REWIND - A Week of Quotes & Cartoon

SUNDAY

Quote of the Day
December 26, 2010

'It's the military/security world, and it's time to
bust that taboo. A few facts:

' - The United States spends nearly as much on military
power as every other country in the world combined,
according to the Stockholm International Peace Research
Institute. It says that we spend more than six times as
much as the country with the next highest budget,
China.

' - The United States maintains troops at more than 560
bases and other sites abroad, many of them a legacy of
a world war that ended 65 years ago. Do we fear that if
we pull our bases from Germany, Russia might invade?

' - The intelligence community is so vast that more
people have "top secret" clearance than live in
Washington, D.C.

' - The U.S. will spend more on the war in Afghanistan
this year, adjusting for inflation, than we spent on
the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-
American War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American
War combined.'

Columnist Nicholas Kristof
New York Times
December 26, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/2df5bub

Toon of the Day
http://tinyurl.com/29fm4y2
Bulldozer
Tony Auth - Philadelphia Inquirer

MONDAY

Quote of the Day
December 26, 2010

'In past economic crises, populist fervor has been for
expanding the power of the national government to
address America's pressing needs. Pleas for making good
the nation's commitment to equality and welfare have
been as loud as those for liberty. Now the many who are
struggling have no progressive champion. The left have
ceded the field to the Tea Party and, in doing so,
allowed it to make history. It is building political
power by selling the promise of a return to a mythic
past.'

Editorial
New York Times
December 26, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/22n9t4z

Toon of the Day
http://tinyurl.com/29w45s7
Dr. Gruidlock
Jim Morin - Miami Herald

TUESDAY

Quote of the Day
December 28, 2010

'America is on a collision course with itself. This
month's deal between President Barack Obama and the
Republicans in Congress to extend the tax cuts
initiated a decade ago by President George W. Bush is
being hailed as the start of a new bipartisan
consensus. I believe, instead, that it is a false truce
in what will become a pitched battle for the soul of
American politics.

'... The result is a dangerous paradox. The US budget
deficit is enormous and unsustainable. The poor are
squeezed by cuts in social programs and a weak job
market. One in eight Americans depends on Food Stamps
to eat. Yet, despite these circumstances, one political
party wants to gut tax revenues altogether, and the
other is easily dragged along, against its better
instincts, out of concern for keeping its rich
contributors happy.

Jeffrey Sachs, economist and
director of the Earth Institute,
Columbia University
Project Syndicate
December 27, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/26e2da8

Toon of the Day
http://tinyurl.com/24e547j
What Climate Change?
David Horsey - Seattle P.I.

WEDNESDAY

Quote of the Day
December 29, 2010

'As we look back on 2010, the most significant
economic event of the year was what didn't happen:
Unemployment failed to come down, stubbornly
hovering around 9.5% almost four years after the
bubble broke, three years after the beginning of the
recession and more than two years after the collapse
of Lehman Brothers.

'And, above and beyond any other reason, this
stagnation persisted because our political leaders
failed to muster the requisite courage to tackle our
problems at their source.'

Economist Joseph Stiglitz
New York Daily News
December 22, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/28o853l

Toon of the Day
http://tinyurl.com/29z2rh4
The Obama Part
Stuart Carlson

THURSDAY

Quote of the Day
December 30, 2010

'Two years into the Obama presidency and the economic
data is still looking grim. Don't be fooled by the
gyrations of the stock market, where optimism is mostly
a reflection of the ability of financial
corporations-thanks to massive government largesse-to
survive the mess they created. The basics are dismal:
Unemployment is unacceptably high, the December
consumer confidence index is down and housing prices
have fallen for four months in a row. The number of
Americans living in poverty has never been higher, and
a majority in a Washington Post poll said they were
worried about making their next mortgage or rent
payment.

'In a parallel universe lives Peter Orszag, President
Barack Obama's former budget director and key adviser,
who even faster than his mentor, Robert Rubin, has
passed through that revolving platinum door linking the
White House with Wall Street. The goal is to use your
government position to advance the interests of your
future employer, and Orszag and Rubin's actions in the
government and then at Citigroup provide stunning
examples of the synergy between big government and high
finance.'

Robert Scheer
TruthOut
December 29, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/38njjw7

Toon of the Day
http://tinyurl.com/288so27
Same Baby
Mike Luckovich

FRIDAY

Quote of the Day
December 31, 2010

'Our main concern is not for the president's re-
election prospects, it's to end this disastrous war as
soon as possible. But it's conceivable the two could be
strategically linked. The president's anti-war base
must connect the urgency of getting out of Afghanistan
and making serious cuts in the military budget, with
the immediate need to reinvest in the working economy,
job creation, and environmental restoration. That means
building powerful alliances with the key movements
rising in response to the economic crisis, and fighting
now for immigrant, labor, community and civil rights.

'If the president and his political team are as savvy
as everyone thinks they are (or at least were in the
2008 campaign), they'd do well to get in front of that
wave and run on a genuine peace and green prosperity
platform.  Imagine if that happened, and President
Obama really did start paying attention to his anti-war
base, and began carrying out the dramatic shift in
policy necessary to insure a real withdrawal of troops
from Afghanistan, a genuine move to close Guantanamo, a
final withdrawal of all remaining troops in Iraq, a
serious level of pressure on Israel to end its
occupation, as well as to launch a serious New New Deal
to create green jobs and rebuild the economy.  Then not
only would the president likely coast to re-election,
but the Afghan and U.S. people would be the real
beneficiaries - instead of banks, war profiteers and
Wall Street - and THAT election would really be one for
the history books.'

Phyllis Bennis, a Fellow of the
Institute for Policy Studies
and Kevin Martin, executive
director of Peace Action

ZNet
December 28, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/29j5c4s

Toon of the Day
http://tinyurl.com/24e547j
Atlanta
David Horsey

SATURDAY

Quote of the Day
January 1, 2011

'In other words, whether 2011 is a great year
economically depends which economy you're in - the one
that's rising with the profits of big business and Wall
Street, or the one that will continue to struggle with
few jobs and lousy wages.

'Sadly, the next Congress is unlikely to do much to
reverse any of this. Most Republicans and too many
Democrats are dependent on corporate America and Wall
Street. Their version of tax reform is to cut taxes on
the wealthy and on big corporations, and either raise
them on everyone else (sale and property taxes are
already on the rise) or cut spending on programs
working families depend on.

'At some point, perhaps, the disconnect between
America's two economies will become so big and so
obvious it can no longer be ignored. Progressives,
enlightened Tea Partiers, Independents, organized
labor, minorities, and the young form a new progressive
movement designed to reconnect America.

'One can always hope.'

Economist Robert Reich
blog
December 31, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/37yofbz

Toon of the Day
http://tinyurl.com/2ezgfmo
Dithering
John Cole

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