Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Speak Our Minds

Daily Kos: Why Some Will Never Thank Us or Stop Hating Us

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Changing Obama's Mindset | The Progressive:
"What’s required is a total turn�around. We want a country that uses its resources, its wealth, and its power to help people, not to hurt them. That’s what we need.

This is a vision we have to keep alive. We shouldn’t be easily satisfied and say, “Oh well, give him a break. Obama deserves respect.”

But you don’t respect somebody when you give them a blank check. You respect somebody when you treat them as an equal to you, and as somebody you can talk to and somebody who will listen to you.

Not only is Obama a politician. Worse, he’s surrounded by politicians. And some of them he picked himself. He picked Hillary Clinton, he picked Lawrence Summers, he picked people who show no sign of breaking from the past.

We are citizens. We must not put ourselves in the position of looking at the world from their eyes and say, “Well, we have to compromise, we have to do this for political reasons.” No, we have to speak our minds."
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Al Franken Slams Supreme Court For Dismantling Legal Protections (VIDEO)

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Warren Buffett pledge as part of the $600 billion challenge - Jun. 16, 2010

Some material things make my life more enjoyable; many, however, would not. I like having an expensive private plane, but owning a half-dozen homes would be a burden. Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner. The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse, and long-standing friends.

My wealth has come from a combination of living in America, some lucky genes, and compound interest. Both my children and I won what I call the ovarian lottery. (For starters, the odds against my 1930 birth taking place in the U.S. were at least 30 to 1. My being male and white also removed huge obstacles that a majority of Americans then faced.)

My luck was accentuated by my living in a market system that sometimes produces distorted results, though overall it serves our country well. I've worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions. In short, fate's distribution of long straws is wildly capricious.

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DOJ: Nearly 500 arrests in mortgage fraud probe - Yahoo! News

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WATCH: Autistic Student Eric Duquette Amazes Audience With Graduation Speech

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