Our National Anthem

Written by: DFA Staff on Jul 3, 2008 10:52 PM

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Take the Bus

Written by: DFA Staff on Jul 3, 2008 8:30 PM

On and off for ten years, I lived in Los Angeles.  And, like millions of other Angelenos I drove.  Los Angeles is definitely a car city, but there is a public transportation system.  There are buses and even a subway.  The problem is that none of the infrastructure of this mass transit system fully and effectively allows for the elimination of the car.

For example, to get from where I last lived to where I worked was a 20 minute drive during off-peak hours, a one hour drive during rush hour, but a two hour commute by bus.  And that was if the bus was on time and I caught all the connections.  As much as I would want to use it, the bus was just not a practical option.

With gas prices getting higher and higher, Americans are driving less and using public transportation more.  From McClatchy:

Evidence already is mounting of a wholesale change in the way Americans commute. Motorists have driven roughly 30 billion fewer miles over the last six months compared with the same period a year ago, according to federal government estimates. Meanwhile, commuters took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation last year, the most in 50 years — when the population was about 60 percent the current size — according to the American Public Transportation Association. Ridership is up 3.3 percent in the first three months of 2008 and 30 percent since 1995.

Both trends suggest that growing numbers of Americans are reaching their tipping points in how much they'll spend for the freedom and luxury of personal automobile transportation.

I would love to see all of this result in a real investment in mass transit.  An investment that would allow us to break free of the car.  An investment that meets the needs of not just urban dwellers, but also people who live in the suburbs or rural areas.  Public transportation addresses concerns connected with our dependence on foreign oil and global warming.  It is a shame we had to reach $4 a gallon gas to figure all this out.

Danny
Communications Director

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Gun Control Decision Highly Confusing to a Layman

Written by: myles s on Jul 3, 2008 12:08 PM

Gun control decision

is highly confusing to a layman

Well, constitutional law experts having been vetting the recent Supreme Court ruling striking down D.C.’s hand gun ban, with varying opinions. But to a layman, the ruling makes no sense whatsoever, and the majority opinion written by Justice Scalia is even more non-sensical and highly confusing.

Further, the opinion written by Scalia (who claims to be an “originalist" strictly interpreting the Constitution) again shows him, and others on the majority, to be quite the opposite and he seems to have based his opinion on politics, pure and simple.

The Second Amendment right to bear arms is quite specific and clear. It states:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

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Pentagon Inspects KBR, but Don't Hold Your Breath

Written by: Kate Drazner on Jul 3, 2008 12:14 PM

Linked to groups: Montco DFA, PA for Democracy

Call it a qualified victory.

On July 1, the Pentagon agreed to investigate the showers built by KBR, a private military contractor in Iraq. More than a dozen U.S. soldiers have been fatally electrocuted by faulty wiring in the showers. There has been a lot of blogger commentary and reporting about the electrocution, including several items I wrote for Progressive Future.

And while I think we certainly helped push this issue into the mainstream, I'm pretty sure all the blogger activism in the world would not have made a bit of a difference without the efforts of Cheryl Harris.

Cheryl's son, Ryan, died from electric shocks suffered in a KBR-built shower. The military told Cheryl that Ryan died because he foolishly entered the shower with an electric device. Which, of course, turned out to be a lie. It was the fault of an improperly-grounded water pump, which electrocuted the young sergeant.

Cheryl did some research, and found that a similar scenario had caused the deaths of at least 12 other U.S. soldiers, as well as a multitude of reports of milder shocks among troops. She also found that faulty shower wiring and reported electric shocks had been brought to KBR's attention as early as 2004, and the contracting company neither investigated nor mitigated the situation. In the spring of this year, Cheryl filed a wrongful death suit against KBR.

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David Sirota in Chicago

Written by: Sandra Verthein on Jul 3, 2008 8:16 AM

Linked to groups: Northside DFA

[This essay was written by NDFA Steering Committee member Frank Palmer about our June 21st Northside DFA forum. The photo was taken by NDFA member Fran Tobin.]

David Sirota, author of the New York Times best sellers The Uprising and Hostile Takeover, spoke in a NDFA forum in Edgewater about his books and his political beliefs. The format -- he was interviewed by Ben Joravsky of The Reader and then answered questions from the audience -- was somewhat discursive, but Sirota returned to several recurring themes.

Sirota rejects waiting for the ideal politician to be elected to a position from which he can solve our problems. He thinks that the proposed solutions have to come from below with enough pressure to make their passage politically profitable. He pointed to Lyndon Johnson's adoption of the civil rights ideal; Johnson's political record before the White House supported segregation. Sirota pointed out that these groundswells have long periods of organized preparation before they reach the consciousness of the electorate. (And he pointed out elsewhere that politicians were usually the last to notice.) He quoted FDR speaking to some advocacy group: "You've convinced me. Now make me do it."

Asked specifically about Barack Obama, whom he has praised elsewhere, he said that Obama is passionate about themes, not about policies. An Obama administration would be open to solutions from the grassroots, but we should not expect the election of  Obama to provide the solutions. Again, change comes from below; only when the people are convinced will the leaders follow.

(Continued.)

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Thursday news&views scan from Gerry

Written by: Gerry L on Jul 3, 2008 8:10 AM

Good Thursday all....

Thursday~

****************round of articles about our domestic ‘issues’-July 3,  2008

 Republican Campaign Against Likely Democratic Voters Begins

http://www.truthout.org/article/republican-campaign-against-likely-democratic-voters-begins

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Columbia & McCain

Written by: Mike Pouraryan on Jul 2, 2008 7:38 PM

Linked to groups: Democracy for America - Orange County

Earlier, I wrote the following in my personal blog in My Barrack Obama and thought to pass it on to the DFA Community:

15 high-profile Columbian hostages held by the FARC were rescued by Columbia today.   I think everyone in the world is jumping with joy at this news.   I don't mind saying that it brought tears of joys to my eyes.  The senseless acts of brutaility is beyond comprehension in my view.

What is bothersome to me, though, is when folks take political advantage of it.   President Uribe of Columbia must be congratulated because it was under his leadership that this was made possible.   BUT, Senator McCain was in Columbia at the same time and had advance knowledge.   What is even more bothersome is this statement by Senator Lieberman, as reported by CNN:

Lieberman said McCain's advance knowledge of the raid signals a vote of confidence by foreign leaders.

This is simply not called for in my view.   Senator Lieberman should have kept his mouth shut.    

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My Guantanamo Interview

Written by: Kate Drazner on Jul 2, 2008 2:00 PM

In January, 2006 outraged that her country was illegally imprisoning people at Guantanamo, Mahvish Rukhsana — a journalist and recent law school graduate — volunteered to translate for the prisoners and eventually began representing an Afghan detainee. She has since published the stories of the detainees she has met in the newly-released book, My Guantanamo Diary. For more information, please visit http://www.mahvishkhan.com.

The work that lawyers like Rukhsana have done to advocate on behalf of these detainees contributed to a recent Supreme Court ruling to grant habeas corpus to all Guantanamo prisoners. That is why I felt so privileged to be able to talk to her about the importance of upholding the Constitution and restoring our international reputation. My interview with Rukhsana was conducted just before the Supreme Court's landmark ruling, and has been edited down to narrative form. [cross-posted from www.progressivefuture.org]

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3 Facts That Could Change This Election (If We Share Them)

Written by: ihavenobias on Jul 2, 2008 1:52 PM

3 Facts That Could Change This Election (If We Share Them With Enough People)

Here are 3 Stunning facts that could not only change the outcome of this election, but with regard to the first two points, they could change the results of every election for years to come *if* we make enough people aware of them.

I want to keep this as simple and short as possible, so that the people who need to read this actually do. And again, I encourage you to share this information with as many people as you can, either by recommending and commenting on this thread, by emailing these points out and or by posting a link to this thread on the appropriate websites.

(NOTE: Please click here for additional links that support the information below)

1)-Over 70% of our National Debt was created by just 3 Republican presidents.

Go ahead, get out your calculator and add up debt by president/party (keep in mind the link above is from 2007 and Bush's debt is even higher now). Apparently the party that claims fiscally responsibility thinks it's ok to borrow massive amounts of money from foreign countries like China. Consider that we spend hundreds of billions of dollars in interest payments on this debt each year.

That means more and more of your hard earned money is going to make interest only payments on what is basically a Giant National Credit Card. Not to mention the fact our debt/deficits are largely behind the weakness of our dollar, which in turns makes gas more expensive and creates other serious problems.

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This is our year

Written by: E J Zipprich on Jul 2, 2008 8:57 AM

Linked to groups: Monmouth for Democracy/PDA

The race for a nominee has concluded. Senator Obama is prepared and the rest of the ticket is supercharged to take our country back! I am supercharged to win in November on the municipal level.

Chairmen Dean are both working hard to make sure we turn out our members to support all candidates up and down ballot.

This is our year to win. We have great candidates running. We have newly elected county committee people who are willing to participate in the process of getting our neighbors and supporters out to vote.

We cannot lose. We have the power and we are the people we've been waiting for. We have hope and yes, we can change the direction America is heading. DFA has given us the tools and we are skilled at using them.

This is our year. Get involved, stay involved. Call your neighbors, talk to your family--do it 3 times between now and Election Day. We can't lose.

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