Change The Way You Look At Things . . .
REASON #127 for why I’m an enormous fan of this company …
Every challenge is merely an opportunity in disguise. The only thing standing in our way is us.
(via Starbucks Gets Into the Microlobbying Game - Garance Franke-Ruta - The Atlantic)
The mission of Factcheck.org is etched onto a small sign in the company’s office — “Just The Facts.” But rarely are facts absolute in the election of 2012. There are Mitt Romney’s facts and President Obama’s facts, liberal facts and conservative facts. There are facts provided by the mainstream media (“sometimes slanted,” Farley says), think tanks (“flawed”), analysts (“opinionated”) and television commercials (“not to be trusted”). There are Internet facts that are not, in fact, facts at all.
EXCERPT:
“They’re both in this,” Simpson said of the warring Democratic and Republican parties. “They worship the god of re-election.”
Our Senate and Congress need to understand that differences of opinion are healthy for the governance of our country BUT they must also understand that compromise after the discussion of the differing opinions, perhaps called diplomacy, is just as important. We elect our representatives to govern NOT to be opponents of our considered governance. We should be one nation that is considered and indivisible.
Submitted by Ted S. on Tumblr
Amen! This is what gives our system of government endless potential. For how much longer will this potential be squandered at the expense of its citizens and the world?
EXCERPT:
However, a survey released last week by Georgetown University and the Public Religion Research Institute found that fewer than half of young voters say they are certain to show up at the polls this time. They rank jobs and unemployment as their most critical issue, according to the survey, with the federal deficit and education nearly tied for second place.
Then we need to do a better job at educating young people about the how a representative democracy works. If jobs and unemployment are the critical issues to us, then we must educate ourselves on the laws and policies that exist or that or on the table and vote for the candidate who’s platform most supports our views.
Disenchantment with the political process (obtuse as it may be at times) is a poor excuse for not participating. This is OUR country!
I suppose one has to recognize the symbolism that the mere act of taking a vacation poses in an economic and political climate such as the one we are currently in, but isn’t this insistence that President Obama cancel his vacation a bit of an overreaction?
Do any of these critics truly believe that even though President Obama will be “vacationing” in Martha’s Vineyard, he won’t also have an entourage of advisers and staff around him, holding meetings, reviewing, and making plans? I highly doubt that escaping the presidency is so simple - I surely hope it’s not.
Our jobs take a lot out of all of us and there’s something to be said about taking some time to spend with your family from time to time, escaping from the high-pressure environment that we’re used to, and take a few breaths in order to refocus and re-energize ourselves.
In light of how the whole recent debt-ceiling debate played out, I think that it’s probably very wise to step away for a bit and re-examine priorities and strategies for when Congress reconvenes because there are plenty of tougher decisions that lay ahead.
The other candidates are in trouble. They say timing is everything.
I also think he may have effectively undercut any realistic chances Palin may have had to take advantage of the same tactic
The most telling moment of Thursday’s GOP debate … was when every single GOP candidate on the stage agreed that they would reject a budget deal that was $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax increases. Even Fox News’s Bret Baier couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. He asked again just to make sure the assembled candidates had understood the question.
If this doesn’t simultaneously baffle you and scare the living poo out of you, then take a moment and check to make sure that you have a pulse because this is the kind of insanity that will be a choice for the American voters in November 2012.
A recent Washington Post poll has shown that nearly three-quarters of Americans have little or no confidence in Washington’s ability to repair the economy. I think that it’s ridiculous moments like the one mentioned above that leave many Americans with little hope for the future of our government. It seems appalling to me that even in such extremely lobsided circumstances (not unlike the recent debt deal), where the Republicans would be receiving 99.9 percent of what they want (i.e. massive spending cuts and smaller government), they still come back with a defiant and resounding, “No.” No, YOU will give us massive spending cuts. No, WE will not under any circumstance even be willing to put on the table the subject of revenue - compromise is not an option.
Now, I will say that I admire anyone who has the willingness to stand up for what they believe in and that’s what the Tea Party folks have been doing. It’s not an easy, nor at times popular place to put yourself into, however, when one does so WITHOUT expressing any desire or willingness to compromise, then, in my opinion, you’ve moved from brave to foolish (or in this case, reckless).
If you’ve not seen (or listended to the podcast like I do) the episode of Real Time With Bill Maher that originally aired on 08/5/2011, then you missed the astute observation made by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. He checked the facts and learned that something like almost 50% of both houses of Congress list “Law” as their profession. He then went on to ask, “Where are the engineers? Where are the business folk, where is the rest of America represented?” Well put, sir.
Mr. Klein summed up his article nicely:
The losers in tonight’s debate were anyone who wants to see the sort of compromise necessary for the political process to work, and anyone who has been convinced that they can achieve their goals simply by restating their convictions.
After the many months long debt-ceiling debacle we were witness to on TV and in the papers, I’m now reading that Republican leadership fully intends to continue their unflapping stonewall on generating revenue, leaving me to wonder if we’ve really accomplished anything at all or if this was merely a really bad opening act to an even worse concert.
Sure, we’ve dodged default (for now), but the real issue isn’t about spending or taxes. It’s not about being a Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal. The real issue is the deterioration of American confidence in who we are as a nation and in the efficacy of our democracy.
I’m reminded of an inspiring public address given by former President Jimmy Carter back in the late 70’s:
The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea which founded our nation and has guided our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else — public institutions and private enterprise, our own families, and the very Constitution of the United States. Confidence has defined our course and has served as a link between generations. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own.
“Late last week, pollster Mark Blumenthal summarized the ‘consistent findings’ from the polling on the debt ceiling. First, he said, ‘Americans prefer a deal featuring a mix of tax hikes and spending cuts to a deal featuring just spending cuts.’ Second, ‘most of the surveys find strong sentiment in favor of compromise, especially among Democrats and independents.’ Finally, ‘the surveys all show Americans expressing significantly more confidence and trust in President Obama’s handling of the issue than of either the Republican or Democratic leadership in Congress.’”
POTUS will be addressing the nation @ 9:00pm tonight on all major networks.
