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Democracy, Economy, Health Care Reform, National Politics, on Obama October 8, 2013

Reasons to Lose Sleep over the Shutdown and Obamacare

by Scott McLarty Common Dreams, October 6, 2013 Sure, the government shutdown and Republican demands regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are reprehensible, but let’s not delude ourselves about the ACA itself. It’s needlessly complex. It preserves medical treatment as a commodity rather than a right: low-cost policies will provide low-quality insurance. It imposes a direct public subsidy to feed the insurance industry, which helped write the legislation. It isn’t universal. Millions of people who lacked it will now have health insurance, but the coverage they get won’t approach the level of health-care access guaranteed to every citizen in every…

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Electoral College, Green Party September 17, 2013

Greens’ Civil Actions to Democratize the Electoral College Revives a Lost Motive behind the March on Washington

by Asa Gordon Executive Director, Douglass Institute of Government Chair, DC Statehood Green Party Electoral College Taskforce Jonathan Yardley’s book review “The Lost motive behind the march” (The Washington Post, Sunday, August 25, 2013, B8) of ‘The March on Washington: Jobs, Freedom, and the Forgotten History of Civil Rights ‘ by William P. Jones specifies a lost motive behind the March to remedy voter disfranchisement ignored in recent 50th Anniversary celebrations of the March on Washington. Yardley exposes Jones revelation that: “Initially the march’s organizers demanded ‘federal jobs creation, raising the minimum wage, a Fair Employment Practice law, and support…

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Middle East, on Obama September 17, 2013

Buy President Obama a History Book

Common Dreams by Pat LaMarche “My fellow Americans, for nearly seven decades, the United States has been the anchor of global security. This has meant doing more than forging international agreements — it has meant enforcing them. The burdens of leadership are often heavy, but the world is a better place because we have borne them.” Of the thousands of words the president said in last night’s televised speech to the nation on Syria, these 75 words are the most important. No man with such a fundamental misunderstanding of modern American history should be deciding the fate of a new…

International, Middle East September 9, 2013

The Path from 9/11 to Syria

by Mark A. Dunlea Every year on the anniversary of 9/11, I have written an op ed reflecting on the horrors of that day and on the still many unanswered questions. And the lack of justice for those that were murdered. This year’s anniversary is especially jarring because President Obama wants to bomb Syria – over their alleged use of chemical weapons – the type of weapons we couldn’t find after we invaded Iraq over 9/11. Obama also wants to send a variety of messages: that he is tough enough to enforce his redline; that he wants to break the…

Labor September 4, 2013

We Have The Power To Do Things For Ourselves

Guest Sermon by A.J. Segneri First Unitarian Church of Chicago Sunday, September 1, 2013 I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for attending this Labor Day service, and I would like to especially thank those who helped plan and are participating in this service. Again thank you, and I would like to dedicate this moment to those laborers who have fallen during their fight for their rights. In 1999, my friends and I took a trip to New Mexico to backpack for two weeks in the southern Rockies. On this particular backpacking trip we could visit various…