. . . about the rich or the poor gets us nowhere . . .
Mitt Romney says that since our current President practices the "politics of division" (he obviously lives in a cocoon), many intelligent (maybe that's the missing element) Americans are quite conscious of the existing rift between rich and poor in this country. Pew Social & Demographic Trends found 66% of Americans see strong conflicts between the two groups, and a full 19% more than did in 2009.
Almost half of the people interviewed said they thought rich people are rich because they were born into rich families or know the right people and a comparable percentage thought the rich earned their riches through hard work, ambition or education.
Well, both groups are correct. And like any other group of two or more human beings, within each of those rich populations there are good, honest, principled people and there are lying, cheating, dishonest charlatans as well.
Much like the perception that rich (sometimes not-so-rich-yet conservative, white-collar-middle-to-upper-middle-class) people hold that poor people are poor because they are lazy and therefore do not work hard, have no ambition and are as a result (or as a cause) have no education. And they are right also. . . that is about SOME poor people. But if they are speaking of a group of two or more poor people, they are not considering the good, honest, principled people who have tried but have suffered setbacks, disadvantages, discrimination, bad luck, bad circumstances or bad timing who have not been able to attain the success that some may THINK these poor people could have attained.
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So maybe Barack Obama will be the lesser of two evils come November's presidential election, and I
don't think he is necessarily evil, but he most certainly is
conventionally political. Just heard on the news that a fundraiser in Chicago will be held and admission is $7,500 a ticket.
How can we expect to have a president to represent the American people when only RICH PEOPLE have a real say (read: MONEY) in choosing our candidates?
Occupy America must concentrate their efforts on, among other things, election reform.
This has got to stop.
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(thanks to Wikipedia.com)
Cecil Taylor began playing piano at age six and studied at the New York
College of Music and New England Conservator. After first steps in R&B and swing-styled small groups in the early
1950s, he formed his own band with soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy in 1956 and with whom he made his first recording that same year. Some critics said it already pointed to the freedoms in which he later became immersed.
Through the 50s and 60s, Cecil's music grew more complex and
moved away from existing jazz styles. Gigs were often hard to come by,
and club owners thought his lengthy pieces were not easily accessible to the general jazz-going audience.
Landmark recordings, like UNIT STRUCTURES followed later, in 1966. Alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons later joined Cecil and became one of his most important and consistent collaborators.
Taylor, Lyons and drummer Sunny Murray (and later Andrew Cyrille) formed the core personnel of The Unit,
Taylor's primary group effort until Lyons's premature death in 1986.
With 'the Unit', musicians developed often volcanic new forms of
conversational interplay.
Cecil began to perform solo concerts in the early 1970s. Many of
these were released on album and include INDENT (1973), side one of Spring of Two Blue-J's
(1973), SILENT TONGUES (1974), GARDEN
(1982), and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1973 and then a MacArthur Fellowship in 1991.
Cecil recorded sparingly in the 2000s, but continued to perform with
his own ensembles (the Cecil Taylor Ensemble and the Cecil Taylor Big
Band) as well as with other musicians such as Joe Locke, Max Roach and Amiri Baraka. In 2004, the Cecil Taylor Big Band at the Iridium 2005 was nominated a
best performance of 2004 by All About Jazz,
and the same in 2009 for the Cecil Taylor Trio at the Highline Ballroom
in 2009.
The trio consisted of Taylor, Albey Balgochian, and Jackson Krall. An
autobiography, more concerts, and other projects are in the works. In 2010, Triple Point Records released a deluxe limited edition double LP
titled Ailanthus/Altissima: Bilateral Dimensions of Two Root Songs,
a set of duos with long-time collaborator Tony Oxley that was recorded
live at the Village Vanguard in New York City.
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"You know what? This president has caused a deepening recession and is responsible for 25 million Americans being out of work or stopped working or not being able to get jobs," Romney said, before walking away. "And let me tell you, this president's been a failure and that's one of the reasons I'm running is to help you get a job."
"PETA is not happy that my dog likes fresh air." --on strapping his dog
to the top of the car
"My sons are all adults and they've made decisions about their careers
and they've chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I
respect their decision in that regard. One of the ways my sons are
showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they
think I'd be a great president."
"I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty
much all my life." (Romney's campaign later said he'd been hunting
twice, once when he was 15, and once in 2006 at a Republican fundraiser
"I'm not a big-game hunter. I've made that very clear. I've always been a
rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will."
"I'm happy to learn that after I speak you're going to hear from Ann
Coulter. That's a good thing. I think it's important to get the views of
moderates." --right before Coulter called John Edwards a "faggot"
Quotes from Mitt Romney~Compiled by Daniel
Kurtzman
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/mittromney/a/romneyquotes.htm
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The holidays now over, and it's time to get back to the 'swing' of things.
Now that the season for stopping innocent children from celebrating Christmas is over and we've celebrated our New Year's Rockin' eve with the egomaniac who should retire, and we anticipate the national spectacle of watching overweight, overpaid male 'athletes' pile on top of one another as they pursue the pointed pumpkin around a huge 'cow pasture' (as Andy Griffith once said) and merchants pay millions to hawk their wares during 30 second breaks that (and this is a sad statement) are actually more entertaining than the program to which they have contributed so outrageously, it's now time to settle down, sit back, relax with a cold beer (or a hot
topic) and watch the Republican presidential candidates do their new and improved version of Looney Tunes.
". . . and Oh what heights we'll hit, on with the show this is IT IT IT IT!!!!!"
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". . . On Dec. 21, 2012, many doomsday believers fear the apocalypse —
anything from a rogue planet smashing into us to our world spinning end
over end. However, the world should expect nothing more next year than
the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, NASA says. Many people point to the end of
the Mayan Long Count calendar on Dec. 21, 2012 as evidence of the
coming apocalypse, but astronomers have been quick to stress that there
is nothing to be concerned about. According to the ancient Mayan calendar, next year's wintersolstice
marks the end of a 144,000-day cycle. This cycle, which begins at the
mythical Maya creation date, has already been repeated 12 times. The
13th will end in 2012, capping a full 5,200-year Mayan cycle of
creation. This date has long been shrouded in mystery, with many claiming that
it will bring destruction to our planet. [End
of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]
Rogue planet Nibiru?
One fear is that a rogue planet that has been dubbed "Nibiru"
or "Planet X" is supposedly aimed at Earth. Self-proclaimed Nibiru
expert Nancy Lieder, who says she is in contact with the aliens from
Zeta Reticuli, first said Nibiru would cause widespread disaster in May
2003, only to change it to There is, however, no
evidence that Nibiru is real. "Nibiru is ridiculous because it doesn't exist — it never existed as
anything other than a figment of the imagination by pseudo-scientists
who don't seem bothered by a complete lack of evidence," astronomer Don
Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program office at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., told SPACE.com.
There is no basis for the claim that it might be lurking behind the
sun, as it could not have hidden from observation until now, Yeomans
said. If such a planet was headed toward Earth by Dec. 21, 2012, it
would already be visible to the naked eye.
Cosmic alignments?
There are also concerns that planets or stars might line up
in ways that will transform Earth. For instance, some theorists claim
that from our point of view, the sun will cross in front of the plane of
our galaxy on Dec. 21. However, the sun already does this twice a year,
Yeomans said. In fact, the sun will eventually cross the plane of our galaxy.
However, the sun is about 67 light-years from the galactic plane, so it
should take several million years to do so, Yeomans said. Even then,
when our solarsystem
finally does cross the plane, nothing special will occur, he added. [10
Failed Doomsday Predictions]
Some also claim that gravitational effects from planets lining up
with each other will somehow affect Earth. However, there is no
planetary alignment due on Dec. 21, 2012, "and if there were, it
wouldn't cause any problems," Yeomans said.
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". . . First thing on January 1, around 6:45 a.m. AT, Rocky Anderson, head of High Road for Human Rights, under his Twitter name, "PresidentRocky," Tweeted, "What's now clear from #NDAA is that authoritarianism is bipartisan, a position a free society must regard intolerable. Answer? Justice Party".
Anderson's High Roads for Human Rights works to abolish the death penalty, torture, other prison abuse, racism and a host of other United States human rights violations that he calls "outrageous." An hour earlier on Sunday, urging Americans to continue uniting, Anderson, the former mayor of Salt Lake City, Tweeted, "Media has been virtually without coverage of the formation of Justice Party & our campaign". . .
. . . Anderson's call for unity through the Justice Party to overturn the present regime that violates human rights is in motion, same as globally, highlighted by the special Russia Today report Saturday, showing uprisings for rights amid induced fear and terror forced by present regimes.
ACLU stated after the president signed the bill into law that nobody, in the United States or elsewhere, should have to live in fear of the government renditioning them, as the act codifies: "We are extremely disappointed that President Obama signed this bill even though his administration is already claiming overly-broad detention authority in court. Any hope that the Obama administration would roll back those claims dimmed today. Thankfully we have three branches of government, and the final word on the scope of detention authority belongs to the Supreme Court, which has yet to rule on the scope of detention authority. But Congress and the president also have a role to play in cleaning up the mess they have created because no American citizen or anyone else should live in fear of this or any future president misusing the NDAA’s detention authority. According to Anderson, statutes passed by Congress are happening because of the corrupting influences and the military-industrial-complex has a stranglehold on American.
"Speaking to a gathering at a rally at Pioneer Park in downtown Salt Lake City, Anderson justified his protest against Bush, asserting that the "nation was lied into a war." According to Anderson, since then and even more so since the NDAA FY2012 scandal, people from each political party and an array of major organizations are supporting a third party, the Justice Party and him. "We have the democratization now like never before," says Anderson, referring to social networks and the Occupy movement. "There's never been the economic disparity we have today. People are feeling it. "People are watching Facebook and Twitter to learn what's happening," he told Thom Hartmann. "This party is about changing the system, getting the corrupting money out of it so we can change policy."
Anderson asserted, "We cannot let the fear of spoiling the race of the lesser of two evils to bring about the major transformation our country and we need.". . ."
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It was the best of rides. It was the worst of rides. One brother, who taking abode on the far distant coast of the country from where up he grew, decided to gather his various possessions, which up until this date, had been stored mightily by his family in a personal storage facility in the latter mentioned locale. The other brother, of a combination of sheer kindness and selfish adventure, agreed to accompany the first in ye olde Penske van with aforementioned possessions, on the trip by road to the adopted home of the first brother. So off they went.
The second brother’s primarily-desired adventure was to visit the gravesite of Alferd Packer, a convicted cannibal and Civil War participant. The first brother did not share equally the enthusiasm of the first in this adventure and went to no great lengths to portray any. In fact, he did not want to deviate from the straightest route home to make this stop at all. But the second brother would not be swayed, and was kind and humorous in his discourse about the desired adventure, so much so that the first brother could not openly object to the deviation.
Upon arrival, and well ahead of what would have been assumed to be an average rate of such travel by such means, the two brothers arrived at the burial site of Mr. Packer. Heretofore the first bother took it upon himself to write to his father. His dispatch read as below:
“So we’re here. Spencer doesn’t know where the grave is and the cemetery is covered in goose shit.”
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. . . a new sensation. It's a feeling I never, or at least rarely, even considered. I'm not talking about mushrooms or any type of ingestible substance. I'm talking about saying goodbye to two of your children who are driving ACROSS THE COUNTRY!!
You prepare for it, both by packing and psyching yourself into acceptance. But when the day of departure finally arrives, you find that you're never prepared quite enough.
Very strange sensation, to say the least. (As I write, they may be in Ohio.)
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". . . Actually,
there were times when I almost thought - almost thought - 'Jeez, I wish
someone would tell me what I HAD to do,' that kind of thing. Freedom
involves making decisions, and each decision is a destiny decision.
It's very difficult to find in the outside world something that matches
what the system inside you is yearning for. My feeling now is that I
had a perfect life: what I needed came along just when I needed it.
What I needed then was a life without a job for five years. It was
fundamental.
As Schopenhauer says, when you look back
on your life, it looks as though it were a plot, but when you are into
it, it's a mess: just one surprise after another. Then, later, you see
it was perfect. So, I have a theory that if you are on your own path
things are going to come to you. Since it's your own path, and no one
has ever been on it before, there's no precedent, so everything that
happens is a surprise and is timely. . . "
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". . . CNN
reports Barack Obama "reluctantly signed a defense authorization
bill, saying he was concerned about some in Congress who want to
restrict options used by counterterrorism officials."
Even before the bill was signed by Obama, there were mixed feelings on
NDAA.
The bill only has a 2 percent approval rating on a poll conducted by OpenCongress.com.
Only 8 people support the bill out of 395 voters.
Another poll, of 397 people, conducted by PopVox gives the
bill a 9 percent approval rating.
One of the more controversial aspects of the bill involves the ability
for the president to detain United States' citizens.
According to The International Business Times, "The bill affirms and
codifies the U.S. President's authority to indefinitely detain in
military custody anyone, including U.S. citizens, suspected of terrorism
or supporting terrorists."
In a statement
released after the signing of the bill, Obama says, "I want to
clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite
military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe
that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values
as a Nation."
Even though Obama signed the bill he does not agree with everything
that's included in the bill.
"I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with
certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and
prosecution of suspected terrorists," Obama said.
CBS
news reports, "If Mr. Obama violates any of the provisions in the
bill, Congress could challenge the White House in court, which would
have the final say in any dispute."
The $662 billion bill also includes tough sanctions against Iran over
its nuclear program and allocates money for the military.
NDAA was sponsored by Howard McKeon Republican Representative from
California. The bill was introduced on April 13th.
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One of the few producers to pursue a real
fusion of jazz and house music, Frenchman Ludovic
Navarre began recording in the early '90s using various aliases (Subsystem,
Modus Vivendi, Deepside)
for a range of French imprints. St. Germain
debuted in 1994 for Laurent
Garnier's F Communications label and Navarre
released his first album, Boulevard, in
1996. Featuring trumpeter Pascal Ohse,
the album worked as a hybrid of American R&B and jazz with the
growing French house scene exemplified by Garnier, la Funk Mob,
and Dimitri
From Paris. Tourist
took the concept further with Navarre
working post-production on a fuller complement of musicians and earned
release on Blue Note. Navarre has
also remixed such varying artists as Björk, Pierre Henry,
and the
Suburban Knight.
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