Skip to main content

Levy Rivers's Library tagged politics →  View Popular

04 Apr 09

The Quiet Coup - The Atlantic (May 2009)

  • Typically, these countries are in a desperate economic situation for one simple reason—the powerful elites within them overreached in good times and took too many risks
  • As masters of their mini-universe, these people make some investments that clearly benefit the broader economy, but they also start making bigger and riskier bets. They reckon—correctly, in most cases—that their political connections will allow them to push onto the government any substantial problems that arise.
16 Dec 08

A Ballot Buddy System - changing Presidential Elections

  • But here’s a bipartisan solution: an electoral vote buddy system. Red and blue states of similar size should pair up and pass state laws to apportion their electoral votes by district.

    It would seem counterintuitive for a Democratic legislature in New York to cede a portion of its sure 31 Democratic electoral votes, but not if it opens up some of Texas’ 34 votes for the party. Washington State could make its 11 electoral votes relevant, in tandem with Tennessee, which also has 11. In this past election, voters in Louisiana (nine electoral votes) and Mississippi (six) could have focused the candidates’ views on Hurricane Katrina rebuilding had they buddied with New Jersey, which has 15 electoral votes.

30 May 08

Mark Kleiman: Changing the topic - Politics on The Huffington Post

  • Coincidentally, on the very same day the Financial Times reported that UBS had advised 50 current and former employees of its private banking group not to travel to the United States. The bank is worried that they might be arrested in connection with a massive tax-evasion scheme under which UBS helped rich Americans cheat the IRS, thus making sure that the rest of us suckers had to pay for, e.g., the War in Iraq. Some of the clients of the scheme are already testifying before a grand jury, and a senior UBS official has already been indicted. UBS is offering to provide lawyers for all of the suspects.



    Now, how is it that Gramm got to be Vice-Chairman of UBS? Why, by being the chief author of the banking-deregulation legislation (the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act) that made so many bankers rich and helped create the crisis McCain doesn't want to do anything about.



    In keeping with McCain's decision to purge "lobbyists" from his campaign, Gramm had himself de-registered as a lobbyist. But he's still Vice Chairman of UBS, and still McCain's chief economic adviser. All the de-listing means is that he can't now personally call Congressmen or Senators; no doubt his staff can handle such details for the next few months.

21 May 08

Rob McKay: Small Is the New Big in Progressive Politics - Politics on The Huffington Post

  • The grab for this group of voters has generally been coordinated by a seasoned team of professional campaign staff operating in war rooms and spending millions in mobilizing voters. But new efforts among progressive voters, musicians, and grassroots groups are saying the way to be "big" in '08 is to "go small." And how resources are spent in this election and after, could determine whether the Democratic Party is about short-term voter excitement or permanent citizen engagement.
  • This new group of efforts focuses on local leadership, small circles, and cultural organizing. They are taking their strategies from the anti-slavery movement, groups like craigslist, and most surprisingly, a new Christian movement. "
  • 3 more annotations...
18 May 08

Wikileaks - Wikileaks

  • Our primary interests are in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we expect to be of assistance to peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact.
09 Apr 08

Hak Pak Sak

  • America in flames? Sound familiar? The closing lines of Grine Kuzine are really no different from Barack Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright’s “God Damn America” paraphrase of Irving Berlin’s maudlin patriotic tune God Bless America. As a singer of Grine Kuzine, and as a not-too-distant descendant of her fellow immigrant workers, I do not understand the recent hysteria over the U-Tube posting of an out-of-context video excerpt of one of Wright’s old sermons. Jews and Blacks and even the whitest-of-white Americans have the right — and maybe the obligation — to be enraged at polities and policies that misuse or deceive them or that fail to live up to their potential or rhetoric. The hyperbole of songs and of sermons generates reflection and vents steam and diffuses rage even as it broadcasts it.
  • Far more interesting and insidious than the slips-of-the-lips of members of Obama’s confessional circles is Hillary Clinton’s decades-long involvement in an oligarchical right-wing prayer breakfast group called The Fellowship, Sound like the stuff of crank conspiracy theories? Writer Jeff Sharlet of The Revealer, a New York University weblog covering religion and the media, has just completed a book on the subject. Will apologies and statements of distancing and denunciation of The Fellowship be forthcoming from the Clinton campaign? I doubt it.
04 Apr 08

In Memphis 40 Years Ago - Bending The Arc!! « On Happiness

Obama draws upon the image of the arc of justice to make the point of how people have to be engaged in the election

oldude59.wordpress.com/...s-40-years-ago-bending-the-arc - Preview

Martin Luther King Obama video politics

27 Mar 08

Obama Warms to Wrapping Up Contest - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

To build a political dialogue is more important than simply having an arguement.

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/...a-warms-to-wrapping-up-contest - Preview

obama politics

  • In response to other questions, Mr. Obama said that he had no beef with Bill Clinton’s comments today that the Obama and Clinton camps should “just saddle up and have an argument.” But he added that one of his goals in politics was still “to see if we can change the tenor a little bit so it’s more productive.” Mr. Obama said he agreed with the thrust of Mr. Clinton’s point about the rough-and-tumble of politics, saying it was “a contact sport,” though he said he sensed it would be a problem to go too far.
26 Mar 08

Obama’s Talk Fuels Easter Sermons - New York Times

  • “The church needs to be a community within which the pain can be shared,” said Mr. Blackwell, who is white and leads an urban, racially mixed congregation. “The grievances can be aired, and the power of that can be directed toward the ‘new creation’ that is portrayed in the Resurrection.”
  • The response to the controversy from the pulpit will vary, of course, depending on a church’s denomination, racial composition and political and theological leanings, as well the predilections of the pastor. The Wright controversy is a natural topic for those in the United Church of Christ, a predominantly white denomination that includes Mr. Obama’s and Mr. Wright’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago (the largest church in the denomination).
  • 1 more annotations...
23 Mar 08

The Machinery of Hope : Rolling Stone

  • The meeting in San Marcos wasn't advertised in any traditional
    sense. Instead, the campaign posted the event on my.barackobama.com
    — its social-networking site affectionately known as "MyBo"
    — and e-mailed local residents who had donated to the
    campaign or surrendered their addresses as the price of admission
    to an Obama rally. And the volunteers who showed up won't be
    micromanaged by Ukman or anyone else from the campaign. They'll be
    able to call their own shots, from organizing local rallies to
    recruiting and training a crew of fellow Obama supporters to man
    their precincts on election day.
  • This scene in the rec center is being repeated in neighborhood
    coffee shops, high school cafeterias and public libraries across
    Texas. Over the course of the three-day weekend, the Obama campaign
    trained 4,000 precinct captains in more than twenty communities,
    from El Paso to Corpus Christi. This is the same grass-roots effort
    that has trounced the Clinton campaign — a classic top-down
    operation run by high-paid consultants — in ten straight
    contests by an average of more than thirty points. It has evolved
    into the mother of all get-out-the-vote campaigns, one that has
    enabled Obama to collect more votes in Virginia and Wisconsin than
    all of the GOP candidates combined.
  • 6 more annotations...
14 Mar 08

Obama With Style and Authencity - Campaign Marketing

  • As a Obama supporter, I was so glad to have someone spell out the innovative ways his campaign has gone about its work. The two most important aspects of his campaign has been the dignified way he continues to conduct himself in the face of low down tactics of Clinton and the second is the style of leadership he is expressing. His authenticity and bottoms ups approach to problem solving is the same structure of strategy I promote for organizational leaders. - oldude59 on 2008-03-14
  • As a Obama supporter I was so glad to have someone spell out the innovative ways his campaign has gone about its work. The two most important aspects of his campaign has been the dignified way he continues to conduct himself in the face of low down tactics of the Clinton and the second is the style of leadership he is expressing. He authenticity and bottoms up approach to problems solving is the same strategy I promote in post I've made for organizational leaders.
1 - 18 of 18
Showing 20▼ items per page

Selected Tags

Related Tags

Sponsored Links

Ads by Google

Diigo is about better ways to research, share and collaborate on information. Learn more »

Join Diigo