2010 Elections, Political News

On Wednesday, January 18, Trail Mix will join other blogs and web sites in a black out to protest the proposed U.S. legislation ( SOPA/PIPA ) that threatens internet freedom. It’s a bill in the U.S. Senate that if passed would put publishing freedom severely at risk, and could shut down entire sites at the whim of media companies. I’ve chosen not to shut down our site as others are doing, instead opting for a splash screen to highlight the issue. It wouldn’t be fair to deny Trail Mixers their daily fix, but it is important to understand that this bill threatens to do just that, and on a much wider scale. — Craig Sites all over the internet will be blacking out to protest and try to mobilize more people to speak out against this bill coming up in the Senate next week — S. 968: the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — in an attempt to let U.S. lawmakers know how much opposition there is. Here’s a video describing what’s going on … PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo . PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting “creativity”. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.” The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights. source: fightforthefuture.org/pipa

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Trail Mix Joins SOPA Protest

The Democratic challenger against Republican Mass. Sen. Scott Brown could teach President Obama a thing our two about firing up his base. Check out these clips. I especially like her riff on how “nobody in this country got rich on his own.” ElizabethWarren.com

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Elizabeth Warren Unplugged

What are you afraid of, President Obama? Your Administration is challenging GOP voter disenfranchisement efforts in court but you don’t use the Martin Luther King holiday to talk about this? King would be going ballistic about the proliferating battles around the country to restore Jim Crow laws plainly designed to prevent ballot access. And he would be disgusted, Mr. President, by your pathetic failure on this day to talk about it.

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What Would King Say about Voter ID Laws?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on Aug. 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington, Washington, DC. Today, the third Monday in January, is a federal holiday for honoring the civil rights leader. By MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Aug. 28, 1963 I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.” But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”

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Happy MLK Day

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Happy Trails for the Holidays!

What’s so sick and sad about this payroll debate is how Washington has pulled out all the stops for an epic battle over nothing new to help the economy. Craig on CNN about this today 2:30 PM ET This is a fight to maintain a tax cut for workers they’ve already had. So even if a deal is struck the politicians cannot claim it will make things better, only the same. I would say Republicans are willing to risk blame for a decrease in middle-class wages and cutting off unemployment benefits because they figure they don’t get those votes anyway. BUT their big risk is angering millions of doctors who face more than a 25% cut in Medicare payments for their services. Now that’s a huge hit to a GOP constituency. We’ve learned one thing about House Speaker John Boehner and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell in this debate. They have no control over Tea Party Republicans, who forced them out of the deal they made with Democrats. Boehner admits he doesn’t have the votes for the deal he agreed to. And McConnell is now curiously silent about the whole situation. President Obama, despite scrapping the millionaire tax to get a deal, is emerging as the tough guy who stands to gain the most politically if Republicans let paychecks go down. Still, the disgust aimed at Washington if that happens is bound to harm all incumbents. Don’t go home mad, Congress, just go home. And don’t come back.

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Washington’s Epic Failure

Former Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) on payroll tax cuts, with “The Young Turks” host Cenk Uygur ( Current TV , 12/5) Republicans caught between a tax break and a hard place (Los Angeles Times) Romney now says he’s for payroll tax cut (New York Times) White House non-committal on paying for tax cut (AP)

Originally posted here:
GOP “Sock Puppets for the Rich”

I am thankful for you, the commentators on this blog who so generously share your opinions, your lives, your fears and hopes, your love and your grit, making this a genuine community of souls, proving that cyber fellowship is real, lasting and meaningful. We have dealt with tough times lately, saying goodbye to precious friends, but the sorrow of now yields to the joy of memory and gives reason to think fondly about tomorrow. Life is longer than we think. Happy Thanksgiving Trail Mixers! Thelonious Monk – Epistrophy

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What Are We Thankful For?

Forget the doomsday scenarios for the so-called Super Committee’s failure to agree on debt reduction. Congress set this thing up to fail by making sure the consequences are not really as severe as advertised, leaving plenty of time for lawmakers to change anything they like. And President Obama’s threat today to veto changes is meaningless because even if Congress does nothing right now the automatic cuts that would take effect over the next two years are miniscule. This is such silly political theater it would make Vaudeville blush. It’s why liberals were wrong to assume that President Obama lost a big battle last summer when he agreed to the committee’s creation — and conservatives were wrong to declare victory. Consider the various ways that pain was postponed in the legislation setting up the panel. If the Committee doesn’t produce a bill, the bill is not enacted or the bill produces less than $1.2 trillion in savings, 1) the debt ceiling increases by $1.2 trillion, subject to a disapproval vote, and 2) $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts will be triggered between FY2013-2021. For starters, the disapproval vote on raising the debt ceiling is meaningless. If majorities of the House and Senate try to block the increase President Obama can just veto it, requiring an unlikely two-thirds vote to override. How ironic that the most immediate and certain effect of this much-hyped “debt reduction” strategy is to actually make it easier to borrow more money. Notice that the automatic cuts triggered by failure would not even begin taking effect until after the next election, and are spread out over the next 8 years – more than enough time for Congress to fiddle with, or completely scrap these cuts. If across-the-board cuts are triggered, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other low-income benefits are exempted from cuts. (Exception: Medicare provider payments can be cut by up to 2%.) Half of the cuts will come from defense spending. Here we find that the easy path to avoid major entitlement reform is for this committee to fail. Only Medicare doctors and other providers would be affected by automatic cuts — and their payments would only be cut by no more than two percent. But these automatic payment cuts have been tried many times and Congress usually finds a way out. Basically, the “pain” of failure for this committee was so cleverly postponed and distributed across future years that failing could be the least painful choice for Washington – and that’s no accident. Discretionary Caps $1 trillion in across-the-board discretionary cuts for fiscal years 2012-2021. The cuts are weighted to be the deepest after FY2014. The first two years, the cuts are only $10 billion total and security (defense, homeland security, etc.,) is $5 billion of that. Look carefully at that last sentence. All the boasting by Obama and congressional leaders about immediately cutting $1 trillion really means that the vast majority of the cuts do not even begin until after the next election. The result is that the only immediate budgetary effect of this legislation is $10 billion in cuts over the next two years – such a tiny fraction of overall federal spending that it is hardly worth talking about. Once again Congress managed to dodge a public outcry by appearing to do something until demand for action wanes. It’s about the only thing Capitol Hill does well.

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Failure IS an Option

Olbermann takes on NYC mayor, says evictions should backfire: (“Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” CurrentTV , 11/15)

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Bloomberg Boosts Occupiers