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“All you need to do is grant visas to two million Indians, Chinese and Koreans,” said Shekhar Gupta, editor of The Indian Express newspaper. “We will buy up all the subprime homes. We will work 18 hours a day to pay for them. We will immediately improve your savings rate – no Indian bank today has more than 2 percent nonperforming loans because not paying your mortgage is considered shameful here. And we will start new companies to create our own jobs and jobs for more Americans.”
Read the full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/opinion/11friedman.html?em
I like this idea a lot. It presents security risks (9/11 bombers were here legally) and massive potential for new American bigotry (see 1, 2, 3, or this, this, and this), but the immigration as an economic stimulus idea carries some compelling arguments and exceptionally democratic underpinnings. http://www.wcvi.org/intermestic_initiatives/FinalWCVIWhitePaperLegalization.pdf
After the vote, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the second-ranking House Republican, called the Democratic package “a spending bill beyond anyone’s imagination.”
You mean I’ve just been imagining that Republican control of this country has resulted in the greatest deficit known to man and most terrifying economic situation in several generations? I guess so. Read the rest of this entry »
Ahhh it seems like just twenty years ago that I was glued to my CNN live report about “W” using Florida to steal the election from Gore. And it seems like just yesterday that America accomplished its mission in Iraq. If you close your eyes and focus your mind, you can smell the “justice and liberty” that W brought to our friends in the Middle East. My, how time flies when your constitution is being eroded, allies are being snubbed, and your President is destroying both the moral and actual authority of America.
So as the “W”orst President in U.S. History says his revisionary goodbyes. As he prepares to hand over a the greatest deficit ever and a pile of economic, millitary, and social disorder to the first non-white President… Let’s take a Friday Forum to look back on all the Bu**it.
It’s all welcome here today. The rants, the tears, the shock and the awe.
I’d say it’s missing the panel between 1 and 2 that has Mr. Suspenders sitting at his desk with a graph chart going up rather than down, and the caption “I’ve personally made millions off predatory loans to the guy in the first panel. Sure he has a personal savings rate of -1.3% but I’ve got a golden parachute, a judicial system that loves corporations more than people, and all the congressional access money can buy! I’m sure we’ll all land on our feet.”
After winding down a quiet vacation with family in Utah, I stood in my socks at an x-ray line of the Salt Lake City International Airport. The TSA agent searched my carryon bag and informed me that the crescent wrench I was given for Christmas measured just over 7 inches long, and posed a security threat. I looked again at his TSA badge with the proud American eagle emblem. I couldn’t help imagining the eagle’s talon filled with a bundle of crescent wrenches, not pointed arrows.
As I laced up my shoes and trekked back to the departures desk to check my bag containing the dangerous 7 inch wrench, this Friday Forum topic was born.
We talk a lot about Security in America. At any given moment your defense is being secured by the NSA, TSA, CIA, FBI, ATF, Dept. of Homeland Security, Secret Service, The Defense Dept., NASA (spy satellites and star wars aren’t just in movies), the military including Coast Guard, National Guard, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army, Border Police, Special Ops, and the highly paid mercenary outfits like Black Water, EADS, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc.
This is not an exhaustive list but exhausting enough that I think you get the point.
How do you feel about “American security”? Should America balance the power of war and security agencies with a Department of Peace, or hiring a Peace Czar?
Fun Fact: In 1782 the Great Symbol containing the American Eagle holding arrows and olive branches in it’s talons was intended to “denote the power of peace & war which is exclusively vested in Congress. Too bad our common use is now “War & Peace” with the Executive branch of government claiming exotically extreme wartime powers.
The battle over same sex marriage and Prop 8 in California continues. Kenneth Starr of Whitewater fame has even joined the action and will argue in support of the proposition before the state Supreme Court. Before the fireworks begin again I’d like to discuss an aspect of the Mormon perspective.
Countless Mormons (and Evangelicals) who support governmental bans on same sex marriage have told me that they don’t care about domestic partnership rights for homosexuals, “as long as They don’t call it marriage!” These well intended Christians usually continue by empathetically declaring their cause is to protect marriage, not hurt people.
Have you ever wondered if your personal credit card transaction histories, call logs and e-mails are recorded on a hard drive inside an undisclosed government server farm? have you ever hesitated for a split second to blog using words like Al Qaeda, bombing or treason because you imagined a faceless man stationed in a dimly lit computer room running black-ops grade internet searches for “enemy combatant” keywords?
If not, read this Newsweek article. It’s about the Justice department whistle blower who first tipped the New York Times to the fact the National Security Administration (NSA) was illegally eaves dropping on U.S. citizens by secret request of Bush and friends. http://www.newsweek.com/id/174601/output/print
If you prefer Mormon espionage in your political intrigue, read this article about a Mormon White House spy during the Nixon era of Republican wickedness. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/15/new-details-emerge-nixon-era-spying-case/ Read the rest of this entry »
The Republicans love to gush about proud American boot straps and getting “leg up” on the American dream. Ahhhh, aren’t military and equestrian metaphors just the dreamiest! They also like to shameful lament entitlement programs as socialist “handouts.”
Before the supposed extreme left of the Democratic Party obtained the White house, American investments in youth and education were already failing horrifically. The economy is serving up the latest sad news on a fiberglass tray in schools around America. http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/11/school.meal.subsidies/index.html
I’ll declare it now and be glad to re-visit the statement again in 3.5 years. If the Democrats don’t fix our broken social welfare systems and increase investments in children, others will seize leadership and be rightly entitled to it.
One of my favorite advocacy groups, Americans for the Arts, just released a new public awareness commercial in collaboration with Disney’s Little EinsteinsTM. I don’t have kids to focus group this ad with but am sure that Disney treatment and distribution will reach young kids and their parents. I can see why they did it but personally I was hoping for more Raisin Brahms! Still, my hat’s off to AFTA for preaching the value of art in our society.
We also believe in continuing revelation and know that God’s wisdom for His children in the past is not unalterably bound to apply the same way today. For example, the Law of Moses VS Law of Christ, polygamy being sanctioned of the Lord and then no longer being sanctioned of the Lord.
Given our uniquely flexible Mormon perspective of God’s will, I pose the following questions to all well-intentioned builders of Zion.Question: Is it good to specifically codify eternal principle via constitutional amendment?
If Yes: How shall we amend US and State constitutions “for a permanent and everlasting” order of welfare as revealed in D&C 78:3-7?
3 For verily I [Heavenly Father] say unto you, the time has come, and is now at hand; and behold, and lo, it must needs be that there be an aorganization of my people, in regulating and establishing the affairs of the bstorehouse for the cpoor of my people, both in this place and in the land of dZion—
4 For a permanent and everlasting establishment and order unto my church, to advance the cause, which ye have espoused, to the salvation of man, and to the glory of your Father who is in heaven; 5 That you may be aequal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things. 6 For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be aequal in obtaining heavenly things; 7 For if you will that I give unto you a place in the acelestial world, you must bprepare yourselves by cdoing the things which I have commanded you and required of you.
If No: How else should the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles magnify their calling to declare to the world the eternal principle of Marriage?
At this time of year, it is important to take stock of the many blessing we have to be grateful for. I’m not grateful for Sarah Palin, but my deepest heartfelt thanks go out to all the radically fundamental Christian elements of the Republican party. Thanks to their foaming at the mouth and unflinching fight against science, muslims and other Christians (the debatably “core” Christian values), a more moderate element of the US population was finally disgusted away from the conservative pack. Thanks rightest-of-right-wing nut jobs!
PS – I am also thankful for the good old fashioned American values of the Democratic party.
I hear too many liberals describe conservatives as ignorant rednecks. To be fair, I hear too many conservatives describe liberals as out of touch elitists.
If we progressive minded folk who voted Obama for a new and more united America are worth one ounce of our professed socio-political salt, we better have learned something about “the other side of the aisle.” And our insights had better help us relate to them as fellow Americans.
So my question to Blues living among the Reds of Mormon culture is this… Have you learned anything new about the purple in all of us? How has your understanding of the conservative American dream changed?
A few years ago my understanding of “race” in America changed dramatically. It happened at a work related training session led by Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary. I had read the short bio describing Dr. Leary’s work on “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.” My mind nearly shut off at what seemed like a whole days worth of work lost to pop psycho-babble on an African theme. I was so very wrong. Read the rest of this entry »
I went to a new movie in the theatre this week. While waiting for the previews to begin I was treated to a new Kid Rock music video promoting of all things, the Army National Guard. Kid tore his vocal chords apart screaming the title lyric “American Warrior” in a chest beating spectacle of the highest degree. There were close combat firefights, heavy military machinery, copious pyrotechnics, speeding jets and an exhilarating visual narrative including NASCAR celebrities and a high-speed crash! After watching the entire video from my $9 seat captivity, the first thought I could summon to words was “And some people still wonder why they hate us.”
This event combined with the two Presidential debates helped form the realization I now share.
mormondemocrats
Browan
Dale Dunkin
adjohn08
brainscientist2008
demlawyer
lisajenkins
It’s on baby. IT IS ON!
Question: Is it good to specifically codify eternal principle via constitutional amendment?
