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| 12/4/2010 |
Save Obama's presidency by challenging him on the left People who used to say, "Give President Obama more time" when the president was criticized for capitulating to the right, or who argued that Obama must have a plan to turn things around, are now largely depressed and angry. To many liberals and progressives, the president's unwillingness to veto any measure that includes continued tax relief for billionaires is the last straw, building on a record of spinelessness that includes his escalation of the war in Afghanistan, abandonment of a public option for health-care reform, refusal to prosecute those who tortured in Iraq or lied us into that war, and unwillingness to tax carbon emissions. With his base deeply disillusioned, many progressives are starting to believe that Obama has little chance of winning reelection unless he enthusiastically embraces a populist agenda and worldview soon. Yet there is little chance that will happen without a massive public revolt by his constituency that goes beyond rallies, snide remarks from television personalities or indignant op-eds. Those of us who worry that a full-scale Republican return to power in 2012 would be a disaster not just for those hurting from the Republican-policy-inspired economic meltdown but also for the environment, social justice and world peace believe it is critical to get Obama to become the candidate whom most Americans believed they elected in 2008. Despite the outcome of last month's election, it is unlikely that the level of his base's alienation will register with the president until late in the 2012 election cycle far too late for society today and our future tomorrow. (Washington Post) | |||
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keywords: AIDS, Afghanistan, Al Franken, Alan Grayson, Barack Obama, Barbara Lee, Barbara Mikulski, Bernie Sanders, Big Pharma, Bill Moyers, Cancer, Carbon Dioxide, Dennis Kucinich, Financial Crisis, Health Care, Iraq, James Forbes, Jim Mcdermott, Jim Mcgovern, Jim Moran, Joe Sestak, John Conyers, Lois Capps, Lynn Woolsey, Marcy Kaptur, Marshall Plan, Maxine Waters, New Deal, Pakistan, Rachel Maddow, Raul Grijalva, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Russ Feingold, Susan Sarandon, Terrorists, Torture, US Constitution, United States
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| 10/1/2007 |
GQ Icon: Colin Powell He was pushed aside in the run-up to war, but as he tells Walter Isaacson, he, too, bears some of the blame "Yes, there are a few dangerous nuts in Brooklyn and New Jersey who want to blow up Kennedy Airport and Fort Dix. These are dangerous criminals, and we must deal with them. But come on, this is not a threat to our survival! The only thing that can really destroy us is us. We shouldn't do it to ourselves, and we shouldn't use fear for political purposes—scaring people to death so they will vote for you, or scaring people to death so that we create a terror-industrial complex." (GQ) | |||
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keywords: Airports, Aspen Institute, Baghdad, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, China, Coca Cola, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, Disney World, Donald Rumsfeld, Dubai, Egypt, Fort Dix, George Marshall, George W Bush, Google, Guantanamo Bay, Harry Truman, Hosni Mubarak, Immigration, Iraq, Kuwait, Marshall Plan, Massachusetts, Mayo Clinic, Military, New York City, Norman Schwarzkopf, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Nuclear Weapons, Orlando FL, Puerto Rico, Rudy Giuliani, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Terror-industrial Complex, Tommy Franks, US Army, US Congress, US Department Of Education, US Department Of State, United Nations, United States, Walter Isaacson, World War II
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| 1/1/1976 |
Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of a wider range of financial services to the very poor. The modern invention of microloans is credited to St. Louis entrepreneur Menlo Smith who was struck by the abject poverty he saw in the Philippines.[citation needed] Microcredit is a financial innovation that is generally considered to have originated with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.[1] In that country, it has successfully enabled extremely impoverished people to engage in self-employment projects that allow them to generate an income and, in many cases, begin to build wealth and exit poverty.[citation needed] Due to the success of microcredit, many in the traditional banking industry have begun to realize that these microcredit borrowers should more correctly be categorized as pre-bankable; thus, microcredit is increasingly gaining credibility[citation needed] in the mainstream finance industry, and many traditional large finance organizations are contemplating microcredit projects as a source of future growth, even though almost everyone in larger development organizations discounted the likelihood of success of microcredit when it was begun. The United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. (Wikipedia) | |||
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keywords: Bangladesh, Grameen Bank, Ireland, Irish Loan Funds, Jonathan Swift, Lysander Spooner, Marshall Plan, Menlo Smith, Microcredit, Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Prize, Philippines, St Louis, United Nations, United States, World War II
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| 7/26/1947 |
National Security Act of 1947 was signed by United States President Harry S. Truman on July 26, 1947, and realigned and reorganized the U.S. Armed Forces, foreign policy, and Intelligence Community apparatus in the aftermath of World War II. The majority of the provisions of the Act took effect on September 18, 1947, the day after the Senate confirmed James Forrestal as the first Secretary of Defense. His power was extremely limited and it was difficult for him to exercise the authority to make his office effective. This was later changed in the amendment to the act in 1949, creating what was to be the Department of Defense.[1] President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 onboard this VC-54C Presidential transport, the first aircraft used for the role of Air Force One. (At the time it was not painted with "U.S. Air Force" because it belonged to the USAAF.) The Act merged the Department of War and the Department of the Navy into the National Military Establishment, headed by the Secretary of Defense. It was also responsible for the creation of a separate Department of the Air Force from the existing Army Air Forces. Initially, each of the three service secretaries maintained quasi-cabinet status, but the act was amended on August 10, 1949, to assure their subordination to the Secretary of Defense. At the same time, the NME was renamed as the Department of Defense. The purpose was to unify the Army, Navy, and what was soon to become the Air Force into a federated structure.[2] Aside from the military reorganization, the act established the National Security Council, a central place of coordination for national security policy in the executive branch, and the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S.'s first peacetime intelligence agency. The function of the council was to advise the president on domestic, foreign, and military policies so that they may cooperate more tightly and efficiently. Departments in the government were encouraged to voice their opinions to the council in order to make a more sound decision.[3] The Joint Chiefs of Staff was officially established under Title II, Section 211 of the original National Security Act of 1947 before Sections 209-214 of Title II were repealed by the law enacting Title 10 and Title 32, United States Code (Act of August 10, 1956, 70A Stat. 676) to replace them. The act and its changes, along with the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, were major components of the Truman administration's Cold War strategy. The bill signing took place aboard Truman's VC-54C presidential aircraft Sacred Cow, the first aircraft used for the role of Air Force One. (Wikipedia) | |||
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keywords: Central Intelligence Agency, Cold War, Harry Truman, Joint Chiefs Of Staff, Marshall Plan, Military, National Security Act, Truman Doctrine, US Army, US Department Of Defense, US National Security Council, US Navy, United States, World War II
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