Stop Talking; Stop Rearranging The Deck Chairs On The Titanic; Rebuild America; Keep People In Their Homes And Send A Few Financial Criminals To Jail Along With Bush, Cheney And Friends.
Click here>>> Don’t miss this! I took a little walk in the freezing cold this morning and put my Nikon to work under The New Woodrow Wilson Bridge to document the sort of thing we could be doing all over America to put Americans back to work rebuilding this nation, literally. Now that is a real infra structure project!
"The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the enquiry take place in broad daylight!"
- Emile Zola, J'accuse! (1898) –
THE 2009 INFRASTRUCTURE REPORT CARD
2009 GRADES Aviation D Bridges C Dams D Drinking Water D- Energy D+ Hazardous Waste D Inland Waterways D- Levees D- Public Parks & Recreation C- Rail C- Roads D- School D Solid Waste C+ Transit D Wastewater D-
http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2009/index.html
Produced by the American Society of Civil Engineers
The Report Card is an assessment by professional engineers of the nation's status in 15 categories of infrastructure. In 2009, all signs point to an infrastructure that is poorly maintained, unable to meet current and future demands, and in some cases, unsafe. Since the last Report Card in 2005, the grades have not improved. ASCE estimates the nation still stands at a D average. Deteriorating conditions and inflation have added hundreds of billions to the total cost of repairs and needed upgrades. ASCE's current estimate is $2.2 trillion, up from $1.6 trillion in 2005.
A healthy infrastructure is the backbone of a healthy economy. In these challenging times, infrastructure is essential to reviving the nation's fortunes, and in maintaining our high quality of life.
- Find out 5 Key Solutions for raising the grades.
- Take action today! Ask your legislator to support infrastructure.
- Watch ASCE's Report Card announcement, joined by Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell. Click here.
- View and read a CNN report on the Report Card and its findings here.
- See previous Report Cards.
- Need more information? Contact ASCE.
Build America so America Works: The Petition to Build America
America was the first to put a man on the moon, to build a super-highway system, to create unrivaled air and rail transportation, and first-class public spaces. But today, we can no longer be assured of crossing the Mississippi River safely, of protecting our families from failing dams or levees or of providing a transportation system that works.
Add your voice to the petition and urge Congress to make building America a national priority.
Full Petition Text:
The United States is the nation that has achieved the most advanced engineering pursuits to benefit its people and the world. We are the first to put a man on the moon, to build a super-highway system, to create unrivaled air and rail transportation, and first-class public spaces, such as schools. But today, we can no longer be assured of crossing the Mississippi River safely, of protecting families from failing dams or levees or of providing a transportation system that works.
* Americans spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic on our highways, which due to years of neglect now require $94 billion a year in maintenance and improvement costs alone - more than double what is currently allocated, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. If we maintain and upgrade our highway system, we can save significantly and get to work or pick up our children on time.
* At least 31 percent of our country's bridges are structurally deficient leading to tragedies such as the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis. We can prevent these kinds of tragedies by repairing our bridges.
* Approximately $30 billion is needed to renovate, repair and build new classrooms in our public schools. We can invest in future generations by taking care of our schools.
* Across America there are 3,500 unsafe dams and 50 percent of waterway locks are functionally obsolete leading to deadly breaches such as what occurred in New Orleans. We have identified problems and we have the ability to fix them so that natural disasters aren't exacerbated.
* Upgrades to the nation's electric transmission system are occurring at only a third of the rate of increased demand, according to the Consumer Energy Council of America. To increase domestic energy production by 30 percent, we can invest in traditional energy sources and biofuel refineries, wind turbines, ethanol production and clean coal technologies.
* Demand for railway shipping is expected to increase 50 percent in the next 12 years, far outstripping our nation's current rail capacity and threatening to divert rail shipping to our already congested highway system. We can free our highways by rebuilding our railways.
For the sake of America's competitive place in the world, for our economy and good jobs, in order to reverse the downward slide in our lifestyles and as an investment for future generations, I want to add my voice to that of the half-million working men and women of the Laborers' International Union of North America in urging Congress to make building America a national priority and redirect our nation's resources to doing so.
Signed by:
[Your name]
[Your address]
| NOTE: This Post: Will be updated daily to reflect changes and developments as regards The Rove Issue. http://cafecamuspoliticalcoffeehouse.blogspot.com/2009/01/better-than-presidential-pardon.html |
Stop Rearranging Deck Chairs on the Titanic and Nationalize the Damn Banks
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: It's the best possible course to rescue our economy at this point; all the other options would be disastrous.
Bloomberg is reporting today that the wealthiest 400 Americans had their incomes double during the Bush presidency. The average for these poor souls is a measly $263,300,000 per year. Times are hard indeed.
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/index.cfm
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Almost $350 billion in bailout money is now in the hands of banks, but how is that money being used? No one's talking, and the banks are refusing to say how our tax dollars are being used.
Tell the top banking bailout recipients that we have a right to know how our money is being spent! »
As beneficiaries of the bailout, they have an obligation not only to help struggling homeowners, but also to use our taxpayers dollars in an open and transparent manner.
A little transparency is not too much to ask.Please take action today! »
The Take Action link: http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AE6PH/YtGl/AnGbV
The Existentialist Cowboy: Bush's Last Heist: the Meltdown and ...
By Len Hart
Both retired FBI officials asserted that the Bush administration was thoroughly briefed on the mortgage fraud crisis and its potential to cascade out of control with devastating financial consequences, but made the decision not to give ...
The Existentialist Cowboy - http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/
Democracy 101; a Call for InvolvementOpEdNews - Newtown,PA,USA
by DC Rapier Page 1 of 2 page(s) For some time I have been advocating bringing Bush, Cheney and members of their administrations to justice for what has ...
OpEdNews » Are We Civilized Enough to Hold Our Leaders Accountable ...
It is not necessarily Bush or Cheney or any one or two or three particular people, but the foul deeds that need to be investigated in an objectively meaningful and fair manner, if we are to preserve our Republic and our values and to ...
OpEdNews - OpEdNews.Com Progressive,... - http://www.opednews.com/
No Republicans | Democrats.com
Prosecute Bush & Cheney! Visit the Democratic Party ... Ten Reasons to Impeach Bush & Cheney. 64.3%. Ten Reasons to Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney. Goal: 250000. Now: 160674 ...
Democrats.com - The Aggressive... - http://www.democrats.com/
Will Bush's Secret Legal Memos Be Released?
Chisun Lee, ProPublica
Rights and Liberties: An interactive guide to the Bush administration's classified legal opinions in the 'War on Terror' reveals how much we still don't know.
Greg Craig Is One Powerful White House Counsel
The Washington Independent - Washington,DC,USA
Craig was an aide to President Clinton, helping direct the team combating the impeachmentproceedings, and a senior State Department official during ...See all stories on this topic
Obama to Face Test on Executive Privilege After Rove Subpoenaed ...
Should Obama prosecute Bush and Cheney? Towards An Even-handed Foreign Policy in the US Congress? Rep. Dennis Kucinich leads a new trend · Countdown: Wiretapping, Torture and Rove Subpoena + Ghost Detainees ... Rove previously refused to appear before the panel, and former President Bush upheld his legal position. Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, said he would consult with President Obama’s White House counsel to determine the Obama administration’s stance. ...
Comments for Dandelion Salad - http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
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Obama Signs Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Democracy Now - New York,NY,USA
Congressmembers Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Ted Poe of Texas are demanding ... Former President George W. Bush twice vetoed similar measures but President ...
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ANOTHER TIME; ANOTHER REMINDER
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/search_results.html?q=oppenheimer&x=16&y=12
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/oppenheimer/introduction
Robert Oppenheimer was brilliant, arrogant, proud, charismatic — and a national hero. Under his leadership during World War II, the United States succeeded in becoming the first nation to harness the power of nuclear energy to create the ultimate weapon of mass destruction — the atomic bomb. But after the bomb brought the war to an end, in spite of his renown and his enormous achievement, America turned on him, humiliated him, and cast him aside. The question this film asks is, “Why?”
“The country asked him to do something and he did it brilliantly, and they repaid him for the tremendous job he did by breaking him.”
— Marvin L. Goldberger, Los Alamos scientist and former director, The Institute for Advanced Studies
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE presents The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer, featuring Academy Award-nominated actor David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck, The Bourne Ultimatum) as Robert Oppenheimer. From multiple Emmy Award-winning producer David Grubin (RFK,LBJ, Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided), The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimerfeatures interviews with the scientist’s former colleagues and eminent scholars to present a complex and revealing portrait of one of the most important and controversial scientists of the twentieth century. The two-hour film traces the course of Oppenheimer’s life: his rarefied childhood, his troubled adolescence, his emergence as one of America’s leading nuclear physicists, his leadership of the Los Alamos laboratory, and his tragic humiliation.
In 1939, the discovery of nuclear fission launched an international race to build the atomic bomb. In England, Germany, France, Japan, and the Soviet Union, the world’s best scientists were working covertly to create a weapon of awesome destructive power. In the United States, the man leading that race was J. Robert Oppenheimer, the atomic scientist handpicked to head up The Manhattan Project’s top-secret laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
America got there first. On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was tested in the Alamogordo desert. Less than a month later, on August 6 and 9, the United States exploded two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, putting an end to World War II. Overnight, Robert Oppenheimer was transformed into a national hero. But his newfound fame did not relieve his personal anguish over the destructive power he had helped unleash.
“He was a great supporter of using the bomb. But he understood all along that he was on the cusp of a new terror,” says historian Martin J. Sherwin in the film.
After the war, Oppenheimer recommended putting control over atomic energy into the hands of an international agency. Appointed a key advisor to the newly created Atomic Energy Commission, a position that offered him an important voice in Washington and a top-secret security clearance, he spoke out for moderation as tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States began to escalate. He advised against the development of thehydrogen bomb, a device with unlimited destructive power, and took a stand against building nuclear powered aircraft and submarines. But to powerful Washington insiders, Oppenheimer was standing in the way of America’s ability to defend itself, and they wanted him gone.
He was already under a cloud of suspicion because of his connections to Communists when he was a professor at the University of California at Berkeley in the 1930s. Although Oppenheimer himself never joined the Communist party, many of those close to him had, including his wife and brother. Both Army Intelligence and the FBI considered the eminent scientist a security risk, and at Los Alamos, his phones were tapped, his office was wired, his mail was opened, and his comings and goings were closely monitored. In 1953 his past connections to Communists became a pretext to revoke his security clearance. It was the height of the Red Scare, and a group of powerful Washington insiders built a case against him. When he insisted on a hearing to regain his reputation, they made certain that he wouldn’t stand a chance.
“It was the worst kind of kangaroo court,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes in the film.
Throughout the hearings, the FBI bugged Oppenheimer’s lawyers’ offices, home, and nearly everywhere he went, and delivered information, even the defense strategy, to the prosecutor bent on bringing him down. A parade of forty witnesses testified on both sides, including Edward Teller, a scientist who resented Oppenheimer from their days together at Los Alamos. Teller’s testimony would drive the final nail into Oppenheimer’s coffin. On June 29, 1954, the security board ruled two to one that although Oppenheimer was a “loyal citizen,” and was owed a “great debt of gratitude” for his magnificent service, his security clearance should be permanently revoked.
“The Oppenheimer hearings had a tremendous impact on the nuclear arms race,” says Mark Samels, executive producer of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. “Once Robert Oppenheimer’s voice of moderation was silenced, the U.S. began building an arsenal of tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, and the Soviet Union followed suit. The result was a standoff between the world’s two largest superpowers that lasted for nearly fifty years.”
“There are so many ways to look at the Oppenheimer story,” Grubin says. “For me, the idea that the loyalty of one of our most distinguished scientists could be called into question and the rules of justice set aside, all justified because we were in a war against Communism, is a tragic reminder of how staunchly we must protect our freedoms, especially in perilous times.”
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Tune In The Rachel Maddow Show
Wrapping Up The News
DHS’s first-ever evaluation of mass-transit security shows that more than 75 percent of the nation’s major rail and bus systems aren’t meeting voluntary guidelines, USA Today’s Thomas Frank recounts. Flamboyant Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio’s planto transport prisoners to jail via Metro light rail — accompanied by two armed deputies — is arousing predictable security concerns, The Arizona Republic’s Tyler Lockman reports.
Homies: The Washington Post’s Spencer Hsu details the rough jockeying over who gets to run FEMA under the new order — while AP’s Eileen Sullivan has DHS’s Janet Napolitano saying that if you’re a criminal and you’re not entitled to be here, she wants you out of the country. Gearing up to fill 11,000 positions, the CBP is sponsoring 15 job fairs across the country tomorrow, The Seattle Times’ Jack Broom relates. After four years at Louisville’s airport as a CBP sniffer dog, Manny, a “hard working” black lab, got his gold watch this week, The Imperial Valley News notes — while The Yuma (Ariz.) Sun has a CBP officer and his wife being charged with bribery in a scheme to pass more than 600,000 fake Ecstasy pills. Havingheld them since Jan. 12, ICE has allowed a Palestinian high school track captain and his mother to return to their Alabama home, The Shelby County Reporter’s Chris Megginson recounts.
Feds: Major contributors say they were surprised to find what they viewed as porous security surrounding President Obama the day of his swearing in, the Post’s Aaron C. Davis relates. A military judge yesterday denied an administration request to delay proceedings against a USS Cole bombing plotter, the Post’s Peter Finn also reports. The White House has tapped Clinton-era arms negotiator Gary Samore as its new WMD control czar, FOX News’ Judith Miller learns — and see ABC News’ Jake Tapper. (Richard E. Besser, who formerly directed terror preparedness at the CDC, has been named its acting director, CIDRAP says.) While phasing out Guantanamo, lawmakers “will probably be looking at a rehabilitation program in Saudi Arabia that focuses on religious re-education for captured jihadists,” CNN’s Nic Robertson notes.
First Hundred Days: The ACLU hopes “a kinder, gentler Obama administration” will disclose secret documents related to Bush-era torture and warrantless surveillance, Threat Level’s David Kravets recounts — and check Pro Publica. The chances of harsh interrogation advocate John Yoo facing a war crimes investigation are increasing, The East Bay Express’ Robert Gammon relates — while Politico’s Josh Gerstein says Obama’s lawyers will be defending Yoo. “Obama’s next step . . . should be ending use of the propaganda terms, ‘terrorism,’ and ‘war on terror,’” The Edmonton Sun’s Eric Margolis asserts. “In his first White House televised interview President Obama buried the lead: The war on terror is over,” The New York Times’ Roger Cohen leads.
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