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Issues
ProCon.org: The leading source for pros & cons of controversial issues
Legends, myths, misleading emails
Pinocchio Tracker
Washington Post Fact Checker
FactCheck.org (Annenberg Public Policy Center)
Politifact’s Truth-O-Meter (Pulitzer Prize winner)
2012 Presidential Campaign
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Over the years, Education Law Center (ELC) has become the “go-to” source where parents, policymakers and advocates can find high quality, in-depth data and other useable information on New Jersey’s public schools. This organization is committed to continuing to provide timely and relevant data in a highly functional and interactive format and is pleased to announce that visitors can now find an expanded range of student data on their website: racial/ethnic composition, poverty rates, limited English proficiency rates, and special education rates of NJ public school students, whether enrolled in district schools or charter schools.
A West Indian friend writes to ask,
This country is becoming more like a 3rd world country. Why aren’t people demanding jobs instead of talking about racism. Sick and tired of hearing about racism. Everything is racism. Find some other excuse rather than racism. If anything is done wrong it’s blame it on racism. People need to stop blaming and stop looking for hand me out. It seems as though some people like to keep stoking the word racism and using the blame game too much. What about Solyndra all the billions that cost tax payers money. That money could have been used to help students pay for their school loans. The unnecessary spending while unemployment is still above 8%.
While the Republicans keep dishing out lies, Obama has to keep reminding people of the realities. Otherwise the liars win. After Ryan’s completely lying performance at RNC, the GOP rose in the polls. People haven’t known what to believe.
Fortunately, since President Obama is consistent, can back up his assertions with proof and encourages people to check out what he says, the public is slowly learning that it’s possible to trust what he says and conversely, much of what the Republicans say is suspect, if not downright BS.
Short version of audio interview
In this 2010 interview, Irish President Michael D. Higgins – then labor party leader – takes Megyn Kelly to task for attempting to spread Tea Party lies. President Higgins says, “(Your) tactic is to get a large crowd, whip them up, try and discover what is the greatest fear, work on that, and feed it right back in a frenzy.” He speaks of living and working in the United States in the 1970s in “Willie Nelson country,” and being astonished to discover that many decent, hard working Americans, the type of people, “…who are very proud, as they should be, of the man (Obama) they’ve elected president…” and continues
Excellent thoughts about Alyssa Douglas’ unfortunate Tweet about Obama.
Martin Seligman describes temperance as including,
…the ability to protect against excess and delay gratification. It includes humility and modesty. And being careful about choices and not taking undue risks. It also includes forgiveness and giving people a second chance. There is an aspect of self-regulation here – controlling your appetite and emotions, being disciplined, regulating what you feel and do. The temperate person does not suppress motives or desires but waits for until it is wise and appropriate to satisfy them, so no harm is done to self or others.
Bill Moyers tells the story of how both Harry Truman and John Kennedy tried to bring Medicare into being, but it wasn’t until Lyndon B. Johnson inherited the presidency after Kennedy’s death, that it acquired an advocate who worked tirelessly to make sure that the elderly and indigent had access to healthcare services. LBJ told Bill,
My inclination would be […] that it ought to be retroactive as far back as you can get it […] because none of them ever get enough. That they are entitled to it. That that’s an obligation of ours. It’s just like your mother writing you and saying she wants $20, and I’d always sent mine a $100 when she did. I never did it because I thought it was going to be good for the economy of Austin. I always did it because I thought she was entitled to it. And I think that’s a much better reason and a much better cause and I think it can be defended on a hell of a lot better basis […] We do know that it affects the economy […] But that’s not the basis to go to the Hill, or the justification. We’ve just got to say that by God you can’t treat grandma this way. She’s entitled to it and we promised it to her.
Here are three examples of camera journalists in London, Canada and the United States encountering attempts to block them from exercising their legal right to stand in public spaces and use cameras to shoot street views or film public proceedings they have the right to share with their followers, and under the circumstances may have a moral obligation to do so as well.
Secrecy surrounds the reporting of certain public events and anything having to do with the financial district. Freedom of speech and reporters’ public access rights are being curtailed, which bodes ill for all citizens of organized societies. Film equipment is being seized and arrests are being made, although no security threats are perceived. These seem to be simply moves to prevent disclosure of every day proceedings in public spaces associated with Big Money interests and at certain government meetings.
If you think the Romney/GOP election tactics seem like a racist ploy to intentionally block Latino and Black people from voting, you’re not crazy. Spend 4 minute watching this video from Van Jones’ Rebuild the American Dream team to see the dots neatly connected. It proves that this sad fact is true. God help America.
Fight by helping everyone you know that plans to vote for a fair America and President Obama to get their identification documents ready so they can’t be turned away at the polls. Inform yourself about your rights as a voter. Write to your elected officials and urge them to fight for American justice, fairness and the upholding of the one person, one vote system. Ask them to work hard to get big money out of general elections once and for all. And vote! Remember, New Jersey and some other states allow early voting and vote by mail.
Why is another Walmart in north Jersey a bad thing? Start off by considering these thoughts Rita Louie, Pomona’s Deputy Mayor, shared on Facebook at Dont LET WâL-MâRT RUIN Our TOWN.
Too big, too offensive, too risky, not needed, will put small businesses under, will change the character of the Rt202 corridor forever (in a bad way), will bring crime, cost taxpayers alot of money, destroy our infrastructure, destroy already suffering property values, 18 wheelers going down 202 at pre-dawn hours to make deliveries, traffic backed up onto the PIP in both directions, the remainder of Pomona will become blighted when all the stores close and we will be left holding the bag…shall I go on? Is this worth the risk so you could get a cheap shirt made in China?
These are books and stories that I’ve found useful or that are special to me. If they resonate with you too, please tell me in a comment. Disclaimer: if you buy one of these titles from Amazon, I will get a very small commission.
Voting rights in the US are closely tied to other important social issues: the right to own property, First Amendment free speech rights, rights to assemble and to be the master of one’s own destiny. These resources show when the right to vote was obtained by various populations of American society.
Timeline by Center for Democracy
Timeline by the ACLU in graphic format and as a pdf file
The voting rights timelines does not address two other serious voting rights issues being played out in the US: using felony disenfranchisement as a mechanism to prevent Black men (plus some women) and Latinos from exercising their voting rights, which has become a type of apartheid in these communities. 
Michelle Alexander writes about this in her book, The New Jim Crow and the concerted Republican effort put in place since the first GWB election in 2000 which seeks to purge legitimate voters from voting rolls in targeted communities and otherwise restrict voting rights across the country.
People who believe widespread social problems are new to the United States come from ethnic backgrounds of privilege, or didn’t learn true history at home or in school. A Facebook friend and Green Party member thinks he is trying to explain to me that ethnicity does not affect a person’s belief about whether there is more corruption today than in the past. But, what Mark is really doing is demonstrating that he hails from a background where White male privilege is so much part of his personal culture that he is unaware that any other reality exists.
The announcement on July 12 that Wells Fargo had agreed to a $175 million dollar settlement to avoid prosecution by the U.S. Justice Department for race bias in its lending policies follows a settlement with Bank of America Corp. last December to pay $335 million to avoid similar charges. Unfortunately, this amount is just a wee drop in the bucket when compared with the destruction these financial institutions’ policies have wreaked in the lives of Latino and Black families. Thanks to the exploitative lending policies they’ve been much harder hit by our harsh economic climate specifically because housing has cost them hundreds more each month than White families paid, even when the Black and Latino borrowers had equally good jobs and purchased properties valued at the same price.
