THE HEADLINES: FEBRUARY 8, 2010

 

JAPAN GETTING A LITTLE MEAN ABOUT ITS "KINDNESS BUDGET" TO SUPPORT U.S. MILITARY FORCES ON OKINAWA.

Kindness budget is the euphemism for the longstanding government policy to subsize these forces, to the tune of $2 billion per year.  With the Democratic Party of Japan having assumed political control last year, a new era of less than good feeling between the Japanese and American governments has brought the kindness budget under severe criticism.  (U.S. says give us $6 billion for "relocation" costs and we'll move our forces to Guam.)  

 

TIM TEBOW AIRS "ANTI-ABORTION" AD AT SUPER BOWL, AND THE WORLD DOESN'T STOP TURNING.

In a tamer-than-expected commercial much protested in advance by pro-choice advocates, the football star's mother mumbles some words about what a great kid Tim was, is tackled by him and gently chided for interrupting her trying to tell "our story."  If you blinked, you missed the political "message" (commercial footage included with this link.)  

 

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE ALLENTOWN WOMEN'S CENTER.

PBS NOW goes to a Pennsylvania abortion center to provide focus on a piece featuring the question of whether the Democratic Party has "abandoned" the pro-choice movement in the process of pandering to pro-life sentiment in order to gain control of Congress.  The difficulties of women hoping to avail themselves of their constitutional right to an abortion----at Allentown and around the country---are featured as women are shown having to brave protesters at clinics and, in some states, having to view sonograms of their fetuses just prior to their abortions.  NOW interviews both Bart Stupak, sponsor of House amendment to forbid some abortion coverage under health care reform and Howard Dean, former Democratic Party chair and "architect" of the Democrats' takeover of Congress in 2008.  Both admit that the party has opened its "umbrella" to attract pro-life voters. 

 

THE AMERICAN ECONOMY IS GETTING MUCH BETTER: IN GREENWICH CT THAT IS.

This New York City suburb, home of many wealthy bankers and others of the investment class, took a heavy beating with the Wall Street meltdown and the insolvency problems of major banks.  Now, with bailouts having accomplished their purpose, Wall Street is on the rebound and bank executives are getting large bonuses thanks to bailout funding.  So while unemployment lines in the the rest of the country remain long, Greenwich wives are saying "call the caterer" and their sweater and jeans clad husbands are once again fingering new Ferraris at a local dealership. 

 

IN BROWARD COUNTY FL AND AROUND THE U.S., HORSE RESCUE IS A THRIVING ACTIVITY.

In a recession, many are finding the care and feeding of horses an unaffordable luxury and many are abandoned or neglected, making a great deal of work for horse rescue agencies to accomplish. 

 

 

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The Sun State Activist Has A New Home For Original Opinion And Insight:

PRINCIPLED PROGRESSIVE

Now on Principled Progressive...

THE GRIMACE HEARD ROUND THE WORLD: THE POTUS AND SCOTUS AT THE SOTU

By Jerry D. Rose

 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"It is a law with principles of decency and justice. It cannot be that criminals receive higher pensions for their crimes while at the same time their victims are living in poverty."

Janusz Kochanowski,  Poland's ombudsman for citizens' rights, on recent action of government in severely cutting the pensions of former officials of the country's communist regime. 

TODAY'S OTHER NEWS:

 

FLORIDA

 

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SSA Events page.

 

MISSION

The Sun State Activist is a website for all Floridians of progressive political leanings---that is, all those who believe that, through intelligence, commitment and concerted action we can make a difference toward realizing a humane world, country, state and local community. In many of its dimensions the site will be of benefit to progressives outside Florida.

 

ORGANIZATION OF THE SITE

The website divides the universe of progressive interest into some 95 topics and sub-topics and provides website and other links to organizations and events related to each topic as well as a source of information from various publications, websites and electronic media.

 

 

TOPIC DESCRIPTIONS

  1. GENERAL PROGRESSIVE ACTION deals with those organizations and individuals who have broad agendas of progressive social action; with progressive organizations such as the Green Party and Progressive Democrats of America; with progressive magazines like The Nation and on-line outlets such as Common Dreams.Org; with connections to alternative radio, television, book and film outlets.  

2. PEACE AND WAR is the website of the peace activist and those seeking to understand the causes of war and militarism. It deals with large peace initiatives like a proposed Department of Peace; with the imperialist foreign policy of the United States, including the Iraqi/Afghan war; with 9-11 and the “war on terror;” with the influence of the military/industrial complex on foreign policy and with military recruitment and procurement; with weapons both conventional and nuclear and weapons in space.  

3. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES deals with the conservation and enhancement of natural resources; control of pollution of our land, waters and air; with environmental regulation and the destruction of environmental habitats with economic development; with animal rights; with natural disasters (their causes and with public responses to them.)  

4. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT deals with the effort to compromise the needs of economic development with the “human” need for relatively small-scale enterprises; with agri-business and big box stores as symptoms of unbalanced development; with the development of alternative energy sources that do not destroy our environments and ways of life.  

5. CIVIL RIGHTS deals with a wide range of groups of people who suffer discrimination or denial of their constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; among others, with blacks, Latinos, Asians, indigenous peoples, gays and lesbians, children, elderly, convicted felons who have served their sentences, immigrants, “terrorism” suspects.  

6. ECONOMIC JUSTICE deals with the issue of inequality of opportunity among different groups of people; with poverty, wages and unemployment; with worker’s rights to organize; with affordable housing and the homeless; with taxation and budgets; with globalization and corporate dominance; with retirement security.  

7. MEDIA ISSUES deals with the integrity of our media in their coverage of issues of progressive interest, including elections and issues that arise in the course of decision-making; with the related issue of corporate control of the media, including the issue of consolidation of media ownership.  

8. ELECTORAL ISSUES deals with how and whether our political processes are actually democratic in that they allow the will of the people to be expressed; with electronic voting systems and their effects on election outcomes; with manipulations of the voting system like re-districting schemes designed to benefit vested interests; with alternate voting systems better designed to reflect the will of the people in voting outcome.  

9. CRIMINAL JUSTICE deals with issues concerning the effects of incarceration, the death penalty, mandatory sentencing and other harsh sanctions on the kind of society we are trying to develop; with drug policy and other issues of criminalization; with due process in encounters of suspects with police and courts.  

10. ETHICS: GOVERNMENTAL, CORPORATE, PROFESSIONAL deals with political scandal, especially as it relates to the influence of money and corporate power on political decision-making; with efforts at campaign finance reform; with issues of corrupt corporate officials whose practices compromise the interests of their employees and the public.  

11. HEALTH CARE deals with issues of quality and delivery of medical facilities to whose needing them; with inequality in same;