Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time%20for%20change/516
On the subject of Socialism
At the 1936 National Democratic Convention, FDR made this statement:
"Out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties.
New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things.
Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of
industry and agriculture, of labor and capital the whole structure of modern
life was impressed into this royal service."
"The privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for
power, reached out for control over Government itself. They created a new
despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new
mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property.
And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced
the Minute Man."
Years later, in a letter to his brother, Republican President Dwight David
Eisenhower wrote:
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment
insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of
that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group
that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil
millionaires. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
***
http://www.truthout.org/1027098
Amy Goodman: Breaking the Sound Barrier
by: Bill Moyers,
t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed: 27 October 2009
Bill Moyers writes this introduction to Amy Goodman's latest book, "Breaking
the Sound Barrier," published by Haymarket Books.
Introduction
You can learn more of the truth about Washington and the world from one
week of Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" than from a month of Sunday morning
talk shows.
Make that a year of Sunday morning talk shows.
That's because Amy, as you will discover on every page of her new book,
"Breaking the Sound Barrier", knows the critical question for journalists is
how close they are to the truth, not how close they are to power. Like I. F.
Stone, she values the facts on the ground; unlike the Sunday beltway
anchors, she refuses to take the official version of reality as the
definition of news, or to engage in Washington's "wink-wink" game, by which
both parties to an interview tacitly understand that the questions and
answers will be framed to appear adversarial when in fact their purpose is
to avoid revealing how power really works. Quick: recall the last time you
heard a celebrity journalist on any of the Sunday talk shows grill a
politician on what campaign contributors get for their generosity. Try
again: name any of those elite interrogators who skewered any politician for
saying that "single-payer" wasn't on the table in the debate over health
care reform because "there's no support for it." OK, one last chance: recall
how often you have heard any of the network stars insist that Newt Gingrich
reveal just who is funding his base as the omnipresent expert on everything.
See?
Now read "Breaking the Sound Barrier" for a reality check. And tune in
to "Democracy Now!" to hear and see the difference an independent journalist
can make in providing citizens what they need to know to make democracy
work.
It takes the nerves, stamina and willpower of an Olympic triathlete to
do what Amy Goodman does. That's just who she is, this quiet-spoken tornado
of muckraking journalism: Edward R. Murrow with a twist of Emma Goldman, a
Washington Post reporter once noted - willing to take on the powers that be
to get at truth and justice, then spreading the word of those two
indispensable gospels to the republic and the world beyond. Amy Goodman goes
where angels fear to tread. Beaten by Indonesian troops while she and a
colleague - also beaten - were covering East Timor's fight for independence.
Hiking dangerous African deltas to get to the bottom of Chevron Oil's
collusion with the Nigerian military. Or closer to home, in New Orleans or
Appalachia or facing down the police when her colleagues were arrested in
Minneapolis during the 2008 Republican National Convention (they threw her
in the slammer, too).
Through her reporting, we hear from people who scarcely exist in news
covered by the corporate-owned press. We learn about issues of war and peace
and social wrong. She is impervious to government subterfuge or spin.
"Goodman is the journalist as uninvited guest," that Washington Post
reporter wrote. "You might think of the impolitic question; she asks it."
And once it's been asked, she refuses to take "no comment" for an answer.
She returns to a story time and again, continually digging, refusing to let
her audience or investigative target forget how important it is to nail down
just who's responsible and what needs to be done.
On top of everything else, she finds time to take her message out to a
broad public with speeches and books and a weekly newspaper column, from
which her collection of essays, "Breaking the Sound Barrier," has been
selected. I'd be envious if it didn't appear unseemly. Let's just say I'm in
awe. Read this collection and revel in the truth-telling. Be outraged by
what you learn from it and renew your oath as a citizen. "We stand with
journalists around the world who deeply believe that the mission of a
journalist is to go where the silence is," Amy Goodman said in December 2008
when she accepted the Right Livelihood Award for personal courage and
transformation. "The responsibility of a journalist is to give a voice to
those who have been forgotten, forsaken, beaten down by the powerful." And,
at a time when the future of journalism is in question, this ringing
rationale for our embattled but essential craft: "It's the best reason I
know for us to carry our pens, our microphones, and our cameras, both into
our own communities and out to the wider world."
Right on.
Bill Moyers is managing editor of the weekly public affairs program, Bill
Moyers Journal, which airs Friday nights on PBS. Check local airtimes or
comment at The Moyers Blog at www.pbs.org/moyers
***
CRITICAL TO MAKE CONTINUOUS CALLS ON THIS ALL WEEK
From: Steve Tarzynski tarzynski77@verizon.net
Date: Oct 31, 2009 2:12 PM
Subject: Fw: CALL TO ACTION FOR SINGLE PAYER HEALTH REFORM
Dear friends and family, if you can spare a minute or two to make a call or
two to any or all of these "masters" then it would add pressure to insert
the "Manager's Amendments" needed as noted below. You do not have to be a
Californian since any state may in the future have a political opening for
single payer. Even if single payer is not on the immediate agenda in
Congress, pressure from that quarter cannot but help get a stronger version
of a public option. It would also be show of force to demonstrate how much
Congressional support there is for Medicare-For-All/single payer.
Everything is interconnected. Many thanks. Share this with your own email
lists. Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: California Physicians Alliance
To: tarzynski77@verizon.net
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2009 3:17 PM
Subject: CALL TO ACTION FOR SINGLE PAYER HEALTH REFORM
CALL TO ACTION FOR SINGLE PAYER HEALTH REFORM
Yesterday the House unveiled its healthcare reform package. The news is bad.
The Kucinich Amendment, which would give California a clear path to state
single-payer legislation, was stripped from the bill.
The Weiner Amendment, which would substitute the single payer language of HR
676 for the inadquate, unaffordable, and frankly immoral House leadership
bill may not be given its vote in spite of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's promise.
While single payer hangs in the balance, we have a small window of
opportunity (perhaps 4 days) to get the Kucinich Amendment back in the bill
and to make sure that Speaker Pelosi follows through on her promise to allow
a vote on single-payer-the first ever in the House.
Democratic House leaders can insert what is called a "Manager's Amendment"
into legislation, even when it's closed to any other amendments. (The
managers are the majority and minority members who "manage" debate for the
bill on each side.)
Before November 4th, we need to call these "managers" and insist that: the
Kucinich Amendment be restored to the healthcare bill; and Speaker Pelosi
must follow through on her promise to put the Weiner Amendment to a vote.
Call your representative and the following NOW:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
CA office 415-556-4862; Washington, DC (202) 225-4965
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
Washington, DC (202) 225-4131
Rep. Henry Waxman
Chair, House Energy and Commerce Committee
CA office 323-651-1040; Washington, DC (202) 225-3976
Rep. Charles Rangel
Chair, House Ways and Means Committee
Washington, DC (202) 225-4365
Rep. George Miller
Chair, House Education and Labor Committee
CA office 510-262-6500; Washington, DC (202) 225-2095
Look up your representative at: www.votesmart.org
Then forward this email and ask your colleagues, patients, friends, and
family to do the same.
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or
the holy name of liberty or democracy?
Mahatma Gandhi, "Non-Violence in Peace and War"
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