post by froggy

posted by froggy

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already
to challenge our government to a trial by strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
- Thomas Jefferson


The corporate statehood that the colonies exemplified was the very reason for the American Revolution, and the development of the Constitution. Remember folks, the original 13 colonies were the private property of the Crown, and the King, and were treated as such. Their only purpose was to enhance the Crowns wealth and finance his wars with France and Spain.
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BobPomeroy 1 hour ago in reply to deathfrogg

Thankyou froggy. It's of a tenor anyone who's thought about Jefferson recognizes its veracity. May I borrow it for my own use in my own right? (Just being polite). It is incomprehensible to me that anyone would make Mitt's Assertion. We have all become commodities in his eyes, and he doesn't understand that corporations are from Flatland: that people are more complex than corporations by many many degrees cubed. And all of that complexity is as real as anything can be. And that is what the Constitution protects - not some artificial 'being' endowed by the Court with Equal Protection. Corporations do deal with commodities, but they weren't meant to be more than we are. To seriously engage them, we need all the allies we can enlist. If all those willing to enlist would plant all the sunflower seeds they can, 1000's and 1000's of sunflowers would sprout in the spring, and nobody could do anything about. Something which doesn't speak of violence or pomposity or aggrandizement. Probably need watering at times and seasons, but that's all the enlistment would be for, it's all volunteer, non-reporting.

t-party's achilles heel

The tale that tells the T-party is manifold, but a short bit or two does it. They don't want to promote changes they think would improve it; they have invented a hate word for it and want only its repeal. Why did to have to oppose lifting the debt ceiling, a symbol, when they might have promoted their proclaimed objective of cutting spending? It now appears that failure to do so has caused the international jitters. And everyone on earth knows that taxes are the only way we can pay for 'common goods', such as reducing our national debt.

Ideology is the lazy man's poor substitute for thinking and judgment, or shirking the responsibility therefor. It is to pray at a graven image.

The T-party better figure out how to break the deadlockked log-jam in Congress by acting like a balance of power which has replaced platitudes with wisdom. It's not going to do that behind the pretentious ignorance of its Palins, Perrys and Macks. Bachmann's purported law school should retrieve its diploma for her obvious failure to grasp the most basic principles of constitutional law.

Show us something thoughtful and well-considered. Practice using only using positive words (not about the person you see in the mirror) for one sentence every morning when you brush your teeth.
.

lees

they really have some dramatic history. Geo D, a fall guy, Rex's dad died in a car wreck in the middle of life on his way to or from some minor hearing, Rex had half 'the 'legendary' first class' upstairs in 'private' constitutional law classes (wouldn't let me in the door), resigned from what he called the best job in the country, and died before his time. The interwoven/reciprocal resume building that went on for Mike reads like a midevil conspiracy among the cardinals. Now he's going to filibuster 'the deal' belaboring historically routine legislation? Who will they put him with as a VP nomination, or is he about to mimic Obama's rise? Have you read his 'agenda for freedom'? Whew! Shades of Aaron Burr.

cover ups and credibility crisis.

dammit weiner! I can't post my npr comment, but 'think' it's on facebook

Gabby has been so notably middle-of-the-road that she's been called a 'blue dog' by more liberally-inclined folks, yet she was viciously attacked by RWE's in the last election for being 'liberal' and even 'socialist'. Juxtaposing those facts, it cannot be avoided that an atmosphere of hate and anger was created, artificially, about her for its gratuitous application by an unbalanced person. She was just not ordinarily in the 'target' posture, and worked very hard to reflect the views of all the community she served, and was very non-partisan in that approach. She voted against Pelosi and Obama several times, unfortunately imo.The 'fiddling' of the direct cause argument is fatuous. Hate mongering killed 6 people, maybe more. This pathetic perp suffered John Wilkes Booth syndrome -- wanted to be a hero and not make those in his circle mad at him. So now he's a historic figure. I guess he got his wish. It is our patriotic duty to engage or debate in civil terms based on fact. We have experienced a massive betrayal of that duty and are reaping the whirlwind for that reason. Government's credibility, partly as a function of 'credible deniability', has vanished in the breeze. The result is that when 'big lies' are caught en flagrante, much of public perception and reaction is simply that 'they all do it', and this reaction is used by certain partisan media to shield them from responsibility for those lies. Think Elmer Gantry or Lonesome Rhodes. It's nothing new for those conversant in history. The question remains of our Republic, "can we keep it".

barred from blogging on faux

I've always been interested in sports, and long ago I signed up for FOX Sports because it was what MSN used. I had an ache about it at the time, but it was just sports. Today was one of life's heartfelt moments when I confirmed that I'd been barred from their site, though I've never commented on it much except to say "Go Cats" or, call Kyle Busch a spoiled brat. It can only be that Rupert Murdoch has purchased me a Pulitzer for my comments and characterizations of him on actual political sites. I guess I'll have to get my sports fix, superficial though it is, from some other place. All are invited to join me. I'll even take hints, though I must caution that I had a couple of polyps removed this week and may be a little too sore to not respond to some of the suggestions I might receive from faux fans. Please at least be original.

Mom's letter

Thank you Arne Duncan. I respect and honor that you want to do the best for children. So do I. To me that also means doing the best for teachers. May I give you a kaleidoscopic view of my thoughts on the issue of the pay of teachers depending on the scores their students make on tests. I taught in primary grades in Tucson, Arizona for 26 years. I am retired and at 87 I am still teaching piano lessons. I love teaching. I love children. Here is a letter I wrote to children.

Dear Child,

I know you! I have lived with children like you for twenty-six years. I know
you have some sense of your power. I wish I knew how to help you see just how powerful you are.
I know you sometimes feel as if you have no choices in school or at home. There
so many "shoulds" and "must learns" that you have felt that saying "no" to learning was your only
way of having any power.
Your teacher can't make you learn no matter how much she wants to, or how
hard she works. You are the chooser. You can say, "No, I want to show you I am strong. I
can say no." It's true, you can. But it is powerful to choose to say "yes", too, and to make a
choice to learn even if it feels weak and confusing. It just takes practice, like anything else.
Practice is being willing to keep trying even when you miss the basket in basketball or throw a wild
pitch in baseball. It begins to be exciting as you work at it and get better. On the day when you
can say "yes" as well as "no" you will find that you have truly awesome power. I look forward to
that day. love,
Mrs. Pomeroy

Your story about the children on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana is heart breaking, both the story of the hopelessness of the students and the 70% unemployment of the adults. The "failure" of the schools in poverty areas falls in the same category. Surely these are examples of societal failures and must be addressed on many levels. Maslow postulates that persons whose basic needs aren't met cannot be fully functional persons. Basic needs must be met first. Is this the role of schools? I want these needs to be taken care of.

I taught in a school where often there were no blue-eyed children in my class. I remember a beautiful little girl who didn't know her hair was brown, her sweater was red, or her pants were purple. I had her pick red things out of a basket filled with many different colored objects, then I tied a piece of red yarn around her wrist and asked her to find out how many children knew "red." She found a blank cereal box top and a red crayon and drew red circles in an array three across and four down to display the results of her survey. I had only thought of her being reinforced in her recognition of the color red. She was so bright.

The July/August issue of the magazine ODE had an article on The Academy for the Love of Learning based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The academy offers teachers training to move beyond the culture of outcomes such as test scores, to a culture of a passion for learning, honesty, and growth. An inspiring article and helps me remember that teacher training colleges are looking to find better methods courses.

I wonder what you think when someone mentions music, art, poetry, creativity, critical thinking, social skills, and other things that tests do not measure. These things that are of primary importance to our quality of life.

In the August 30, 2010 issue of The Christian Science Monitor the article about you, Arne Duncan, tells of your experience with the Ariel Education Initiative in Chicago. I loved the part that told about sixth graders in Shakespeare Elementary who were promised affordable college if they graduated from high school! I'm excited that the student is encouraged to make the effort. How could we offer affordable college to everyone?

In graduate school I was in a two credit course in Current Issues in Education. Each week we were to hand in a paper, annotated as to sources, with our arguments pro and con on a certain issue. He assigned us to debate pro or con on the debate after class started. One week we students were in class a few minutes before Dr. Daniel Davies arrived. We were complaining eloquently about the amount of work we had to do, and that it was too much to expect for a two credit class. We were all in agreement. We were primed to complain in detail to our teacher. I can still see Dr. Davies walking in waving a handful of papers at us and exclaiming as he walked. "I can't believe how good your papers are. You work so hard, and write so well about each side of the current problem under consideration. You have done this week after week. I think you are the best class I have ever taught." He spoke from his heart and we believed him. We felt appreciated and proud and said not a word, not one word, about how burdened we were with overwork. We all smiled and kept on working an talked about how Dr. Davies was one of the best teachers we ever had. He is a model of a good teacher. I acknowledge that attendance in his class was not compulsory.

I haven't mentioned that I have two grandsons just out of business school who make way more money than two of my daughters who have been teaching for 30 years and love teaching. Every year they say, "I can't believe how wonderful this class is." Is their salary a symbol of how much teachers are valued? They deserve more. I felt valued and respected as a teacher and loved it so much I hoped nobody would find out how little I would be willing to do it for. Excuse me, nea. I just don't want to be thinking of how high a score any child is going to get on a test when I am teaching her. So, all of my passion isn't on salary after all. This is just now occurring to me. It is on excellence in teaching that would be diminished if a teacher must be measured by test scores. This limits the scope of teaching.

I want schools to be a place where teachers and students are learning and growing with all kinds of life skills, intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual skills that help us all experience the beauty and wisdom in ourselves and each other.

Also to remember Edison, Bill Gates, and my gardener who works and lives so joyously.

Shall we dance?

Respectfully submitted, Bernice Pomeroy
PO Box 76
Patagonia, AZ 84624

The people whose lives were taken on 9/11 gave their lives that a nation of by and for the people might endure. They did not do so voluntarily, but their loss has sanctified the land far more than words can do. It is now for us the living to perfect that sanctification by showing by our acts that we support the fundamental rights of belief and exercise by rejecting violence to those inalienable rights. Nothing we can do can defeat beliefs and their consecuent exercise. We might try to drive it underground, but even if we succeed we strengthen the internal structure and determination of those we oppress. Even in politics, for every force there is an equal and opposite force. By our opposition we create division. By tolerance we generate atonement, reconciliation, and unity of purpose and the possibility of peace. We can begin that process by allowing, in accordance with our traditions and our most fundamental law, the creation of a center for religious practice which we expect will be a monument of respect for those whose lives were taken, an icon rejecting force and violence, rather than smearing our expectations with fear that it will be something else. To make a holy covenant, we must have faith in the good intentions and faithfulness of those with whom we would jointly vow that the evil of 9/11 will never again be permitted.Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/10/98897/a-mosque-near-ground-zero-its.html?mi_pluck_action=comment_submitted&qwxq=7714932#Comments_Container#ixzz0xCny2sTN

Our government has been captured by those it was meant to regulate, all up and down the line. It coincidently made campaign contributions more valuable and then built a freeway for their commerce. They just renamed bribery and called it Freedom of Speech. It's how they control risk -- and us. Can we get it back? Not by focusing on making the other guy look bad, liberal or neocon, emphasizing our differences, creating division. We disagree more about the meaning of words than we do about what we believe in. We decry but never explain beyond a word.

Berrymountain. You got balogna right, and I sometimes find myself in the position you describe, being from an old Yankee family with apparent abolitionist tendencies. We might even be related somehow, as emanates from your pseudonym. My abolitionist roots are apparent to me, that is. Not so apparent when others just see a balding grampa. My point is that obvious things get noticed and accounted quickly into an evaluation and a judgment. Race is pretty obvious, so it is rapidly spun through this process. If we make race, "red and yellow, black and white" the main axis of the judgement we make, it's racist, and it's a very big deal. We will continue struggling with it forever maybe, just as we do with lots of things. If you or I perceive others' actions as racist, it may well be that they are, but we can struggle against compounding it by our reaction ad infinitum. I think the best we can do is to learn to ad a question mark in our mental notes whenever we notice (if we are willing to notice) when too big a role is being made on race -- that there may be too many assumptions or possibilities at work somewhere in the calculus. It takes some real courage, and sometimes some tight lips. Maybe some deference and risk. But we are a brave people and able to work through the inevitable failures which occur along the way.
Courage in the Face of Adversity!
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1
!#1.10 - Fri Oct 23, 2009 11:47

It needs some cover re VA. We have in fact been neglecting veterans for far too long, and the Walter Reed scandals during the previous administration still reverberate.The mistreatment of primary care givers must also be addressed. the profiteers have fenced them out, underpaid them by more than half (in fact, they're probably being paid only about half of what would be fair), and they need to be releaved of all the administrative and record keeping duties foisted upon them by the profiteers. (I am not a Dr, and presumably much of this would be addressed by implementing electronic records. Nurses and med techs should be included among primary care givers.We need to build a lot of local clinical facilities to unburden Emergency Rooms. They should be focussed primarily on serious trauma and triage.It should not require a bullet wound to get into a hospital, and maybe we need to build some intermediate facilities for people who are making a transition, need only routine monitoring, or just some temporary living assistance.Trying to make Mayo or Cleveland clinics out of everything with the word 'hospital' in it's name is dumb-dumb.But beyond that, This should be the speech he gives. It offers the possibility of fire in the bellies of it's supporters instead of the tentative support afforded the current bills.GO OBAMA11111

neo-Reps learned that lying works

Republicans have apparently committed to what they think they learned during the Cheney administration, that lying works. How more succinctly can you characterize their position and tactice on Health Care Reform?

I lost so much that was here.Bob Pomeroy February 10th, 2009 4:28 am

Reconsideration.
This stimulus bill is only tangentially about economics. If we consider the bilge from some quarters about FDR having failed to end the Depression, the picture becomes clear.We are emerging from a total breakdown of governmental credibility. Millions have lost hope, yet our greatest strength lies in those very people, the Salt of the Earth who are good and bad and ugly and diligent and slothful and overweight. All of them have been called upon to bail out the mighty bankers and captains of industry, who have failed.We need them, they need us, and we are all together on this earth.
The primary purpose of these programs is to restore our faith and trust in government and each other, so that hope may be restored. They need to be of titanic measures to show that the effort is sincere.
Those who piddle and quibble purporting to seek perfection and assured success are serving only to create doubt. I think their misguided effort is to preserve advantages they have gained and falsely claim as due blessings from the Almighty. It is wrong for a man to claim that which is above another. Perfection does not lie in a program. It arises from continual and flexible and humble effort guided by hope and better parts.
Our initial need is to rebuild a civilization shredded by greed, equivocation, selfish interest and tunnel vision focussed by "I got mine, now you go get yours".I'm afraid I'm over 1000 words.

You were mentioned to me by my PCP as a possible source for evaluating my chronic pain resulting from an untreated spinal injury occurring in 1981. I live in rural Arizona, and was determined to be 100% disabled from my employment as a public defender attorney in 1997. I have family in the Boston area, such that I have better support there than in Tucson, the nearest city to me. I am on medicare A & B, with a supplement via Arizona State Retirement System administered by PacificCare. I'd be more than willing to participate in studies. Much of it depends on what is available, how much testing, etc could be accomplished in a short stay, etc. I wish I knew more of what information to provide, but perhaps you can make a preliminary assessment and tell me what more you'd like. Frankly, I've about given up hope. No tests have ever been run on me, and until this current Dr, Patrick Coghlan, they all seemed satisfied keeping me full of morphine and progressively exotic SSRI's. He has taken me off morphine and found that my testosterone level is less than half the minimum std. I also have Type 2 diabetes. Thank you for your consideration, assessment and advice.

By the way BobPomeroy, in case you missed it, Obama was elected president by the American people, must have been because he is half white, right
( a reply to something I said earlier on a blog)

cd829Corp is Old Borg.
Neither the entity nor the word existed at the time the Founding Fathers wrote. The Supreme Court had to adopt a "fiction" in order to address the fact of an incorporation appearing before them, except in the sense of a simple contractual dispute, as an escaped slave was considered. Today's 'strict constructionalists' have to entangle their own gonads to bray their common chant. Their solution is simply to lend a blind eye to the fictional creation, accepting it in the myopic notion that precedent governs. Now, like some cousin banks, some corporations are just too big to fail. A task long overdue is to more rationally conceptualize 'corporation' in light of the over all 'sense' of the Constitution.I'd love to continue the rant, but its an Old Rant. It retraces, and in many instances, replaces Constitutional History. Somehow, that the theory of thier existence at all, that they serve the public interest, has to be enforced. That must be done under an umbrella of 'substantial public interest', rather than "any trivial, contrived or imaginary interest as is presently the rule.Under such a concept, of course, the actions by the president in the internal affairs of GM, BofA, AIG, etc., is perfectly legitimate aot what the neo-republicans are yelling.The End

the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror --kudos to the former senator from one of the Dakotas -- probably West By God, Dakota

The UP officer, ms Campbell (for who I will affect an honoric formality because I just want to giver a big kiss) made the most wonderful and concise statement of gratitude and true concern for US, the folks, that it should be repeated and repeated and applauded and applauded. Her gratitude was for the "opportunity" to ... be in the right place and time to have done the good deed.She went for the good of US all, w/ multiple implicit messages about the good cops do (if even inspite of themselves), that both female and black cops do good work, and that cutting back what they bring to the table, or even not budgetting for them or financially mistreating all public servants (includes music, math and art teachers) we truly err.
for Larry King, but couldn't log in on 8/29

MJ to resurrect? AC360 showing purported video, first responders said they didn't recognize because looked like a shriveled old man. and on and on and on it rides. I've been telling people that this would render JFK a comic strip on 2 pages

200 years

A history of families connected to CRV, from settlement to the Civil War. I lost the whistles and bells of this, being unable to hit the correct button somewhere. It's to the effect that

The Doorman

I don't need somebody from the government standing between me and my health care (in the background, faintly, I hear "Me and my Arrow"), I've already got SecureHorizons lurking fatly there. Question is, how did this gangsta get there? (thinking, grinding, popping and whistling) I never voted him in somehow did I? I sure don't recall that; I do recall voting for so and so who lost to Jon Kyl 3 or 4 times though it seems. Same as for President a lot of the time. But I don't think voted to have to choose this guy to stand in the door smilin. So how did this guy get in front of the door, anyway? "Who are those guys"? (Butch and Sundance, are you going to sue me for plagiarism?)

Cowboys and Indians

Damn I wish I could figure out how this works, or even what it's address is. I can only pick it up from my favorites bar, and can't seem to use it to file blog comments on it. Facebook seems to work better, but just in terms of transferring/copying to it. There otta be an application.

Lately, health care has been a huge issue for months in DC, and for myself personally. It looks like nobody's getting any, and some people are going to be able to continue to squeeze the blood out of some other people, and be compensated for it. Under Medicare/Medicaid, I've got an insurance man, acting at the urging of other insurance people, standing between me and medical treatment. His name is "SecureHorizons", and the insurance people have him controlling my health care down to the bare business plan he represents. That's period.

He stands there with trick questions in his hand, if I can be clever and beguiling, I can get in. If I don't, I die and can pursue my claims, contentions, and needs afterwards, over there. Later.

subjective metaethics

This forum is to discuss basic criticisms of formal rules and to promote the legitimacy of subjective values. Rules, laws, etc. are overcoming judgment and responsibility. The popular idea that "good" has it's own existence independent of and separate from any actual being is demeaning to both. Imposing, rather than persuading, may be efficient, but it does not work and is antithetic to democratic notions. We are not "jarheads", whose lids might be unscrewed and content inserted. We do not teach people how to become better at exercising judgment. We cannot await a general uprising to effect departure from archaic but established rules. Nor can we forever point to them as their own justification. We cannot "share" that which we do not have within ourselves.
Subjective values are more like the ability to appreciate or to dream than a scientific formula.