen, the NATO commander in Afghanistan, is said to have warned General Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistani army chief, that two truck bombs had been assembled in Miran Shah, the Haqqanis’ base in North Waziristan, and were headed for Afghanistan. Kayani is said to have pledged he would take action.On Sept. 10, one of those truck bombs struck a NATO base in Wardak, just east of Kabul, wounding 77 U.S. soldiers. That was the real trigger for Mullen’s anger: Some senior officials concede that Pakistan may not have had enough time, or precise “actionable” intelligence, to stop the bomb-laden truck.On Sept. 13, insurgents from the Haqqani network attacked the U.S. Embassy compound in Kabul. Though Mullen mentioned this attack in his denunciation of ISI-Haqqani links, U.S. officials don’t see any evidence of a Pakistani role in planning or executing the operation, a message the CIA privately communicated to Islamabad. However, in the days after the bombing, U.S. officials presented Pakistan with a series of “what ifs,” to convey the danger of the situation: What if the 77 soldiers at Wardak had been killed? What if the U.S. ambassador in Kabul had died? What then?On Sept. 18, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Pakistani foreign minister and delivered the first of a series of U.S. rebukes, asking how Pakistan could promote the Haqqanis as a prospective negotiating partner and yet sit by idly while they attacked Americans. On Sept. 22, Mullen delivered his blunt testimony. On Sept. 25 and 26, two longtime congressional supporters of Pakistan, senators Lindsey Graham and Mark Kirk, warned of a halt in military aid.But military liaison continues, with General James Mattis, the commander of U.S. Central Command, visiting Islamabad last weekend and warning that Pakistan had to choose sides.The message seems to have gotten through to Pakistani military leaders, who reportedly concluded at a secret commanders’ conference on Sept. 26 that they don’t want a confrontation with the U.S. But surely, this is a sick relationship when the partners have to go to the brink of open confrontation to get the other side to listen. If they were a married couple, you would send them to a counselor, or, failing that, a divorce lawyer.With all the noise about the Haqqanis, it’s important to remember that the real issue here is the larger war in Afghanistan. President Barack Obama’s goal remains a political settlement with “reconcilable” elements of the Taliban, and secret contacts have been continuing around the world. The message to the Haqqanis is that they can best protect political power in their ancestral homeland in Paktika, Paktia and Khost provinces by coming to the table now.But does the Taliban – or the Pakistani government, for that matter – take the U.S. strategy seriously? How can the U.S. gain enough leverage to tip the process toward negotiation? That’s what this war of words was really about.David Ignatius is published twice weekly by THE DAILY STAR.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2011/Oct-01/150184-the-real-story-behind-the-us-pakistani-dispute.ashx#ixzz1aTi8O1gd (The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Ted Rudow III, MA October 07, 2011
The rest of the world is not going to stand for America starting another war just to boost its economy, no matter what its excuses are. But they are doing this in Paskistan. We are in an invariable cycle. It always happens. You don't have to be a prophet to predict it, all you have to do is look at history. They can sing "The party's over," the war is over, but now we have to pay the fiddler. And there isn't going to be any way to pay the fiddler. The only way America has ever pulled out of the depression that always follows, is with a war. They will choose some other kind of a war again.The next time, by the time America finds out it can't solve its problems at home, and wants to try to start another … war on some poor little nation to pull its self out of a hole at the expense of starving or destroying its neighbours, the rest of the world is going to say “no, we're not going to let you do it!” They're going to stop them. America is not going to be able to do as it pleases and oppress the poor and start wars, starve the poor to feed the rich.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2011/Oct-01/150184-the-real-story-behind-the-us-pakistani-dispute.ashx#ixzz1aTi00c7M (The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
Monday, October 10, 2011
Populist movement
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/10/18692944.php
Populist movement
by Ted Rudow III, MA Monday Oct 10th, 2011
The Populist movement started the end of the first Gilded Age in the 1890s. The movement developed from farmers' alliances formed in the 1880s in reaction to falling crop prices and poor credit facilities.
-->
The leaders organized the Populist, or People's, Party (1892), which advocated a variety of measures to help farmers. It form to be a mass disruptions and mass protests by unemployed workers, especially in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It took roughly four years for the organize to happen. We first started seeing the first uprisings around 1933, and continued in 1934, ’35, ’36. Thirty-six, ’37 is the Flint sit-down strike. Marches of unemployed, people going into the street, in some cases actually occupying factories, as we saw later on with the Flint sit-down strike. So there was massive unrest and disruption across the country, from both farmers as well as unemployed people. And what’s interesting about that is it was farmers who were in debt both in the 1890s and the 1930s. Today it’s students in debt, to a great extent, to large banks. That energy was channeled into what we now know as the New Deal. Since the ’30s, and especially starting in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the right actually claimed the label and mantra of populism, and they have successfully changed the entire discourse and politics of this country under populist rhetoric. New research shows household income has declined more in the two years after the recession officially ended than it did during the recession itself. Money needs to flow from the top down, not from the bottom up.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Populist movement
by Ted Rudow III, MA Monday Oct 10th, 2011
The Populist movement started the end of the first Gilded Age in the 1890s. The movement developed from farmers' alliances formed in the 1880s in reaction to falling crop prices and poor credit facilities.
-->
The leaders organized the Populist, or People's, Party (1892), which advocated a variety of measures to help farmers. It form to be a mass disruptions and mass protests by unemployed workers, especially in the 1930s during the Great Depression. It took roughly four years for the organize to happen. We first started seeing the first uprisings around 1933, and continued in 1934, ’35, ’36. Thirty-six, ’37 is the Flint sit-down strike. Marches of unemployed, people going into the street, in some cases actually occupying factories, as we saw later on with the Flint sit-down strike. So there was massive unrest and disruption across the country, from both farmers as well as unemployed people. And what’s interesting about that is it was farmers who were in debt both in the 1890s and the 1930s. Today it’s students in debt, to a great extent, to large banks. That energy was channeled into what we now know as the New Deal. Since the ’30s, and especially starting in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the right actually claimed the label and mantra of populism, and they have successfully changed the entire discourse and politics of this country under populist rhetoric. New research shows household income has declined more in the two years after the recession officially ended than it did during the recession itself. Money needs to flow from the top down, not from the bottom up.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Sunday, October 09, 2011
Afghans a mess
RSN
Afghanistan a Mess Despite U.S. Promises
by Ted Rudow III Saturday, 08 October 2011
As the United States and NATO marked 10 years of war in Afghanistan on Friday, a grim picture emerges from scores of interviews over six months across the country with ordinary Afghans, government officials, soldiers, and former and current Taliban, along with recent data. The difference between the often optimistic assessment of U.S. generals and the reality on the ground for Afghans is stark.
After more than 30 years of war and chaos, Afghanistan is really a mess. Despite all the American aid and promises to rebuild the country, it's a wreck. The capital, Kabul, is becoming more prosperous, but only because that's where most of the U.S. and coalition troops are based to provide security, and because that's one of the few places the aid organizations feel safe enough to operate.
But for Afghans, it has been a decade of one step forward and two steps back. Maybe it's because they have such a short attention span and memory. As one journalist commented, a short memory is a great boost to self-esteem. It helps when you can so easily forget the past and tune out reality. Americans can forget that the country is as bad off as it ever was. Last Updated on Saturday, 08 October 2011
Afghanistan a Mess Despite U.S. Promises
by Ted Rudow III Saturday, 08 October 2011
As the United States and NATO marked 10 years of war in Afghanistan on Friday, a grim picture emerges from scores of interviews over six months across the country with ordinary Afghans, government officials, soldiers, and former and current Taliban, along with recent data. The difference between the often optimistic assessment of U.S. generals and the reality on the ground for Afghans is stark.
After more than 30 years of war and chaos, Afghanistan is really a mess. Despite all the American aid and promises to rebuild the country, it's a wreck. The capital, Kabul, is becoming more prosperous, but only because that's where most of the U.S. and coalition troops are based to provide security, and because that's one of the few places the aid organizations feel safe enough to operate.
But for Afghans, it has been a decade of one step forward and two steps back. Maybe it's because they have such a short attention span and memory. As one journalist commented, a short memory is a great boost to self-esteem. It helps when you can so easily forget the past and tune out reality. Americans can forget that the country is as bad off as it ever was. Last Updated on Saturday, 08 October 2011
Saturday, October 08, 2011
Afghans a mess
MercuryNews.com
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Oct. 8 Readers' letters
From Mercury News readers
Afghanistan a mess despite U.S. promises
As the United States and NATO marked 10 years of war in Afghanistan on Friday, a grim picture emerges from scores of interviews over six months across the country with ordinary Afghans, government officials, soldiers, and former and current Taliban, along with recent data. The difference between the often optimistic assessment of U.S. generals and the reality on the ground for Afghans is stark.
After more than 30 years of war and chaos, Afghanistan is really a mess. Despite all the American aid and promises to rebuild the country, it's a wreck. The capital, Kabul, is becoming more prosperous, but only because that's where most of the U.S. and coalition troops are based to provide security, and because that's one of the few places the aid organizations feel safe enough to operate.
But for Afghans, it has been a decade of one step forward and two steps back. Maybe it's because they have such a short attention span and memory. As one journalist commented, a short memory is a great boost to self-esteem. It helps when you can so easily forget the past and tune out reality. Americans can forget that the country is as bad off as it ever was.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Palo Alto
Edition / Subscriber ServicesMobile Mobile Alerts RSS
HOME
NEWS breaking newsobituariescrime and courtsbay area newsdata centerscience / environmentearthquakespolitics / governmentcalifornianation / world
OPINION columnseditorialslettersblogsdiscussion boards
Oct. 8 Readers' letters
From Mercury News readers
Afghanistan a mess despite U.S. promises
As the United States and NATO marked 10 years of war in Afghanistan on Friday, a grim picture emerges from scores of interviews over six months across the country with ordinary Afghans, government officials, soldiers, and former and current Taliban, along with recent data. The difference between the often optimistic assessment of U.S. generals and the reality on the ground for Afghans is stark.
After more than 30 years of war and chaos, Afghanistan is really a mess. Despite all the American aid and promises to rebuild the country, it's a wreck. The capital, Kabul, is becoming more prosperous, but only because that's where most of the U.S. and coalition troops are based to provide security, and because that's one of the few places the aid organizations feel safe enough to operate.
But for Afghans, it has been a decade of one step forward and two steps back. Maybe it's because they have such a short attention span and memory. As one journalist commented, a short memory is a great boost to self-esteem. It helps when you can so easily forget the past and tune out reality. Americans can forget that the country is as bad off as it ever was.
Ted Rudow III, MA
Palo Alto
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